The Gipsy Tribes (Punjab)
Note: Indpaedia prefers the spelling Gypsy. The spelling gipsy is less common but is also accepted as correct. We have used the spelling Gipsy becuase that was the spelling used in the original.
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. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
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The Gipsy tribes
The gipsy tribes, for which the figures will be found in Abstract No. 98 on the opposite page,are hardly to be distinguished from those whom I called the wandering and criminal tribes. They too are vagrants and outcasts, and they too are hereditary workers in grass, straw, and
' Mr. Christie stales, Lowcvcr, that 1 he term Tagu is often used to include Jlifnwars, or rather Dhiuvvar8, aa well as Brahmans. the like. But I Have classed as Gipsies, for want of a better distinction, those tribes who perform in any way, who practise tumbling; or rope-dancing,-, lead about bears and monkeys, and so forth. The gipsy, and apparently all the vagrant tribes, are governed by tribal councils and often appeal to ordeals. A common form of ordeal is that the accused stands in a pond with a pole in his hand. At a given signal he ducks his head ; while another man, honest and trae, starts running at a fair pace for a spot 70 paees distant. If the accused can keep under water while the 140 paces there and back are accomplished, he is accpitted. If not, he has to submit to such penalty as the counril may impose.
The Nat and Bazigar
(Caste Nos. 98 and 89)
The Nat is the typical gipsy of the Panjab. It is possible that there may be properly some distinction between the Nat and the Bazigar ; but the two words are synonymous in general parlance, and I shall discuss the figures together. In the Lahore division indeed, and in some other districts, the two have not been returned separately. Bazigar is a Persian word meaning he who does been or any sort of game or play, but it is applied only to jugglers and acrobats. Some say that the Bazigar is a tumbler and the Nat a rope-dancer ; others that the Bazigar is a juggler as well as an acrobat, while the Nat is only the latter, and it is possible that those who reach the higher ranks of the pro fession may call themselves by the Persian name ; others again say that among the Nats the males only, but among the Bazigars both sexes perform ; and this latter distinction is reported from several districts. On the whole it is perhaps more probable that the Nat is the caste to which both classes belong, and Bazigar an occupational term. In the Dehli and Hissar divisions the word used for Bazigar is Badi, a term which is apparently quite unknown in any other part of the Panjab except Ambala ; and I have classed Badi and Bazigar together.
The Nats then, with whom I include the Bazigars, are a gipsy tribe of vagrant habits who wander about with their families, settling for a few days or weeks at a time in the vicinity of large villages or towns, and con structing temporary shelters of grass. In addition to practising acrobatic feats and conjuring of a low class, they make articles of grass, straw, and reeds for sale ; and in the centre of the Panjab are said to act as Mirasis, though this is perhaps doubtful. They often practise surgery and physic in a small way, and are not free from the suspicion of sorcery. They are said to be divided into two main classes; those whose males only perform as acrobats, and those whose women, called Kabutri, perform and prostitute themselves. About three-quarters of their number returned them selves as Hindus, and most of the rest as Musalmans.
They mostly many by phera, and burn the dead ; but they are really outcasts, keeping many dogs with which they hunt and eat the vermin of the jungles. They are said especially to reverence the goddess Devi, Guru Teg Bahadur, the Guru of the Sikh scavengers, and Hanuman or the monkey god, the last because of the acrobatic powers of monkeys. They very generally trace their origin from Marwar ; and they are found all over the Province except on the frontier, where they are apparently almost unknown. The large numbers returned in Bahawalpur and Montgomery, in the former as Nats and in the latter as Bazigars, is very striking. Their different tribes are governed by a Raja and Rani, or King and Queen, like the gipsy tribes of Europe. The Musalman Nats are said to prostitute their unmarried^ but not their married women ; and when a Nat woman marries, the first child is either given to the grandmother as compensation for the loss of The mothers gains as a prostitute, or is redeem ed by payment of Rs. 30. But this is perhaps the custom with the Pernas rather than with the Nats (see below). Another, and more probable account is, that the first wife married is one of the tribe, and is kept secluded ; after which the MIusalman Nat, who is usually to be found in the towns, will marry as many women as he can procure by purchase from the vagrant tribes or otherwise, and these latter he prostitutes.
