Panka
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
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.
Panka
A Dravidian caste of weavers and labourers of the found in Mandla, Raipur and Bilaspur, and numbering 215,000 persons in 191 1. The name is a variant on that of the Pan tribe of Orissa and Chota Nagpur, who are also known as Panika.ChIk, Ganda and by various other designations. In the Central Provinces it has, however, a peculiar application ; for while the Pan tribe proper is called Ganda in Chhattlsgarh and the Uriya country, the Pankas form a separate division of the Gandas, consisting of those who have become members of the Kablrpanthi sect.
In this way the name has been found very convenient, for since Kablr, the founder of the sect, was discovered by a weaver woman lying on the lotus leaves of a tank, like Moses in the bulrushes, and as a newly initiated convert is purified with water, so the Pankas hold that their name is pdni ka or ' from water.' As far as possible then they disown their connection with the Gandas, one of the most despised castes, and say that they are a separate caste consisting of the disciples of Kablr.
This has given rise to the following doggerel rhyme about
them :
Pdni se Patika bhae, bundan rdche sharir,
Age age Panka bhae., pdchhe Das Kablr.
Which may be rendered, ' The Panka indeed is born of
1 This article is compiled from phic clerk, and Hazari I^al, Manager,
papers by Pyarc Lai Misra, Ethnogra- Court of Wards, Chanda.
water, and his body is made of drops of water, but there were Pankas before Kablr.' Or another rendering of the second Hue is, ' First he was a Panka, and afterwards he became a disciple of Kablr.' Nevertheless the Pankas have been successful in obtaining a somewhat higher position than the Gfindas, in that their touch is not considered to convey impurity.
This is therefore an instance of a body of persons from a low caste embracing a new religion and thereby forming themselves into a separate caste and obtaining an advance in social position. Of the whole caste 84 per cent are Kablrpanthis and 2. Caste these form one subcaste ; but there are a few others. The ^V^.'. ' divisions. Manikpuria say that their ancestors came from Manikpur in Darbhanga State about three centuries ago ; the Saktaha are those who profess to belong to the Sakta sect, which simply means that they eat flesh and drink liquor, being unwilling to submit to the restrictions imposed on Kablrpanthis
- the Bajania are those who play on musical
instruments, an occupation which tends to lower them in Hindu eyes ; and the Dom Pankas are probably a section of the Dom or sweeper caste who have somehow managed to become Pankas.
The main distinction is however between the Kabirha, who have abjured flesh and liquor, and the Saktaha, who indulge in them ; and the Saktaha group is naturally recruited from backsliding Kablrpanthis. Properly the Kabirha and Saktaha do not intermarry, but if a girl from either section goes to a man of the other she will be admitted into the community and recognised as his wife, though the regular ceremony is not performed. The Saktaha worship all the ordinary village deities, but some of the Kabirha at any rate entirely refrain from doing so, and have no religious rites except when a priest of their sect comes round, when he gives them a discourse and they sing religious songs.
The caste have a number of exogamous septs, many of 3. Endowhich are named after plants and animals : as Tandia an |j\']^°o^s earthen pot, Chhura a razor, Neora the mongoose, Parewa the wild pigeon, and others. Other septs are Panaria the bringer of betel-leaf, Kuldlp the lamp-lighter, Pandwar the washer of feet, Ghughua one who eats the leavings of the
assembly, and Khetgarhia, one who watches the fields during religious worship. The Sonwania or ' Gold-water ' sept has among the Pankas, as with several of the primitive tribes, the duty of readmitting persons temporarily put out of caste ; while the Naurang or nine -coloured sept may be the offspring of some illegitimate unions.
The Sati sept apparently commemorate by their name an ancestress who distinguished herself by self-immolation, naturally a very rare occurrence in so low a caste as the Pankas. Each sept has its own Bhat or genealogist who begs only from members of the sept and takes food from them.
4. Mar- Marriage is prohibited between members of the same "^^^' sept and also between first cousins, and a second sister may not be married during the lifetime of the first. Girls are usually wedded under twelve years of age. In Mandla the father of the boy and his relatives go to discuss the match, and if this is arranged each of them kisses the girl and gives her a piece of small silver. When a Saktaha is going to look for a wife he makes a fire offering to Dulha Deo, the young bridegroom god, whose shrine is in the cookroom, and prays to him saying, ' I am going to such and such a village to ask for a wife ; give me good fortune,' The father of the girl at first refuses his consent as a matter of etiquette, but finally agrees to let the marriage take place within a year. The boy pays Rs. 9, which is spent on the feast, and makes a present of clothes and jewels to the bride.
In Chanda a chauka or consecrated space spread with cowdung with a pattern of lines of flour is prepared and the fathers of the parties stand inside this, while a member of the Pandwar sept cries out the names of the gotras of the bride and bridegroom and says that the everlasting knot is to be tied between them with the consent of five castepeople and the sun and moon as witnesses. Before the wedding the betrothed couple worship Mahadeo and Parvati under the direction of a Brfdiman, who also fixes the date of the wedding.
