Nat - Revision history

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[[Category:India|N]]
[[Category:Communities|N]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
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 the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.

=Nat=

==Nat, Badi, Dangf-Charha, Karnati, Bazig-ar, Sapepa==

Nat (Sanskrit Nata—a dancer) appears to be
a proper ^ / 1 x
caste. applied indefinitely to a number of groups of vagrant
acrobats and showmen, especially those who make it their
business to do feats on the tight-rope or with poles, and
those who train and exhibit snakes. Badi and Bazigar
mean a rope-walker, Dang-Charha a rope-climber, and
Sapera a snake-charmer.

In the Central Provinces the
Garudis or snake-charmers, and the Kolhatis, a class of
gipsy acrobats akin to the Berias, are also known as Nat,
and these are treated in separate articles. It is almost
certain that a considerable section, if not the majority, of
the Nats really belong to the Kanjar or Beria gipsy castes,
who themselves may be sprung from the Doms.^ Sir D.

Ibbetson says : " They wander about with their families,
settling for a few days or weeks at a time in the vicinity
of large villages or towns, and constructing 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 Punjab
are said to act as Mirasis, though this is perhaps doubtful.

They often practise surgery and physic in a small way and
• This article is partly compiled from notes furnished by Mr. Aduram
Chaudhri and Mr. Jagannath Prasad, Naib-TahsUdars. 2 g^g j^jj_ Kanjar.

are not free from suspicion of sorcery." ^ This account
would just as well apply to the Kanjar gipsies, and the
Nat women sometimes do tattooing like Kanjar or Beria
women. In Jubbulpore also the caste is known as Nat
Beria, indicating that the Nats there are probably derived
from the Beria caste. Similarly Sir H. Risley gives Bazigar
and Kabutari as groups of the Berias of Bengal, and states
that these are closely akin to the Nats and Kanjars of
Hindustan.- An old account of the Nats or Bazigars ^
would equally well apply to the Kanjars ; and in Mr.
Crooke's detailed article on the Nats several connecting
links are noticed.

The Nat women are sometimes known
as Kabutari or pigeon, either because their acrobatic feats
are like the flight of the tumbler pigeon, or on account
of the flirting manner with which they attract their male
customers.'* In the Central Provinces the women of the
small Gopal caste of acrobats arc called Kabutari, and
this further supports the hypothesis that Nat is rather
an occupational term than the name of a distinct caste,
though it is quite likely that there may be Nats who
have no other caste.

The Badi or rope-dancer group again
is an offshoot of the Gond tribe, at least in the tracts
adjoining the Central Provinces. They have Gond septs
as Marai, Netam, Wlka,^ and they have the damrii or drum
used by the Gaurias or snake-charmers and jugglers of
ChhattTsgarh, who are also derived from the Gonds. The
Chhattisgarhi Dang-Charhas are Gonds who say they
formerly belonged to Panna State and were supported by
Raja Aman Singh of Panna, a great patron of their art.
They sing a song lamenting his death in the flower of his
youth. The Karnatis or Karnataks are a class of Nats who
are supposed to have come from the Carnatic. Mr. Crooke
notes that they will eat the leavings of all high castes, and
are hence known as Khushhaliya or ' Those in prosperous
circumstances.' *"

One division of the Nats are Muhammadans and seem to 2. Muhamniadan
1 Punjab Census Report (1881), ^ Asiatic Researches, \o\. \\\., \'iQ2), Nats,
para. 588. by Captain Richardson.
* Tribes and Castes, art. Nat.
2 Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. ^ Crooke, I.e., art. Nat.
Beria. ^ Ibidem.

NAT
3. Social
customs of ^ Qf ^j^g population.
the Nats. o jr jr
Their low
status.

4. Acro-
Ijatic performances.
be to some extent a distinctive group. They have seven
gotras—Chicharia, Damaria, Dhalbalki, Purbia, Dhondabalki,
Karimki and Kalasia. They worship two Birs or spirits,
Halaila Bir and Sheikh Saddu, to whom they sacrifice fowls
in the months of Bhadon (August) and Baisakh (April).
Hindus of any caste are freely admitted into their community,
and they can marry Hindu girls.
Generally the customs of the Nats show them to be the
There is no offence which entails
permanent expulsion from caste.

