Dom - Revision history

Pdewan: /* Social status */

2015-05-28T21:23:07Z

‎Social status

Pdewan: /* In Behar */

2015-05-28T21:22:30Z

‎In Behar

Pdewan: /* Traditions of origin */

2015-05-28T21:21:47Z

‎Traditions of origin

Pdewan: Created page with "=Dom= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This section has been extracted from
'''THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL.'''
By H.H. RISLE..."

2015-05-28T21:21:06Z

Created page with "=Dom= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%"> This section has been extracted from<br/> '''THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL.''' <br/> By H.H. RISLE..."

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 The degraded position forced upon all Doms by reason of the
 functions which some or them perform is on the
-Whole acquiesced in by the   entire caste, most of whom, however, follow the comparatively cleanly occupation or making baskets and mats. rraking rood as the test of social status, it will be seen that Doms eat beef,l pork, horse-flesh, fowls, ducks, field-rats, and the flesh of animals which have died a natural death. All of them, moreover, except the Bansphor and Chapariya sub-castes, will eat the leavings of men of other castes. To this last point one exception must be noted. No Dom will touch the leavings of a Dhobi, Q nor will he take water, sweetmeats, or any sort of food or drink from a man of that caste. The aversion with which the Dhobi is regarded i so pronounced that Doms or Behar have assured me that they would not take food !rom a Muham-madan who had his water fetched for him by a washerman of his own Religion. The reason is obscure. Some people say the Dhobi is deemed impure because he washes women's clothes after childbirth; but this fact, though conclusive enough for the average Hindu, would not, I imagine, count for much with a Dom. Moreover, the Doms themselves say nothing of the kind, but tell a very singular story to account for their hatred of the Dhobis. Once upon a time,
+Whole acquiesced in by the   entire caste, most of whom, however, follow the comparatively cleanly occupation or making baskets and mats. rraking rood as the test of social status, it will be seen that Doms eat beef,l pork, horse-flesh, fowls, ducks, field-rats, and the flesh of animals which have died a natural death. All of them, moreover, except the Bansphor and Chapariya sub-castes, will eat the leavings of men of other castes. To this last point one exception must be noted. No Dom will touch the leavings of a Dhobi, Q nor will he take water, sweetmeats, or any sort of food or drink from a man of that caste. The aversion with which the Dhobi is regarded i so pronounced that Doms or Behar have assured me that they would not take food !rom a Muham-madan who had his water fetched for him by a washerman of his own Religion. The reason is obscure. Some people say the Dhobi is deemed impure because he washes women's clothes after childbirth; but this fact, though conclusive enough for the average Hindu, would not, I imagine, count for much with a Dom. Moreover, the Doms themselves say nothing of the kind, but tell a very singular story to account for their hatred of the Dhobis. Once upon a time.
 In Murshedabad and Eastern Bengal they profess to abstain from beef and hold themselves superior to Muchis and BaUl'is for so doing. In Assam buffalo meat is also forbidden.
 Some Doms say they will not eat the leavings of Dosadhs and ChamBrs, but this refinement is not general.
-they say, Supat Bhakat, the ancestor of the Doms, was retul'lling tired and hungry from a long journey. On his way he met a Dhobi going along with a donkey carrying a bundle of clothes, and a~ked llim for food and ill•ink. The Dhobi would give him nothing and abused him into the bargain, whereupon Sup at Bhakat fell upon the Dhobi, ill'ove him away with blows, killed his donkey, and cooked and ate it on the spot. After he had. eaten he repented of what he had done, and seeing that it was all the Dhobi's fault declared him and his caste to be accursed for the Doms for ever, so that a Dom should never take food From a Dhobi or eat in his house. The legend may perhaps be a distorted version of the breach of some primitive taboo in which Dhobis and donkeys somehow played a part. Doms will not touch a donkey, but the animal is not regarded by the caste in the light of a totem. In this connexion I may mention the curious fact that the Ankuria. and Bisdelia Doms of Birbhum will not hold a horse or kill a dog, nor ,will they use a dao with a wooden handle, explaining that their ancestors always worked with handleless daDS, and that they are bound to adhere to the ancient custom. The prej udice against killing a dog seems at first sight to suggest some connexion with the Bauris; but it may equally arise
+they say, Supat Bhakat, the ancestor of the Doms, was retul'lling tired and hungry from a long journey. On his way he met a Dhobi going along with a donkey carrying a bundle of clothes, and asked llim for food and ill•ink. The Dhobi would give him nothing and abused him into the bargain, whereupon Sup at Bhakat fell upon the Dhobi, ill'ove him away with blows, killed his donkey, and cooked and ate it on the spot. After he had. eaten he repented of what he had done, and seeing that it was all the Dhobi's fault declared him and his caste to be accursed for the Doms for ever, so that a Dom should never take food From a Dhobi or eat in his house. The legend may perhaps be a distorted version of the breach of some primitive taboo in which Dhobis and donkeys somehow played a part. Doms will not touch a donkey, but the animal is not regarded by the caste in the light of a totem. In this connexion I may mention the curious fact that the Ankuria. and Bisdelia Doms of Birbhum will not hold a horse or kill a dog, nor ,will they use a dao with a wooden handle, explaining that their ancestors always worked with handleless daDS, and that they are bound to adhere to the ancient custom. The prej udice against killing a dog seems at first sight to suggest some connexion with the Bauris; but it may equally arise
 from the fact that one of the duties of scavenging Doms in towns is to kill ownerless dogs.
 == Occupation==
 Doms believe their original profession to be the making of . baskets and mats, and even the menial and

