Bedar
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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.
Bedar
A Small castc of about I 500 persons, belonging notice. J.Q ^j^qI^^ Khandcsh and Hyderabad. Their ancestors were J^indaris, apparently recruited from the different Maratha castes, and when the Pindaris were suppressed they obtained or were awarded land in the localities where they now reside, and took to cultivation. The more respectable Bedars say that their ancestors were Tirole Kunbis, but when Tipu Sultan invaded the Carnatic he took many of them prisoners and ordered them to become Muhammadans. In order to please him they took food with Muhammadans,
1 Based on a paper by Rao Sahib Mr. Adiiriim Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Dhonduji, retired Inspector of Police, office. Akola, and information collected by
and on this account the Kunbis i)ut them out of caste until they should purify themselves. But as there were a lar^^e number of them, they did not do this, and have remained a separate caste. The real derivation of the name is unknown, but the caste say that it is be-dar or ' without fear,' and was i^iven to them on account of their bravery. They have now obtained a warrant from the descendant of Shankar Acharya, or the high priest of Sivite Hindus, permitting them to describe themselves as Put Kunbi or purified Kunbi.^ The community is clearly of a most mixed nature, as there are also Dher or Mahar Bedars.
They refuse to take food from other Mahars and consider themselves defiled by their touch. The social position of the caste also presents some peculiar features. Several of them have taken service in the army and police, and have risen to the rank of native officer ; and Rao Sahib Dhonduji, a retired Inspector of Police, is a prominent member of the caste. The Raja of Surpur, near Raichur, is also said to be a Bedar, while others are ministerial officials occupying a respectable position. Yet of the Bedars generally it is said that they cannot draw water freely from the public wells, and in Nasik Bedar constables are not con- sidered suitable for ordinary duty, as people object to their entering houses.
The caste must therefore apparently have higher and lower groups, differing considerably in position. They have three subdivisions, the Maratha, Telugu and 2. Sub- Kande Bedars. The names of their exogamous sections are anT'°"^ also Marathi. Nevertheless they retain one or two northern marriage customs, presumably acquired from association with the ^^^ °"^^' Pindaris. Their women do not tuck the body-cloth in behind the waist, but draw it over the right shoulder. They wear the choli or Hindustani breast-cloth tied in front, and have a hooped silver ornament on the top of the head, which is known as dJwra. They eat goats, fowls and the flesh of the wild pig, and drink liquor, and will take food from a Kunbi or a Phulmali, and pay little heed to the rules of social impurity. But Hindustani Brahmans act as their priests. Before a wedding they call a Brahman and worship him as a god, the ceremony being known as Deo Brahman. The ' Mr. Marten's C.P. Census Report (19 11), p. 212. rites.
Brahman then cooks food in the house of his host. On the same occasion a person specially nominated by the Brahman, and known as Deokia, fetches an earthen vessel from the potter, and this is worshipped with offerings of turmeric and rice, and a cotton thread is tied round it.
Formerly it is said they worshipped the spent bullets picked up after a battle, and especially any which had been extracted from the body of a wounded person. 3. Funeral When a man is about to die they take him down from his cot and lay him on the ground with his head in the lap of a relative. The dead are buried, a person of importance being carried to the grave in a sitting posture, while others are laid out in the ordinary manner.
A woman is buried in a green cloth and a breast-cloth. When the corpse has been prepared for the funeral they take some liquor, and after a few drops have been poured into the mouth of the corpse the assembled persons drink the rest. While following to the grave they beat drums and play on musical instruments and sing religious songs ; and if a man dies during the night, since he is not buried till the morning, they sit in the house playing and singing for the remaining hours of darkness. The object of this custom must presumably be to keep away evil spirits. After the funeral each man places a leafy branch of some tree or shrub on the grave, and on the thirteenth day they put food before a cow and also throw some on to the roof of the house as a portion for the crows.