They will eat any kind
of food including snakes, crocodiles and rats, and also take
food from the hands of any caste, even it is said from
sweepers. It is not reported that they prostitute their
women, but there is little doubt that this is the case ; in the
Punjab ^ when a Nat woman marries, the first child is
either given to the grandmother as compensation for the loss
of the mother's gains as a prostitute, or is redeemed by a
payment of Rs. 30. Among the Chhattlsgarhi Dang-Charhas
a bride-price of Rs. 40 is paid, of which the girl's father
only keeps ten, and the remaining sum of Rs. 30 is expended
on a feast to the caste.

Some of the Nats have taken to
cultivation and become much more respectable, eschewing the
flesh of unclean animals. Another group of the caste keep
trained dogs and hunt the wild pig with spears like the
Kolhatis of Berar. The villagers readily pay for their
services in order to get the pig destroyed, and they sell the
flesh to the Gonds and lower castes of Hindus. Others
hunt jackals with dogs in the same manner. They eat the
flesh of the jackals and dispose of any surplus to the
Gonds, who also eat it.

The Nats worship Devi and also
Hanuman, the monkey god, on account of the acrobatic
powers of monkeys. But in Bombay they say that their
favourite and only living gods are their bread-winners and
averters of hunger, the drum, the rope and the balancingpole.^
The tight-rope is stretched between two pairs of bamboos,
each pair being fixed obliquely in the ground and crossing
each other at the top so as to form a socket over which the
' Ihbet.son, Punjab Census Report
(1886), para. 588.
2 Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xx. p. 186,
quoted in Mr. Crooke's article.

rope passes. The ends of the rope are taken over the
crossed bamboos and firmly secured to the t^round by heavy
pegs. The performer takes another balancing-pole in his
hands and walks along the rope between the poles which are
about 1 2 feet high. Another man beats a drum, and a
third stands under the rope singing the performer's praises
and giving him encouragement.

After this the performer
ties two sets of cow or buffalo horns to his feet, which are
secured to the back of the skulls so that the flat front between
the horns rests on the rope, and with these he walks over
the rope, holding the balancing-rod in his hands and descends
again. Finally he takes a brass plate and a cloth and
again ascends the rope. He places the plate on the rope
and folds the cloth over it to make a pad. He then stands
on his head on the pad with his feet in the air and holds the
balancing-rod in his hands ; two strings are tied to the end
of this rod and the other ends of the strings are held by the
man underneath. With the assistance of the balancing-rod
the performer then jerks the plate along the rope with his
head, his feet being in the air, until he arrives at the end and
finally descends again.

This usually concludes the performance,
which demands a high degree of skill. Women
occasionally, though rarely, do the same feats. Another
class of Nats walk on high stilts and the women show their
confidence by dancing and singing under them. A saying
about the Nats is : Nat ka bachcha to kaldbazi hi karega ;
or ' The rope-dancer's son is always turning somersaults.' ^
The feats of the Nats as tight-rope walkers used ap- 5. Sliding
parently to make a considerable impression on the minds ^^^ ^^
of the people, as it is not uncommon to find a deified Nat, as a char
called Nat Baba or Father Nat, as a village god.

A Natni crops.*^
or Nat woman is also sometimes worshipped, and where two
sharp peaks of hills are situated close to each other, it is
related that in former times there was a Natni, very skilful
on the tight-rope, who performed before the king ; and he
promised her that if she would stretch a rope from the peak
of one hill to that of the other and walk across it he would
marry her and make her wealthy. Accordingly the rope
was stretched, but the queen from jealousy went and cut it
* Temple and Fallon's Hindustani Proverbs, p. 171.
VOL. IV U

half through in the night, and when the Natni started to
walk the rope broke and she fell down and was killed.
She was therefore deified and worshipped. It is probable
that this legend recalls some rite in which the Nat was
employed to walk on a tight-rope for the benefit of the
crops, and, if he failed, was killed as a sacrifice ; for the
following passage taken from Traill's account of Kumaon ^
seems clearly to refer to some such rite
:
" Drought, want of fertility in the soil, murrain in cattle,
and other calamities incident to husbandry are here invariably
ascribed to the wrath of particular gods, to appease
which recourse is had to various ceremonies. In the Kumaon
District offerings and singing and dancing are resorted to
on such occasions.

