Sudh
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 a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful place.
Sudh
Sudha, Sudho, Suda
A cultivating caste in the Uriya country. Since the transfer of Sambalpur to Bengal only a few Sudhs remain in the Central Provinces. They are divided into four subcastes—the Bada or high Sudhs, the Dehri or worshippers, the Kabat-konia or those holding the corners of the gate, and the Butka. These last are the most primitive and think that Rairakhol is their first home.
They relate that they were born of the Pandava hero Bhimsen and the female demon Hedembiki, and were originally occupied in supplying leaves for the funeral ceremonies 1 Bhandara Settlement Report (A. cess of gold-washing is taken from Mr. J. Lawrence), p. 49. Low's Bdldi^^hat Gazetteer, p. 201. ^ T.. T • c -.u' nj - J c tn * This article is compiled from a 2 Maior Lucie Smith sC«(?«(/«6^t?/'/'/6'- , .^ ,„ - • , ^ n J. , , c>^„\ .„, paper by Mr. Bhagirath Fatnaik, ment Report (1869 , p. 105. ' ^ .' . c t^ • -w. y a c . JJiwan of Kairakhol, and from notes ^ The following account of the pro- taken by Mr. Ulra Lai at Rairakhol.
of the Pandava brothers, from which business they obtained their name of Ikitka or ' one who brings leaves.' They are practically a forest tribe and carry on shifting cultivation like the Khonds. According to their own story the ancestors of the Butka Sudhs once ruled in Rairakhol and reclaimed the land from the forest, that is so far as it has been reclaimed.
The following story connects them with the ruling family of Rairakhol. In former times there was constant war between Bamra and Rairakhol, and on one occasion the whole of the Rairakhol royal family was destroyed with the exception of one boy who was hidden by a Butka Sudh woman. She placed him in a cradle supported on four uprights, and when the Bamra Raja's soldiers came to seek for him the Sudhs swore, "If we have kept him either in heaven or earth may our god destroy us." The Bamra people were satisfied with this reply and the child was saved, and on coming to manhood he won back his kingdom. He received the name of Janamani or ' Jewel among men,' which the family still bear.
In consequence of this incident, the Butka Sudhs are considered by the Rairakhol house as relations on their mother's side ; they have several villages allotted to them and perform sacrifices for the ruling family. In some of these villages nobody may sleep on a cot or sit on a high chair, so as to be between heaven and earth in the position in which the child was saved. The Bada Sudhs are the most numerous subdivision and have generally adopted Hindu customs, so that the higher castes will take water from their hands.
They neither drink liquor nor eat fowls, but the other subcastes do both. The Sudhs have totemistic gotras as Bhalluka (bear), Bagh (tiger), Ulluka (owl), and others. They also have bargas or family names as Thakur (lord), Danaik, Amayat and Bishi. The Thakur clan say that they used to hold the Baud kings in their lap for their coronation, and the Danaik used to tie the king's turban.
The Bishi were so named because of their skill in arms, and the Amayat collected materials for the worship of the Panch Khanda or five swords. The bargas are much more numerous than the totemistic septs, and marriage either within the barga or within the sept is forbidden. Girls
must be married before adolescence ; and in the absence of a suitable husband, the girl is married to an old man who divorces her immediately afterwards, and she may then take a second husband at any time by the form for widowremarriage. A betrothal is sealed by tying an areca-nut in a knot made from the clothes of a relative of each party and pounding it seven times with a pestle.
After the marriage a silver ring is placed in a pot of water, over the mouth of which a leaf-plate is bound. The bridegroom pierces the leaf-plate with a knife, and the bride then thrusts her hand through the hole, picks out the ring and puts it on. The couple then go inside the house and sit down to a meal. The bridegroom, after eating part of his food, throws the leavings on to the bride's plate. She stops eating in displeasure, whereupon the bridegroom promises her some ornaments, and she relents and eats his leavings. It is customary for a Hindu wife to eat the leavings of food of her husband as a mark of her veneration for him. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted.
The Sudhs worship the Panch Khanda or five swords, and in the Central Provinces they say that these are a representation of the five Pandava brothers, in whose service their first ancestors were engaged. Their tutelary goddess is Khambeshwari, represented by a wooden peg {kJiamba).
She dwells in the wilds of the Baud State and is supposed to fulfil all the desires of the Sudhs. Liquor, goats, buffaloes, vermilion and swallow-wort flowers are offered to her, the last two being in representation of blood. The Dehri Sudhs worship a goddess called Kandrapat who dwells always on the summits of hills. It is believed that whenever worship is concluded the roar of her tiger is heard, and the worshippers then leave the place and allow the tiger to come and take the offerings. The goddess would therefore appear to be the deified tiger. The Bada Sudhs rank with the cultivating castes of Sambalpur, but the other three subcastes have a lower position.
