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THE CASTES AND TRIBES
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H. E. H. THE ..."

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=Machinde Bhois=
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This article is an extract from 

THE CASTES AND TRIBES 

OF 

H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS 

BY 

SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN 

Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and 

Middle Temple, London. 

One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court 

of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. 

BOMBAY 

THE TlMES PRESS 

1920 
***** 
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''with the contents of this article.'' 
''Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by '' 
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the Facebook page, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com]. ''All information used will be duly acknowledged.''
</div>
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[[Category:India|M]]
[[Category:Communities|M]]

==General Description==

The Machinde Bhois are mostly fisher-
men, but are also engaged as palanquin bearers and domestic servants.
The females soak and parch grain. The members of the caste use
donkeys for carrying burdens and are hence looked down upon by
the Telugu Bhois. The Maratha and Machinde Bhois occupy the
same social rank among the Maratha castes as the Telugu Bhois do
among the Telugu caste. They eat the flesh of fowl and sheep and
drink spirituous and fermented liquors, but abstain from beef and pork.

==Manners and Customs==

In the Adilabad District, especially in
the Talukas of Jangaon, Rajura and Shirpur, Marathi-speaking Bhois
are found, but these are entirely distinct in their manners and customs
from the Maratha Bhois of the Marathawada Districts. It appears
that the former are the descendants of those Bhois who came with the
Maratha conquerors, settled with them in the Berar and Nagpur
provinces and subsequently emigrated to the neighbouring territory in
H. H. the Nizam's Dominions. They are divided into two sub-
castes, Bendore and Bhanare, who are said to eat with each other but
not intermarry. These are broken into exogamous sections, which
consist of family names resembling those of the local Maratha Kunbis.
A man cannot marry a woman of his own section. He may marry the
daughter of his mother's brother or his father's sister and two sisters
may marry the same man, provided the elder is married first. Both
infant and adult marriages are practised by the caste. Sexual inter-
course before marriage is tolerated, but punished with a small fine.
If, however, the girl becomes pregnant before marriage, she is
required to disclose the name of her seducer, who is compelled to
marry her by the caste council. Polygamy is allowed.

==Marriage==

The marriage ceremony takes place towards sun-
down, at the bridegroom's house, to which the girl is escorted in
procession on horseback by her people. Under the marriage booth
is a circular platform built of earth with a post of salai
(Bostcellia thmijera) planted ^jn the centre. This central
post is surrounded by earthen vessels, and the bride-
groom facing the east and the bride facing ,the west, with the
post in their middle, are wedded by a Brahman priest. A man of
the washerman caste provides threads for marriage bracelets, which
are tied by the bridal pair on each other's wrists. On the third
day, the bridegroom dressed in the bride's clothes and the bride
in the bridegroom's are paraded in procession, after which they are
mounted on the backs of their respective maternal uncles, who dance
to the accompaniment of drums and go five times round the earthen
platform. The ' bride-price ' to the amount of Rs5, is paid to the
girl's father. Re-marriage of widows is permitted and celebrated
on a dark night of any month. Women are divorced and are
subsequently allowed to marry again by the same rite as widows.

==Religion and Funerals==
Khudbhan, the favourite; deity of the
caste, is worshipped every day. The other deities honoured are the
god Mahadeva of the Hindu pantheon and the animistic deity
Pochamma, who presides over smallpox. The spirits of ancestors
are also propitiated. The dead are either burnt or buried. When
a person is on the point of death, ambil, or gruel, is poured into his
mouth. Mourning is observed for 5 days. No Sradha ceremony is
celebrated, but an image of the deceased is embossed on a meta[
plate and installed in the god's room.

==Social Status and Occupation==

Their social position may be
determined by the fact that they will eat from the hands of the Kunbis,
Malis, Dhangars and Kumbhars, while the Kunbis will accept
water only, but nothing else, from a member of the caste. The
members of the caste eat the flesh of goats, sheep, fowls, hares, deer,
scaly and scaleless fish and great lizards and drink spirits. Their
hereditary occupation is fishing, palanquin bearing and working as
domestic servants. Some of them have taken to cultivation. They
have a caste Panchayat to which social disputes are referred.

==Distribution==

The following statement shows the number and
distribution of the Bhois in 1911 : —
[[File: mara.PNG ||frame|500px]]
[[File: mara1.PNG ||frame|500px]]

Machinde Bhois: Deccan - Revision history

Pdewan: Created page with "=Machinde Bhois= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE ..."

Pdewan: Created page with "=Machinde Bhois= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article is an extract from
THE CASTES AND TRIBES
OF
H. E. H. THE ..."