Gond-Gowari
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From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.
Gond-Gowari
A small hybrid caste formed from alliances between Gonds and Gowaris or herdsmen of the Maratha country. Though they must now be considered as a distinct caste, being impure and thus ranking lower than either the Gonds or Gowaris, they are still often identified with either of them. In 1901 only 3000 were returned, principally from the Nagpur and Chanda Districts. In 191 1 they were amalgamated with the Gowaris, and this view may be accepted as their origin is the same.
The Gowaris say that the Gond-Gowaris are the descendants of one of two brothers who accidentally ate the flesh of a cow. Both the Gonds and Gowaris frequent the jungles for long periods together, and it is natural that intimacies should spring up between the youth of either sex. And the progeny of these irregular connections has formed a separate caste, looked down upon by both its progenitors. The Gond- Gowaris have no subcastes, and for purposes of marriages are divided into exogamous septs, all bearing Gond names. Like the Gonds, the caste is also split into two divisions, worshipping six and seven gods respectively, and members of septs worshipping the same number of gods must not marry with each other.
The deities of the six and seven god-worshippers are identical, except that the latter have one extra called Durga or Devi, who is represented by a copper coin of the old Nagpur dynasty. Of the other deities Bura Deo is a piece of iron, Khoda and Khodavan are both pieces of the kadamb tree (Nanclea parvifolia), Supari is the areca-nut, and Kaipen consists of two iron rings and counts as two deities. It seems probable, therefore, from the double set of identical deities that two of the original ones have been forgotten. The gods are kept on a small piece of red cloth in a closed bamboo basket, which must not be opened except on days of worship, lest they should work some mischief; on these special days they are rendered harmless 1 This article is based on a paper by Pandit Pyare Lai Misra.
for the time being by the homage which is rendered to them. Marriage is adult, and a bride-price of nine rupees and some grain is commonly paid by the boy's family. The ceremony is a mixture of Gond and Maratha forms ; the couple walk seven times round a bohla or mound of earth and the guests clap their hands. At a widow-marriage they walk three and a half times round a burning lamp, as this is considered to be only a kind of half-marriage. The morality of the caste is very loose, and a wife will commonly be pardoned any transgression except an intrigue with a man of very low caste. Women of other castes, such as Kunbis or Barhais, may be admitted to the community on forming a connection with a Gond-Gowari.
The caste have no prescribed observ- ance of mourning for the dead. The Gond-Gowaris are cultivators and labourers, and dress like the Kunbis. They are considered to be impure and must live outside the village, while other castes refuse to touch them. The bodies of the women are disfigured by excessive tattooing, the legs being covered with a pattern of dots and lines reaching up to the thighs. In this matter they simply follow their Gond ancestors, but they say that a woman who is not tattooed is impure and cannot worship the deities.
Gond, Gowari/Gawaria
(From People of India/ National Series Volume VIII. Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
Exogamous units/clans: Chedahai, Karram, Marai, Markam, Nag, Netam, Sori [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
See also
Gond-Gowari