This is the only purpose for which a Brfdiman is employed by the caste. Between this date and that of the marriage neither the boy nor girl should be allowed to go to a tank or cross a river, as it is considered dangerous to their lives. The superstition has apparently
some connection with the beHef that the Pankas are sprung from water, but its exact meaning cannot be cletcrmincd. If a girl goes wrong before marriage with a man of the caste, she is given to him to wife without any ceremony. Before the marriage seven small pitchers full of water are placed in a bamboo basket and shaken over the bride's head so that the water may fall on her. The principal ceremony consists in walking round the sacred pole called DiagroJian, the skirts of the pair being knotted together.
In some localities this is done twice, a first set of perambulations being called the Kunwari (maiden) Bhanwar, and the second one of seven, the Byahi (married) Bhanwar. After the wedding the bride and her relations return with the bridegroom to his house, their party being known as Chauthia.
The couple are taken to a river and throw their tinsel wedding ornaments into the water. The bride then returns home if she is a minor, and when she subsequently goes to live with her husband the gauna ceremony is performed. Widow-marriage is permitted, and divorce may be effected for bad conduct on the part of the wife, the husband giving a sort of funeral feast, called Martijiti ka bhdt, to the castefellows. Usually a man gives several warnings to his wife to amend her bad conduct before he finally casts her off.
The Pankas worship only Kablr. They prepare a 5. Reiichauka and, sitting in it, sing songs in his praise, and a ^'°"' cocoanut is afterwards broken and distributed to those who are present.
The assembly is presided over by a Mahant or priest and the chaiika is prepared by his subordinate called the Diwan. The offices of Mahant and Dlwan are hereditai')^, and they officiate for a collection of ten or fifteen villages. Otherwise the caste perform no special worship, but observe the full moon days of Magh (January), Phagun (February) and Kartik (October) as fasts in honour of Kablr. Some of the Kabirhas observe the Hindu festivals, and the Saktahas, as already stated, have the same religious practices as other Hindus. Thc)' admit into the community members of most castes except the impure ones.
In Chhattlsgarh a new convert is shaved and the other Pankas wash their feet over him in order to purify him. Pie then breaks a stick in token of having given up his former caste and is
invested with a necklace of tulsi^ beads. A woman of any such caste who has gone wrong with a man of the Panka caste may be admitted after she has Hved with him for a certain period on probation, during which her conduct must be satisfactory, her paramour also being put out of caste for the same time. Both are then shaved and invested with the necklaces of tulsi beads.
In Mandla a new convert must clean and whitewash his house and then vacate it with his family while the Panch or caste committee come and stay there for some time in order to purify it. While they are there neither the owner nor any member of his family may enter the house. The Panch then proceed to the riverside and cook food, after driving the new convert across the river by pelting him with cowdung. Here he changes his clothes and puts on new ones, and coming back again across the stream is made to stand in the chauk and sip the urine of a calf.
The chauk is then washed out and a fresh one made with lines of flour, and standing in this the convert receives to drink the dal^ that is, water in which a little betel, raw sugar and black pepper have been mixed and a piece of gold dipped. In the evening the Panch again take their food in the convert's house, while hg eats outside it at a distance. Then he again sips the dal, and the Mahant or priest takes him on his lap and a cloth is put over them both ;, the Mahant whispers the mantra or sacred verse into his ear, and he is finally considered to have become a full Kabirha Panka and admitted to eat with the Panch. 6. Other The Paukas are strict vegetarians and do not drink liquor.
A Kabirha Panka is put out of caste for eating flesh meat. Both men and women generally wear white clothes, and men have the garland of beads round the neck. The dead are buried, being laid on the back with the head pointing to the north.
After a funeral the mourners bathe and then break a cocoanut over the grave and distribute it among themselves. On the tenth day they go again and break a cocoanut and each man buries a little piece of it in the earth over the grave, A little cup made of flour containing a lamp is placed on the grave for three days afterwards, and some food and water are put in a leaf cup outside ' The basil plant. ciutoms.
the house for the same period. Durinj^ these days the family do not cook for themselves but are supplied with food by their friends. After childbirth a mother is sui)posed not to eat food during the time that the midwife attends on her, on account of the impurity caused by this woman's presence in the room.
The caste are generally weavers, producing coarse 7. Occucountry
cloth, and a number of them serve as village watch- 5^^""-
men, while others are cultivators and labourers. They will
not grow jrtw-hemp nor breed tasar silk cocoons. They are
somewhat poorly esteemed by their neighbours, who say of
them, ' Where a Panka can get a little boiled rice and a
pumpkin, he will stay for ever,' meaning that he is satisfied
with this and will not work to get more. Another saying
is, ' The Panka felt brave and thought he would go to war ;
but he set out to fight a frog and was beaten '
- and another,
' Every man tells one lie a day ; but the Ahir tells sixteen, the Chamar twenty, and the lies of the Panka cannot be counted.' Such gibes, however, do not really mean much. Owing to the abstinence of the Pankas from flesh and liquor they rank above the Gandas and other impure castes. In Bilaspur they are generally held to be quiet and industrious.^
In Chhattlsgarh the Pankas are considered above the
average in intelligence and sometimes act as spokesmen for
the village people and as advisers to zamlndfus and village
proprietors. Some of them become religious mendicants
and act as gurus or preceptors to Kablrpanthis."
' Bilaspur Settle7nent Report {i%(i2))f ^ From anole by Mr. Gauri Shankar,
p. 49. Manager, Court of Wards, Drug.
