Hasala
This article is an excerpt from Government Press, Madras |
Hasala
Concerning the Hasalas or Hasulas, Mr. Lewis Rice writes that “this tribe resembles the Sōliga (or Shōlagas). They are met with along the ghâts on the north-western frontier of Mysore. They are a short, thick-set race, very dark in colour, and with curled hair. Their chief employment is felling timber, but they sometimes work in areca nut gardens and gather wild cardamoms, pepper, etc. They speak a dialect of Canarese.”
In the Mysore Census Report, 1891, it is stated that “the Hasalaru and Malēru are confined to the wild regions of the Western Malnād. In the caste generation, they are said to rank above the Halēpaikās, but above the Holeyas and Mādigas. They are a diminutive but muscular race, with curly hair and dolichocephalous head. Their mother-tongue is Tulu. Their numbers are so insignificantly small as not to be separately defined. They are immigrants from South Canara, and lead a life little elevated above that of primordial barbarism. They live in small isolated huts, which are, however, in the case of the Hasalās, provided not only with the usual principal entrance, through which one has to crawl in, but also with a half-concealed hole in the rear, a kind of postern, through which the shy inmates steal out into the jungle at the merest suspicion of danger, or the approach of a stranger.
They collect the wild jungle produce, such as cardamoms, etc., for their customary employers, whose agrestic slaves they have virtually become. Their huts are annually or periodically shifted from place to place, usually the most inaccessible and thickest parts of the wilderness. They are said to be very partial to toddy and arrack (alcoholic liquor). It is expected that these savages smuggle across the frontier large quantities of wild pepper and cardamoms from the ghāt forests of the province. Their marriage customs are characterised by the utmost simplicity, and the part played therein by the astrologer is not very edifying. Their religion does not seem to transcend devil worship. They bury the dead. A very curious obsequial custom prevails among the Hasalas. When any one among them dies, somebody’s devil is credited with the mishap, and the astrologer is consulted to ascertain its identity. The latter throws cowries (shells of Cyprœa moneta) for divination, and mentions some neighbour as the owner of the devil thief. Thereupon, the spirit of the dead is redeemed by the heir or relative by means of a pig, fowl, or other guerdon. The spirit is then considered released, and is thence forward domiciled in a pot, which is supplied periodically with water and nourishment. This may be looked upon as the elementary germ of the posthumous care-taking, which finds articulation under the name of srādh in multifarious forms, accompanied more or less with much display in the more civilised sections of the Hindu community. The Hasalaru are confined to Tīrthahalli and Mūdigere.”
It is further recorded in the Mysore Census Report, 1891, that “in most of the purely Malnād or hilly tāluks, each vargdār, or proprietor of landed estate, owns a set of servants styled Huttālu or Huttu-ālu and Mannālu or Mannu-ālu. The former is the hereditary servitor of the family, born in servitude, and performing agricultural work for the landholder from father to son. The Mannālu is a serf attached to the soil, and changes hands with it. They are usually of the Holaya class, but, in some places, the Hasalar race have been entertained.” (See Holeya.) Concerning the Hasalaru, Mr. H. V. Nanjundayya writes to me that “their marriages take place at night, a pūjāri of their caste ties the tāli, a golden disc, round the bride’s neck. Being influenced by the surrounding castes, they have taken of late to the practice of inviting the astrologer to be present. In the social scale they are a little superior to Mādigas and Holeyas, and, like them, live outside the village, but they do not eat beef. Their approach is considered to defile a Brāhman, and they do not enter the houses of non-Brāhmans such as Vakkaligas and Kurubas. They have their own caste barbers and washermen, and have separate wells to draw water from.”