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 Similar confusion prevails in Behar under the regime of the sister's son, only with this difference, that the
 advance in the direction of Hinduism seems to be on the whole less conspiouous than in Bengal. Mahadeva, Kali, and the river Ganges receive, it is true, sparing and infrequent homage, but the working deities of the caste are Syam Singh, whom some hold to be the deified anoestor of all Dams, Rakat Mala, Gbihal or Gohil, Goraiya, Bandi, Lakeswar, Dihwar, Dak, and other ill-defined and primitive shapes, which have not yet gained admis¬sion into the orthodox pantheon. A.t Deodha, in Darbhanga, Syam Singh has been honoured with a special temple; but usually both he and the other gods mentioned above are represented by lumps of dried clay, set up in a round space smeared with cow-dung. inside the house, under a tree or at the village boundary. Before
-these lumps, formless as the oreed of the worshipper who has moulded them, pigs are saorificed and shang drink offered up at festivals, marriages, and when disease threatens the family or its live-stock. The circle of these godlings, as Mr. Ibbetson has excellently called them, is by no means all exclusive one, and a common custom showR how simply and readily their number may be added to. If a man dies of snake-bite, say the Magahiya. Dams of the Gya district, we worship his spirit as a Sampm•i.l/a, lest he should come back and give us bad dreams, we also worship the snake who bit him, lest the snake•god should serve us in like fashion. Any man therefore conspicuous enough by his doings in life or for the manner of his death to stand a chance of being dreamed of among a tolerably large circle is likely in course of time to take rank as a god. Judging, indeed, from the antecedents of the caste, Syam Singh himself may well have been nothing more than a successful dacoit, whose career on earth ended in some sudden or tragic fashion, and who lived in the dreams aT his brethren long enough to gain a place in their rather disreputable pantheon. Systematic robbery is so far a recognised mode of life among the Magahiya Dams that it has impressed itself on their Religion, and
+these lumps, formless as the oreed of the worshipper who has moulded them, pigs are saorificed and shang drink offered up at festivals, marriages, and when disease threatens the family or its live-stock. The circle of these godlings, as Mr. Ibbetson has excellently called them, is by no means all exclusive one, and a common custom showR how simply and readily their number may be added to. If a man dies of snake-bite, say the Magahiya. Dams of the Gya district, we worship his spirit as a Sampm•i.l/a, lest he should come back and give us bad dreams, we also worship the snake who bit him, lest the snake•god should serve us in like fashion. Any man therefore conspicuous enough by his doings in life or for the manner of his death to stand a chance of being dreamed of among a tolerably large circle is likely in course of time to take rank as a god.
 a distinct ritual is ordained for observance by those who go forth to commit a burglary. The object of veneration on these occasions is Sansari Mai, whom some hold to be a form of Kali, but who seems rather to be the earth-mother known to most primitive Religions. No image, not even the usual lump aT clay, is set up to represent the goddess: a circle one span and four fingers in diameter is drawn on the ground and smeared smooth with cowdung. Squatting in front of this the worshipper gashes his left arm with the curved Dam knife (kata1'i), and daubs five streaks of blood with his finger in the centre of the circle, praying in a low voice that a dark night may aid hia
 designs; tbat his booty may be ample; and that he and his gang may
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 "Labra movet metuens andiri: pulchra Laverna,
 Da mihi fal1ere, da justo sanctoque videri,
 Noctem peccatis et fraudibus objice nubem,"2
 ==Funeral ceremonies==

