Joshi-Vasudeva: Deccan

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Joshi-Vasudeva

This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS BY SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and Middle Temple, London. One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. BOMBAY THE TlMES PRESS 1920 Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version/ additional information to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

Vasudeva — a wandering caste of beggars, occasionally met with at fairs Rising early in the morning, they wash their hands and feet and put on a long robe reaching to the ankles and a turban after the Maratha fashion. Over this turban a cone-shaped hollow coronet of peacock feathers is worn and a piece of cloth is passed round the neck. They then wrap a piece of red cloth round the waist and hold cymbals, or chipalas, in their hands, which they strike when singing and dancing. When they see any one they begin singing and dancing and, after obtaining alms from him, they blow a pipe in the name of the god and the donor and depart. They trace their descent from Vasudeva, but they appear to be originally Marathas. The names of the men and women are like those of the Maratha Kunbis and their language is a conupt form of Marathi. Their surnames are Bhande, Solanke, Sinde, &c. Both infant and adult marriages are practised by the caste. A girl becoming pregnant before marriage, is outcasted. The marriage ceremony closely resembles that of the Maratha Kunbis. Shri Krishna is the god specially worshipped by the caste, but all the other Hindu gods are also revered. Before starting for purposes of begging, they worship their coronet of peacock feathers. The dead are buried in a sitting posture, with the face pointing towards the east. Mourning is observed ten days for adults. Funeral obsequies are performed on the 1 3th day after death. Deceased ancestors receive homage in the form of embossed plates. In matters of diet they eat mutton, fowl and all kinds of fish and drink spirits. They eat from the hands of Brahmans. Marathas, Vanis and Jangams. Socially, they rank with the Joshis. with whom they are said to interdine and intermarry.

The Dandigans are a caste of wandering minstrels, who travel in parties and make their living by reciting, to music, the deeds of the Pandava princes. Each party consists of a choir of three men, one of whom plays on the mridang, an elongated drum, and'*the other on a tamburi, or four-stringed guitar, while the precentor sings and dances, relating mythological stories to the music of a dandi (a sort of one-stringed musical instrument), which he holds in one hand, and of cymbals, which he carries in the other. The Dandigans derive their origin from two Maratha youths, who were degraded for having committed a murder, and take their name from the musical instrument dandi, the badge of their calling. In every respect, except in their profession, the Dandigans are identical with the Vasudevas and need no separate description.