Lalbegi
Lalbegi
This section has been extracted from THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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A class of Mahomedan sweepers supposed to have come from Upper India, some with sepoy regiments, others as wanderers in search of work. Though styled Mahomedans, they neither practise circumcision nor abstain from pork. The Lalbegi are employed us sweepers in European households, and are always addressed as jama'dar by the other servants. They eat the leavings o£ Europeans, and drink any sort of wine or spirits. They will not, however, eat with the Raut, who in their tum pride themselves on abstaining from food thathas come from a European table. Nor will they touch a dead body. The religious rites of the Lalbegi are partly Hindu, partly Muhammadan. As with Mussulmans generally, marriages are arranged by an old woman who acts as match-maker. No kabin or marriage settlement is drawn up, but an ikra,' or bond is executed, in which both promise to love one another, and the bridegroom undertakes not to bring a second wife into his house. Previous to the wedding day the Khancluri ceremony is observed, as well as other Muhammadan customs) but the services of the Acharji Brahman are not required. Should the marriage be celebrated in the bride¬groom's house, a fee of twenty annas is paid to the panchayat; if in the bride's, only five annas. A few of the Lalbegi keep the fast of Ramazan, although they dare not enter a public mosque. Their funeral ceremonies are peculiar. The dead may not be buried in a Mussulman cemetery, but are consigned to the ground in some waste and jungly spot. The corpse is wrapped in five shrouds, a handkerchief is placed under each arm and in each hand, a khirqa or napkin is bound round the head, and a khirqa or bloure is put on the body. After the grave has been filled in, a cloth cover (pldd ka chadar) is laid over it, while four pieces of " Agar" wood are inserted at the corners and set fire to. The rest of the funeral ceremonies are strictly Mahomedan. For four days after a death a fire is not allowed to be lighted in the dwelling-house of the deceased, the family in the meantime receiving food from their neighbours; but on the fifth day a tray laden with betel-nuts and adorned with flowers is placed in front of the hut, and a feast is given to the whole tribe. The Lalbegis follow many Hindu customs, observing the Dlwali and the Holl as the greatest festivals of the year. On these occasions a mud image of a mosque with five domes is made, supposed to be a model of one still existing at Ghaznf, in KAbul, which belonged to L al Beg, the eponymous ancestor of the tribe. In front of the image a cock is sacrificed, and offerings of pilao, sherbet, and sweetmeats are made in his name. La! Beg is identified by Sir H . Elliot! with L :H Guru, the same as the Rakshasa Aronakarat; but in Benares2 he is confounded with PIr Zahr, perhaps the famous chistiya saint Sayyid Shah Zuhur. In the Panjab, again, Mihtars adore Lal Pir, or Baba Faqir, as the dyers do Pir 'Ali Rangrez, and the blacksmiths Hazrat Daud. It seems not improbable, therefore, that the Lalbegi, like many other triues converted to Mahomedanism, have adopted a Maho¬medan saint as their common ancestor.
Lalbegi
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Synonyms: Balmiki [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Subgroups: Balmiki, Begi, Sardar [West Bengal] Gaikwad, Kanderia, Phatrod, Sanakat, Sarwan, Surasw al [S.S. Hassan] Exogamous units/clans (gotra): Ahari (chande fish), Bhakta (Cherka Alu a kind of Yam), Bhiwal, Bhunih (sal fish), Chamaria, Dardapat/bag (tiger), Digar (tortoise), K otal (kon of grasshopper), Malik (Makar or shark Na yek (salfish), Pandit, Paremanik (Manik a kind of bird), a kind of sea mouster) [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Lineages (khandan/vansh): [Bihar and/or Jharkhand]
Notes
The sweeper castes of India, vaguely styled Lalbegi, Khakrob, Bhangi,1 Raut, Hela, Halal-khor, Sekri, or Chuhra, are remnants of semi-Hinduized aboriginal tribes, although the Puranas trace their origin to the issue of a Sudra and a Brahman widow. It was believed by the early residents in Bengal, that any Hindu expelled from his caste was obliged to herd with the Halal-khors, "the refuse of all tribes, poor unhappy wretches destined to misery from their birth;"2 but this opinion was founded on ignorance, as outcast Hindus now, as in former days invariably join the ranks of Islam.