@@ Line 33: / Line 33: @@
 castle of the Dom lady." It should be noted that Sir Henry Elliot misunder¬stands Buchanan, who nowhere gives it as his own opinion that the Doms are the same as the Domkatar section of the Babhan caste, though he mentions (ii, 471) without comment a popular tradition to that effect.
   Notes Oil tlte Races of Avadlt (Oudlt), p. 24
-Out of this somewhat profitless discussion there seems to emerge a general consensus of opinion that the Doms belong to one of the races whom, for convenience of expression, we may call the aborigines of India. Their personal appearance bears out this opinion. Mr. Beames describes the Magahiya Doms of Ohamparan as "small and dark, with long tresses of unkempt hair,and the peculiar glassy eye of the non-Aryan autochthon j" J and Mr. Sherring remarks that" dark¬complexioned, low of stature, and somewhat repulsive in appearance, they are readily distinguishable from all the better castes of Hindus." 2 The type, however, as is the case with most widely-diffused castes, seems to display appreciable variations. In Eastern Bengal, according to Dr. Wise, the Dom's hair is long, blaok, and coarse, while his complexion is oftener of a brown rather than a black hue j and among the Magahiya Doms whom I have seen in Behar only a small proportion struck me as showing any marked resemblances to the aborigines of Chota Nagpur, who are, I suppose, among the purest specimens of the non-Aryan races of India. On the whole, however, the prevalent type of physique and complexio~ seems to mark the
+Out of this somewhat profitless discussion there seems to emerge a general consensus of opinion that the Doms belong to one of the races whom, for convenience of expression, we may call the aborigines of India.
 caste as not of Aryan descent, although evidence is wanting to counect it with any compact aboriginal tribe of the present day. The fact that for centuries past they have been condemned to the most menial duties, and have served as the helots of the entire IIindu community, would of itself be sufficient to break down what¬ever tribal spirit they may once have possessed, and to obliterate all structural traces of their true origin.
 ==Internal structure: endogamy==
 The Dom community is a large one, and the intrioacy of its internal organization is doubtless due for the most part to the large area over which the caste is distributed. The sub-castes and sections are given in a tabular form in Appendix I. About most of these there is very little to be said. Enquiry into the origin of sub-castes is usually a difficult and unfruitful process, and it is attended with peculiar difficulties in the case of a caste regarded by all Hindus with extreme repulsion, and destitute of the social pride which delights to recall the reasons for minute internal divisions. The Maga¬hiya Doms of Behar have a legend that once upon a time Mahadeva and Parvati invited all the castes to a feast. Supat Bhakat, the ancestor of the Doms, cnme late, and being very hungry, mixed up and ate the food which the others had left. His behaviour was deemed so scandalous that he and his descendants were straightway degraded and condemned to eat the leavings of all other castes. Even at the present day if a Dom wbo comes to beg i asked to what caste ho belongs, the answer will invariably be " Jhuta-khai," or eater of leavings. This myth is uuknown to the Doms of Central and W estern Bengal, who trace their origin to a common ancestor called Kalubir, the son of a Ohandal woman by her Let3 husband. From his four sons, Pranbir, Manbir, Bhanbir, and SMnbir, the sub-castes A:nkuria, Bisdelia, Bajunia, and Magahiya ru:e said to

Dom - Revision history

Pdewan: /* Social status */

Pdewan: /* In Behar */

Pdewan: /* Traditions of origin */

Pdewan: Created page with "=Dom= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This section has been extracted from '''THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL.''' By H.H. RISLE..."

Pdewan: Created page with "=Dom= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This section has been extracted from
'''THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL.'''
By H.H. RISLE..."