In Garhwal the measures pursued with
the same view are of a peculiar nature, deserving of more
particular notice. In villages dedicated to the protection of
Mahadeva propitiatory festivals are held in his honour. At
these Badis or rope-dancers are engaged to perform on the
tight-rope, and slide down an inclined rope stretched from the
summit of a cliff to the valley beneath and made fast to posts
driven into the ground.

The Badi sits astride on a wooden
saddle, to which he is tied by thongs ; the saddle is similarly
secured to the bast or sliding cable, along which it runs,
by means of a deep groove ; sandbags are tied to the Badi's
feet -sufficient to secure his balance, and he is then, after
various ceremonies and the sacrifice of a kid, started off; the
velocity of his descent is very great, and the saddle, however
well greased, emits a volume of smoke throughout the greater
part of his progress.

The length and inclination of the
bast necessarily vary with the nature of the cliff, but as the
Badi is remunerated at the rate of a rupee for every hundred
cubits, hence termed a tola, a correct measurement always
takes place ; the longest bast which has fallen within my
observation has been twenty-one tolas, or 2 1 00 cubits in
length. From the precautions taken as above mentioned
the only danger to be apprehended by the Badi is from
breaking of the rope, to provide against which the latter,
commonly from one and a half to two inches in diameter, is
made wholly by his own hand ; the material used is the
1 As. Res. vol. xvi., 1S2S, p. 213.

bhdbar grass. Formerly, if a Badi fell to the ground in his
course, he was immediately despatched with a sword by the
surrounding spectators, but this practice is now, of course,
prohibited. No fatal accident has occurred from the performance
of this ceremony since 181 5, though it is probably
celebrated at not less than fifty villages in each year.

After
the completion of the sliding, the bast or rope is cut up and
distributed among the inhabitants of the village, who hang
the pieces as charms on the eaves of their houses. The hair
of the Badi is also taken and preserved as possessing similar
virtues. He being thus made the organ to obtain fertility
for the lands of others, the Badi is supposed to entail
sterility on his own ; and it is firmly believed that no grain
sown with his hand can ever vegetate.

Each District has
its hereditary Badi, who is supported by annual contributions
of grain from the inhabitants," It is not improbable that
the performance of the Nat is a reminiscence of a period
when human victims were sacrificed for the crops, this being
a common practice among primitive peoples, as shown by
Sir J. G. Frazer in Atlis, Adonis, Osiris.

Similarly the
spirits of Nats which are revered in the Central Provinces
may really be those of victims killed during the performance
of some charm for the good of the crops, akin to that still
prevalent in the Himalayas, The custom of making the
Nat slide down a rope is of the same character as that of
swinging a man in the air by a hook secured in his flesh,
which was formerly common in these Provinces, But in
both cases the meaning of the rite is obscure.
The groups who practise snake-charming are known as 6. Snake-
Sapera or Garudi and in the Maratha Districts as Madari, •^'^^""^•'S'
Another name for them is Nag-Nathi, or one who seizes a
cobra.

They keep cobras, pythons, scorpions, and the
iguana or large lizard, which they consider to be poisonous.
Some of them when engaged with their snakes wear two
pieces of tiger-skin on their back and chest, and a cap of
tiger-skin in which they fix the eyes of various birds. They
have a hollow gourd on which they produce a kind of music
and this is supposed to charm the snakes. When catching
a cobra they pin its head to the ground with a stick and
then seize it in a cleft bamboo and prick out the poison292

fangs with a large needle. They thhik that the teeth of
the iguana are also poisonous and they knock them out
with a stick, and if fresh teeth afterwards grow they believe
them not to contain poison. The python is called Ajgar,
which is said to mean eater of goats.

