The Ahir
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. |
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Caste No. 27)
The Ahirs are properly a pastoral caste, their name being derived from the Sanskrit Abhira, or milkman. But in the Panjab they are now almost exclusively agricultural, and stand in quite the first rank as huslmndmen, being as good as the Kamboh and somewhat superior to the Jat. They are of the same social standing as the Jat and Gujar, who will cat and smoke with them ; but they do not seem ever to have been, at any rate within recent times, tho dominant race in any considerable tract. Perhaps their nearest approach to such a pOsition was in Rewari and the country to the west of it still locally known as Hirwati, where they held nearly three quarters of the jparganah in 18.38.
A very full description of them will be found in Elliott^s Races of the North-est Provinces, and also in Sherring . The west coast of India and Gujarat would appear to be their ancient homes, but they are numerous in Behar and Gorakhpur, and at one time there was an Ahir dynasty in Nepal. In the Panjab they are chiefly found in the south of Dehli, Gurgaon, and Rohtak and the Native States bordering upon these districts, and in this limited tract they form a consider able proportion of the whole population. They are almost all Hindus, and are said to trace their origin from Mathra. They are industrious, patient, and orderly ; and though they are ill spoken of in the proverbs of the country side, yet that is probably only because the Jat is jealous of them as being even better cultivators than himself. Thus they say in Rohtak : Kosli (the head village of the Ahirs) has fifty brick houses and several thousand swag gerers.'So in Dehli : Rather be kicked by a Rajput or stumble uphill, '* than hoj^e anything from a jackal, spear grass, or an Ahir ;and again : All castes are God^s creatures, but three castes are ruthless. When they get a chance they have no shame ; tho whore, the Banya, and the Ahir. But these stigmas are now-a-days at least wholly undeserved.
The Ahirs of the North-West Provinces have three great sections, the Nandbans of the central dodb, the Jadubans Of the upper dodb and the Mathra country, and the Gwalbans of the lower dodb at Benares. The Ahirs of the Pan j jib have returned themselves as shown in the margin. Of the Gwalbans more than 16,000 are found in Patiala. Within these tribes they clans, among which the Kosali of Rohtak and Gurgaon
This important Hindustani pastoral caste is frequently met with in Eastern Bengal, the members assuming a superiority over the Goala, and refusing to hold any social intercourse with it. The Ahir forfeits caste privileges by settling in Bengal, but if he only resides for a short time, a wife can be got from his home in Bihar.
In Gorakhpur the Ahir stands immediately below the Kayath, being regarded as a pure Sudra; but in Bengal he is impure in the eyes of Sudras and Gop-Goalas.
Ahirs are generally handsome, with fine delicate features, retaining in Bengal their ancestral love of spirits and pork. The tribe is known everywhere by a ceremony, peculiar to itself, called Gae-dagha, Gae-dhar, or Gokrirah. On the day after the Diwali, and on the day before the new moon of Kartik (Sept.-Oct.), Ahirs place a cow, which has lately calved, within an enclosure where a pig is confined. They beat drums, sing, and shout outside until the cow, maddened by the din, gores or butts the pig to death, when the carcass is removed, cooked, and eaten.1
The flesh of the wild pig is also esteemed a great delicacy by Ahirs, and when procurable is made the occasion of much conviviality.
In Bengal the subdivisions of the Ahirs are�
As with other composite castes the subdivisions vary according to locality, and clannish prejudices disappear in a foreign land. For instance, in Dacca the Mungirya and Gauriya intermarry, although it is forbidden in Bihar.
All Ahirs in Dacca belong to a "gotra," called Kasyapa, and the majority worship Krishna, only a few following the Sakta ritual. Ahirs observe the Sraddha on the eleventh day after death, and their funeral service is performed by the Maha-patra, or Kantha, Brahman.
Ahirs sell milk, but are degraded by making butter, curds, or clotted milk. Bullocks cannot properly be used by Hindus in the plough or oil-mill, but the Ahir has no compunction about selling a vicious or unmanageable bull to the Muhammadan Kolu.