Under the Muhammadan government the sweeper tribes were employed as executioners, spies, and scavengers. Manouchi3 informs us, that in the reign of Shah Jahan they acted as sweepers in private houses, and picked up from slaves all the secrets of the family for the information of the Kotwal, or head of the police. When Europeans first resided in India, cooks and domestic servants generally belonged to these vile tribes, and during the Mutiny of 1857, it was no uncommon thing to find a Mihtar engaged as the cook of a newly arrived English Regiment.
In Eastern Bengal the Lalbegi, Raut, and Sekri are met with in the large towns, but the regular sweepers employed in hospitals are the Bhuinmalis, or Haris, from Chittagong.
In the census reports of 1871 the sweeper tribes are all included under the generic term Mihtar, a name given by the Muhammadans in derision. In Bengal only 40,894 are entered under that head, but it is probable that this only includes the Hindustani emigrants, while in the north-west provinces in 1865 the census gave 310,795 persons.
Although in Oude the Mihtar tribes intermarry, in Bengal they will not even associate together.
The Lalbegi, who constitute the most important body, occupy twenty houses in the city of Dacca. They originally came from Upper India, some with Sepoy regiments, others as wanderers in search of work. Though styled Muhammadans they neither practise circumcision nor abstain from pork. The Lalbegi are employed as sweepers in European households, and are always addressed as Jama'dar by the other servants. On board the river steamers, again, the sweeper is called Topas, a term origi-nally applied to a mean white, the offspring of a Portuguese father and an Indian mother.
The Lalbegi eats everything that comes from the European table, although he will not eat with the Raut, and drinks any sort of wine or spirits.
The religious rites of the tribe are partly Hindu, partly Muhammadan. As with Mussulmans generally, marriages are arranged by an old woman. No Kabin, or marriage settlement, is drawn up, but an Ikrar, or bond, is executed, in which both promise to love one another, and the bridegroom testifies that he will not bring a second wife into his house. Previous to the wedding day the Kanduri ceremony is observed, as well as other Muhammadan customs, but the services of the Acharji Brahman are not required. Should the marriage be celebrated in the bridegroom's house a fee of twenty anas is paid to the Panchait; if in the bride's only five anas.
A few of the Lalbegi keep the fast of Ramazan, although they dare not enter a public mosque.
Their funeral ceremonies differ greatly from the Muhammadans, and resemble in many points those of the Sants, which are probably survivals of an aboriginal cultus. The dead are not permitted to be interred in a Mussalman cemetery, but are consigned to the tomb in some waste and jungly spot. The corpse is wrapped in five shrouds, a handkerchief is placed under each arm and in each hand, a Kasawa, or napkin, is bound round the head, and a Khirqa, or blouse, is put on the body.
After the grave has been filled in a cloth cover (Pul ka Chadar) is laid over it, while four pieces of "Agar" wood are inserted at the corners, and set fire to. The rest of the funeral ceremonies are strictly Muhammadan. For four days after a death a fire is not allowed to be lighted in the dwelling-house of the deceased, the family in the meantime receiving food from their neighbours; but on the fifth day a tray laden with betle-nuts, and adorned with flowers, is placed in front of the hut, and a feast is given to the whole tribe.
The Lalbegis however, follow many Hindu customs, observing the Diwali and the Holi as the greatest festivals of the year. On these occasions a mud image of a mosque with five domes is made, after the model of one still existing at Garh Ghazni, in Kabul, which belonged to their eponymous ancestor, Lal Beg. In front of the image a cock is sacrificed, and offerings, consisting of a Pulao, Sharbat, and sweetmeats made in his name. This absurd story of their descent from a Mughal chief is analogous to the origin of the Bediya from Nuh Nabi. Lal Beg, however, is identified by Sir H. Elliot1 with Lal Guru, the same as the Rakshasa Aronakarat; but in Benares1 he is confounded with Pir Zahr, perhaps the famous Chishtiya saint, Sayyid Shah Zuhur.
In the Panjaab, again, Mihtars adore Lal Pir, or Baba Faqir, as the dyers do Pir 'Ali Rangrez, and the blacksmiths Hazrat Daud. It is not improbable, therefore, that the Lalbegi, like many other tribes converted to Muhammadanism, have adopted a Muhammadan saint as their common ancestor around whom many idle traditions have been grouped.2
1 This was also the title of one of the Sikh Mials, or confederacies. Cunningham's "History of the Sikhs," p. 106.
2 "A View of the English Government in Bengal," by H. Verelst, p. 142.
3 "Histoire generale de l'Empire du Mogol," par le Pere F. Catrou. A Paris, 1705, p. 271.