In captivity the
pythons will not eat of themselves, and the snake-charmers
chop up pieces of meat and fowls and placing the food in
the reptile's mouth massage it down the body. They feed
the pythons only once in four or five days. They have
antidotes for snake-bite, the root of a creeper called kalipdr
and the bark of the karheya tree. When a patient is
brought to them they give him a little pepper, and if he
tastes the pungent flavour they think that he has not been
affected by snake-poison, but if it seems tasteless that he
has been bitten.

Then they give him small pieces of the
two antidotes already mentioned with tobacco and 2-|- leaves
of the 711111 tree ^ which is sacred to Devi. On the festival
of Nag-Panchmi (Cobra's Fifth) they worship their cobras
and give them milk to drink and then take them round the
town or village and the people also worship and feed the
snakes and give a present of a few annas to the Sapera.
In towns much frequented by cobras, a special adoration is
paid to them.

Thus in Hatta in the Damoh District a
stone image of a snake, known as Nag-Baba or Father
Cobra is worshipped for a month betore the festival of Nag-
Panchmi. During this period one man from every house
in the village must go to Nag-Baba's shrine outside and
take food there and come back. And on Nag-Panchmi the
whole town goes out in a body to pay him reverence, and it
is thought that if any one is absent the cobras will harass
him for the whole year. But others say that cobras will
only bite men of low caste.

The Saperas will not kill a
snake as a rule, but occasionally it is said that they kill one
and cut off the head and eat the body, this being possibly
an instance of eating the divine animal at a sacrificial meal.
The following is an old account of the performances of
snake-charmers in Bengal : '"
" Hence, on many occasions throughout the year, the
1 Melia iiidica. by the Rev. Bihari Lai De, Calcutta
2 Bengali Festivals and Holidays, Review, vol. v, pp. 59, 60.
iiiJinosc. Coiio., Dtti'y.

[[File: nat.png| |frame|500px]]

dread Manasa Devi, the queen of snakes, is propitiated by
presents, vows and religious rites. In the month of Shrabana
the worship of the snake goddess is celebrated with great
eclat.

An image of the goddess, seated on a water-lily,
encircled with serpents, or a branch of the snake -tree (a
species of Euphorbia), or a pot of water, with images of
serpents made of clay, forms the object of worship. Men,
women and children, all offer presents to avert from themselves
the wrath of the terrific deity.

The Mais or snakecatchers
signalise themselves on this occasion. Temporary
scaffolds of bamboo work are set up in the presence of the
goddess. Vessels filled with all sorts of snakes are brought
in. The Mais, often reeling with intoxication, mount the
scaffolds, take out serpents from the vessels, and allow them
to bite their arms. Bite after bite succeeds ; the arms run
with blood ; and the Mais go on with their pranks, amid
the deafening plaudits of the spectators.

Now and then they
fall off from the scaffold and pretend to feel the effects of
poison, and cure themselves by their incantations. But all is
mere pretence. The serpents displayed on the occasion and
challenged to do their worst, have passed through a preparatory
state. Their fangs have been carefully extracted
from their jaws. But most of the vulgar spectators easily
persuade themselves to believe that the Mais are the chosen
servants of Siva and the favourites of Manasa.

Although
their supernatural pretensions are ridiculous, yet it must be
confessed that the Mais have made snakes the subject of
their peculiar study. They are thoroughly acquainted with
their qualities, their dispositions, and their habits. They
will run down a snake into its hole, and bring it out thence
by main force. Even the terrible cobra is cowed down by
the controlling influence of a Mai.