The Perna
(Caste No. 164)
The Pernas are also a vagrant tribe of gipsies, exceedingly similar to the Nats or Bazigars. But there is said to be this great distinction, that the Pernas habitually and professedly prostitute their women, which the Nats do not.The Perna women are said to be jugglers and tumblers, and generally perform their acrobatic feats holding a sword or knife to their throats ; but their characteristic occupation is dancing and singing rather than tumbling. The men apparently do not perform, but merely play the drum for the women to dance to. It is not quite clear that the word is anything more than the name of an occupation like Bazigar, for some Pernas are said to be Chuhra by caste. It is possible that they are a true caste, but like many of the vagrant tribes will admit strangers to their frater nity on payment. They are almost all Musalmans, and are said to marry by nikah. They are said to be divided into two classes, baratali and teratali, from the sort of music to which they dance, tal meaning a beat in music. If so, the music with thirteen beats in a bar must be worth listening to as a curiosity. They are probably found almost all over the Province except in the frontier districts ; but in the Lahore division they have been included with Bazigar, and perhaps the same has happened elsewhere, though my papers do not show it.
The Kanjar
(Caste No. 135)
I have taken a liberty with these figures which is I think justified by my information. The Kanjar of the Dehli territory, or as he seems to be called in the Ambala division the Jallad, is a wandering tribe very similar to the Perna ; and in that part of the country a pimp or prostitute is called Kanchan or by some similar name, and never Kanjar. In the remainder of the Panjab the word Kanchan is not used, the wandering tribe of Kanjars is apparently not found, and Kanjar is the ordinary word for pimp or prostitute. Thus I found Kanchan and Kanjar (including Jallad) separately returned for the Dehli, Hissar-, and Ambala divisions, and Kanjar only for the rest of the Province. Now prostitutes are found all over the Province. Accordingly I classed the Kanchan of the three divisions just named, together with the Kanjar of the remainder of the Panjab, under the head Kanchan (Caste No. 9(i), and left only the Kanjar of the Dehli territory under the head we are now discussing. The Kanchans are almost all Musalmans, while The Kanjars are all Hindus except in Sirsa ; and it is probable that the Musalman Kanjar? Shown for Sirsa should also have been classed as Kanchan, and that the Hindus shown as Kanchan are really Kanjars.
The Kanjars of the Dehli territory are a vagrant tribe who wander about the country catching and eating jackals, lizards and the like, making rope and other articles of grass for sale, and curing boils and other diseases. They parti cularly make the grass brushes used by weavers.They are said to divide their girls into two classes ; one they marry themselves, and them they do not prosti tute ; the other they keep for pm-poses of prostitution. The Jalltlds of Ambala are said to be the descendants of a Kanjar family who were attached to the Dehli Court as executioners, and who, their duty being to flog, mutilate, and execute, were called Jallad or skinners,from jild, skin.The Kanjars appear to be of a higher status than the Nat, though they are necessarily outcasts. They worship Mata, whom they also call Kali Mai ; but whether they refer to Kali Devi or to Sitala does not appear ; most probably to the former. They also reverence Guga Pir. Dehli is said to be the Panjab head quarters of the tribe. But the word Kanjar seems to be used in a very loose manner ; it is by no means certain that these Kanjars are not merely a Bawaria tribe ; and it is just possible that they have received their name from their habit of prostituting their daughters, from the Panjabi word Kanjar. The words Kanjar and Bangali also seem often to be used as synonymous. A good deal of information regarding the Kanjars will be found in No. X of 1866 of the Selected Cases of the Panjab Police. In that pamphlet they are called Bawarias. I should probably have done better had I grouped Kanjar with Bawaria, and not with Nat and Perna,
The Hesi
(Caste No. 167)
The Hesi appears to share with the Lohar the distinction of being the only castes recognised among the Buddhists of Spiti, the other classes of that society eating together and intermarrying freely, but excluding these two from social intercourse. The Hesis of Spiti, however, or rather the Bedas as they are there called, the two names referring to the same people, do not appear to have returned themselves as of that caste, as all our Hesis are Hindus, whereas all the people of Spiti except two are returned as Buddhists.