Bengal Ahirs never prepare the yellow paint called "Pewri,"2 as is done in Mungir, although the Palasa tree (Butea frondosa) is one of the commonest jungle trees.
(a)Gauriya
The Gauriya is the most numerous subdivision of Ahirs in Bengal, and to it belong the Uriya palanquin bearers of Calcutta, and the professional Lathials, or clubmen, of Kishna-ghur and Jesore.
In Eastern Bengal they are reckoned a very impure race who castrate bulls, brand cattle, and act as cow-doctors, being on this account generally styled Go-baidya, or Daghania Goalas.3
1 This cow baiting exactly resembles the Binda-parab of the Bhumij. Dalton, "Descriptive Ethnology," p. 176.
2 Sanskrit Go-rochana, and used for painting Hindu sectarial marks, and walls of bungalows.
3 In Northern Bengal the cow-doctor is called Hadiq.
These Ahirs, chiefly residing in Jessore, have become naturalised in Bengal as cultivators, resembling in physique and appearance the common Bengali peasantry, though they still employ a few Hindi words when speaking the vernacular. It is alleged that in Jessore the Gauriya is reckoned a pure Sudra caste, but farther east utterly abominable. A Patit Brahman ministers at their religious ceremonies, which are distinct from those observed by the Goala of the Ballali country. No genuine Sudra Goala would do the menial work of the Go-baidya, nevertheless, a fallen tribe of Goalas in Tipperah is said to practise as cow-doctors.
The Gauriya have only one gotra, the Aliman.
During the cold season the Go-baidyas wander throughout the country, and in villages may be distinguished by the cry "Goru dadha ba!" or simply "Kemon!" How is it?
Preparatory to branding or operating on animals, the Go-baidyas always invoke Krishna and the two Pandava brothers, Nakula and Sahadeva. They use skewers and awls of different shapes and sizes for opening abscesses and puncturing swollen houghs, but deny that they ever castrate bulls, and certainly no cutting instrument is ever found in their wallets. The Rishi and Hajjam, however, who undoubtedly do so, positively assert that the Go-baidya is the recognised operator.
Go-baidyas brand the cattle of the peasantry, and treat the diseases of domestic animals with a few simples. In swollen joints they administer mashes of wild fig leaves and salt, or of the Arum, heated with salt, while they wrap the joint with poultices of pounded leaves. In oedema of the head the forehead is freely cauterised with two red hot iron hooks (dagh), which are also employed in making the common reversed semicircular marks on native cattle.
In small-pox (Basanta) Go-baidyas trust to a mash of "Nim" leaves, wild ginger, green turmeric, and the pounded bark of the Seorha tree; while in catarrhs wild fig leaves are said to be very beneficial.
(b) Mahisha Goala
The Mahisha, or, as they are called in the Dacca dialect, Maisan, Goalas, derive their name from Mahisha, the Sanskrit for a buffalo, and were originally Ahirs from Patna and Mungir, who have been settled for several generations in Eastern Bengal. In towns, having ceased to keep buffaloes, they own dairies, and sell milk.
On the uncultivated "chars" or islands of the Dhullaserry, these Bengali-speaking Ahirs tend herds of buffaloes belonging to Saha merchants, and sell the milk to Gop-Goalas, who pay in advance for it. The herdsman keeps a daily account of the quantity sold, and at the end of each month his tale of milk is balanced, and compared with that kept by the purchaser.
Buffaloes give from four to five pounds of milk daily, a smaller quantity than in Bihar; but the "ghi" prepared from it is more highly priced, and more palatable, according to native taste, than "ghi" made from cow's milk. Bull calves are always sold as victims for sacrifices, the Bhuinmali and Rishi eating the flesh, and the latter tanning the hides. As the annual inundation subsides, wild bulls from the neighbouring jungles of Bhowal visit the herds, and after remaining several weeks with the cows, revert to their wild habits.
Widow marriages, and the Gae-dagha ceremony, are no longer observed.
Notes
SeeThe Mahtam