When in the act of bringing
out snakes from their subterranean holes, the Mais are
in the habit of muttering charms, in which the names of
Manasa and Mahadeva frequently occur ; superstition alone
can clothe these unmeaning words with supernatural potency.
But it is not inconsistent with the soundest philosophy to
suppose that there may be some plants whose roots are
disagreeable to serpents, and from which they instinctively
turn away. All snake-catchers of Bengal are provided with

a bundle of the roots of some plant which they carefully
carry along with them, when they set out on their serpenthunting
expeditions. When a serpent, disturbed in its hole,
comes out furiously hissing with rage, with its body coiled,
and its head lifted up, the Mai has only to present before it
the bundle of roots above alluded to, at the sight of which
it becomes spiritless as an eel. This we have ourselves
witnessed more than once."
These Mais appear to have been members of the
aboriginal Male or Male Paharia tribe of Bengal.

← Older revision		Revision as of 20:38, 29 November 2016
Line 430:		Line 430:
	These Mais appear to have been members of the		These Mais appear to have been members of the
	aboriginal Male or Male Paharia tribe of Bengal.		aboriginal Male or Male Paharia tribe of Bengal.
		+	=Nat=
		+	(From ''People of India/ National Series Volume VIII.'' Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com]. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
		+
		+	Synonyms: Bazigar, Gulgulia, Sapera [Bihar and/or Jharkhand]
		+	Dimrichia, Jagmores, Kanaraha, Kanaujia, Khatanga, Lakarabadi, Madraulaha, Nimauraha, Pachbaria [Madhya
		+	Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
		+	Natta [West Bengal]
		+	Badi, Bazigar, Dang-Charha, Karnati, Sapera [Russell & Hiralal]
		+	Groups/subgroups: Banwaria, Chhabhayia, Gulgulia, Kathbhangi, Kazarhatia, Kongarh, Kororhia, Lodhra, Nituria,
		+	Pusthia, Rarhi, Rathor, Tikulhara, Tirkuta [Bihar and/or Jharkhand]
		+	Bratya Kshatriya, Bratya Nat, Gawar Nat, Karwal Nat, Manchrang, Nat, Sratya Nat [West Bengal]
		+	Titles: Prasad [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
		+	Surnames: Gandharva, Lai, Mangta, Prasad, Rathor [Bihar and/or Jharkhand]
		+	Nat, Prasad [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
		+	Barman, Nandi, Natta, Roy, Sarkar [West Bengal]
		+	*Exogamous groups (gotra): Chicharia, Damaria, Dhalbalki, Dhondabalki, Kalasia, Karimki, Purbia [Russell & Hiralal]
		+	Oimrichiya, Jagmora, Kanaraha, Kanaujia (dervied from place name), Khatanga, Madraulaha, Nadbor, Nimauraha,
		+	Pachbariya [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
		+	Banuth in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, Bero, Chango [H.A. Rose]
		+	Bahunaina, Deodianaik, Gauharna, Ghughasiya, Jaghat (Badi), Jhinjhariya, Jimichhiya, Makriyana (Bajaniya), Marai,
		+	Neshtri, Neta, Netam, Oika, Panchhiya, Sarai (Kalabaz), Ure [W. Crooke]
		+	Gotra: Bharadwaj [Bihar and/or Jharkhand]
		+	Alimman, Bharadwaj, Kashyap [West Bengal]
		+	*Sections: Badi Nat, Bajaniya Nat, Brijbasi, Byadha Nat, Chamazmangta, Deodinaik, Eastern, Gagoliya, Gara Nat,
		+	Gonha, Gouharna (Karnataka), Gual, Jogila, Kabutara, Kalabar, Kalabaz, Kapariya Karnataka Nat, Kashmiri Nat,
		+	Lohangi Nats, Mahawat, Mahawat Nat, Makriyana, Malar Nat, Mirdaha, Nat, Rathaur, Sanpaneriya, Sapera,
		+	Suganaik, Tasmabaz, Turkata Pahlwan (Mahawat) Waniawaraha in the districts of North Western Provinces [W.
		+	Crooke]

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 From '''The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India '''
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 Suganaik, Tasmabaz, Turkata Pahlwan (Mahawat) Waniawaraha in the districts of North Western Provinces [W.
 Crooke]

Nat - Revision history

Jyoti at 10:05, 17 August 2021

Pdewan at 20:38, 29 November 2016

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in1916 its contents related only ..."

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in
1916 its contents related only ..."