The Hesis are the wandering minstrels of the higher Himalayan valleys. The men play the pipes and kettle-drum, while the women dance and sing and play the tambourine. They are (in Lahul and Spiti) the only class that owns no land. ' The Beda no land and the dog no load ' is a proverbial saying.He is called the 18th caste,or the odd caste which is not required, for no one will eat from the hands of a Hesi. Yet he has his inferiors for he himself will not eat from the hands of aLohar or of a Nath, the Kulu equivalent for Jogi. He is ordinarily a beggar, but some times engages in petty trade ; and to call a transaction a Hesis bargain is to imply that it is mean and paltry. The Hesi or Hensi, as the word is sometimes spelt, is found in Kangra, Mandi, and Suket. To the figures of Table VI IA should be added 201 Hesis in Suket who were left out by mistake, and are shown under Caste No. 208, Table VIII B.
The Garris
(Caste No. 177)
The Garris are returned in Sialkot only. They are said to be a poor caste of strolling actors and mountebanks, mostly Hindu, who have their head-quarters in Jammu, but are not unfre quently found in the Baijwat or plain country under the Jammu hills.
The Qalandari
(Caste No. 121)
The Qalandari is the Kalender of the Arahian Nights. He is properly a holy Mahomedan ascetic who abandons the world and wanders about with shaven head and beard. But the
^ The Kuchband, who make these brashes, are said to be a section of the Kanjai-s who have given up prostitution, form a separate guild, and will not marry with the other sections of the tribe. word is generally used in the Panjab for a monkey-man ; and I have classed him here instead of with faqirs i believe that some of them have a sort of pretence to a religious character ; but their ostensilile occupation is that of leading abont bears, monkeys, and other performing animals, and they are said, like the Kanjars, to make clay pipe-bOwls of superior quality The numbers returned are small except in Gurgaon, where the figures are sus piciously large^; but it is probable that many of these men have returned themselves simply as faqirs. The detailed tables of snb-divisions will when published throw light upon the subject.
The Baddun
(Caste No. 150)
A gipsy tribe of Musalmans returned from the centre of the Pan jab, chiefly in the upper valleys of the Sutlej and Beas. They, like the Kehals, are followers oF Inuun Shafi, and justify by his teaching their habit of eating the crocodile, tortoise and frog. They are considered outcasts by oTher Mahomedans. They work in straw, make pipe-bowls, and their women bleed by cupping. They also are said to lead about bears,, and occasionally to travel as pedlars. They are said to have three clans Wahle, Dhara, and Balare, and to claim Arab origin.
The Gandhila
(Caste No. 158)
The Gandhilas area low vagrant tribe, who are said by Elliott to be '^ a few degrees more respectable than the Bawarias,'^ though 1 fancy that in the Panjab their positions are reversed. They wander about bare-headed and bare-footed, beg, work in grass and straw, catch quails, clean and sharben knives and swords, cut wood, and genei-ally do odd jobs. They are said to eat tortoises and vermin. They also keep donkeys, and even engage in trade in small way. It is said that in some parts they lead about performing bears ; but this I doubt. They have curious traditions which are reported to me from distant parts of the Province, regarding a Kingdom which the tribe once possessed, and which they seem inclined to place beyond the Indus. They say they are under a vow not to wear shoes or turbans till their possessions are restored to them.
