Mang-Garori
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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.
Mang-Garori
This is a criminal subdivision of the Mang caste, residing principally in Berar. They were not ^ Lectures on the Cn'niiiial Tribes ^ Dr. Murray Mitchell's Great Reof the Central Provinces, p. 79. ligions of India, p. 63. ^ Cynodon dactylou.
separately recorded at the census. The name Garori appears to be a corruption of Garudi, and signifies a snake-charmer.^ Garuda, the Brahminy kite, the bird on which Vishnu rides, was the great subduer of snakes, and hence probably snakecharmers are called Garudi. Some of the Mang-Garoris are snake-charmers, and this may have been the original occupation of the caste, though the bulk of them now appear to live by dealing in cattle and thieving.
The following notice of them is abstracted from Major Gunthorpe's Notes on Criminal Tribes? They usually travel about with small pals or tents, taking their wives, children, buffaloes and dogs with them. The men are well set up and tall. Their costume is something like that worn by professional gymnasts, consisting of light and short reddish -brown drawers {chaddi), a waistband with fringe at either end {katchke), and a sheet thrown over the shoulders.
The Naik or headman of the camp may be recognised by his wearing some red woollen cloth about his person or a red shawl over his shoulders. The women have short saris (body-cloths), usually of blue, and tied in the Telugu fashion. They are generally very violent when any attempt is made to search an encampment, especially if there is stolen property concealed in it. Instances have been known of their seizing their infants by the ankles and swinging them round their heads, declaring they would continue doing so till the children died, if the police did not leave the camp.
Sometimes also the women of a gang have been known to throw off all their clothing and appear in a perfect state of nudity, declaring they would charge the police with violating their modesty. Men of this tribe are expert cattle-lifters, but confine themselves chiefly to buffaloes, which they steal while out grazing and very dexterously disguise by trimming the horns and firing, so as to avoid recognition by their rightful owners. To steal goats and sheep is also one of their favourite occupations, and they will either carry the animals off from their pens at night or kill them while out grazing, in the following manner : having marked a sheep or goat which is feeding farthest away from the flock, the thief awaits his opportunity till the shepherd's back is turned, ' From a note by Mr. Hira Lai. '^ Times Press, Bombay, 1882.
when the animal is quickly captured. Placing his foot on the back of the neck near the head, and seizing it under the chin with his right hand, the thief breaks the animal's neck by a sudden jerk ; he then throws the body into a bush or in some dip in the ground to hide it, and walks away, watching from a distance.
The shepherd, ignorant of the loss of one of his animals, goes on leisurely driving his flock before him, and when he is well out of sight the Mang- Garori removes the captured carcase to his encampment. Great care is taken that the skin, horns and hoofs should be immediately burnt so as to avoid detection. Their ostensible occupation is to trade in barren half-starved buffaloes and buffalo calves, or in country ponies.
They also purchase from Gaoli herdsmen barren buffaloes, which they profess to be able to make fertile ; if successful they return them for double the purchase-money, but if not, having obtained if possible some earnest-money, they abscond and sell the animals at a distance.^ Like the Bhamtas, the Mang-Garoris, Major Gunthorpe states, make it a rule not to give a girl in marriage until the intended husband has proved himself an efficient thief Mr. Gayer '^ writes as follows of the caste : " I do not think Major Gunthorpe lays sufficient emphasis on the part taken by the women in crimes, for they apparently do by far the major part of the thieving.
Sherring says the men never commit house-breaking and very seldom rob on the highway : he calls them ' wanderers, showmen, jugglers and conjurors,' and describes them as robbers who get their information by performing before the houses of rich bankers and others. Mang-Garori ^ women steal in markets and other places of public resort.
They wait to see somebody put down his clothes or bag of rupees and watch till his attention is attracted elsewhere, when, walking up quietly between the article and its owner, they drop their petticoat either over or by it, and manage to transfer the stolen property into their basket while picking up the petticoat. If an unfavourable omen occurs on the way when the women set out to pilfer they place a stone on the ground and dash 1 Kennedy, Criminal Classes of the ^ This passage is quoted by Mr. Bombay Presidency, p. 122. Gayer from the Supplement to the 2 Lectures on some Criminal Tribes Central Provinces Police Gazette of of India. 24th January 1905.
part
another on to it saying, ' If the obstacle is removed, break '
if the stone struck is broken, they consider that the obstacle portended by the unfavourable omen is removed from their path, and proceed on their way ; but if not, they return. Stolen articles are often bartered at liquor-shops for drink, and the Kalars act as receivers of stolen property for the
The following are some particulars taken from an old account of the criminal Mangs : ^ Their leader or headman was called the ndik and was elected by a majority of votes, though considerable regard was paid to heredity.
The ndik's person and property were alike inviolable ; after a successful foray each of the gang contributed a quarter of his share to the ndik, and from the fund thus made up were defrayed the expenses of preparation, religious offerings and the triumphal feast. A pair of shoes were usually given to a Brahman and alms to the poor.
To each band was attached an informer, who was also receiver of the stolen goods. These persons were usually bangle- or perfumesellers or jewellers. In this capacity they were admitted into the women's apartments and so enabled to form a correct notion of the topography of a house and a shrewd guess as to the wealth of its inmates. Like all barbarous tribes and all persons addicted to criminal practices the Mangs were extremely superstitious. They never set out on an expedition on a Friday.
After the birth of a child the mother and another woman stood on opposite sides of the cradle, and the former tossed her child to the other, commending it to the mercy of Jai Gopal, and waited to receive it back in like manner in the name of Jai Govind. Both Gopal and Govind are names of Krishna. The Mangs usually married young in life.
If a girl happened to hang heavy on hand she was married at the age of puberty to the deity. In other words, she was attached as a prostitute to the temple of the god Khandoba or the goddess Yellama. Those belonging to the service of the latter were wont in the month of February to parade the streets in a state of utter nudity. When a bachelor wished to marry a widow ^ Mutton's Thui^s, Dacoits and i68, quoting an account hy Captain Gang-robbers ofIndia (1857), pp. 164- Barr.
he was first united to a swallow-wort plant, and this was immediately dug up and transplanted, and withering away left him at liberty to marry the widow. If a lady survived the sorrow caused by the death of two or three husbands she could not again enter the holy state unless she consented to be married with a fowl under her armpit ; the unfortunate bird being afterwards killed to appease the manes of her former consorts.
