Halba
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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.
Halba
Halba,Halbi
A caste of cultivation and farmservants whose home is the south of the Raipur District and the Kanker and Bastar States.from here small numbers of them have spred to Bhandra and parts of Berar .In 1911 they numbered 100,000 persons in the combined provinces.The Halbas have sevrral to their own origin.On these report Mr.Gokul Prasad is as fo Llows.One of these uriyarajas had crected fur scarecrows in his field to keep off the birds.
and they became two men and two women. Next morning they presented themselves before the Raja and told him what had happened. The Raja said, " Since you have come on earth, you must have a caste. Run after Mahadeo and find out what caste you should belong to." So they ran after the god and inquired of him, and he said that as they had excited his and Parvati's attention by waving in
the wind they should be called Halba, from halna, to wave.
This story is clearly based on one of those fanciful punning
derivations so dear to the Brahmanical mind, but the legend about being created from scarecrows is found among other agricultural castes of non-Aryan origin, as the Lodhis. The story continues that the reason why the Halbas came to settle in Bastar and Kanker was that they had accompanied one of the Rajas of Jagannath in Orissa, who was afflicted
with leprosy, to the Sihawa jungles, where he proposed to pass the rest of his life in retirement. On a certain day the Raja went out hunting with his dogs, one of which was quite white.
This dog jumped into a spring of water and came out with his white skin changed to copper red. The Raja, observing this miracle, bathed in the spring himself and was cured of his leprosy. He then wished to return to Orissa, but the Halbas induced him to remain in his adopted country, and he became the ancestor of the Rajas of Kanker. The Halbas are still the household servants of the Kanker family, and when a fresh chief succeeds, one of them, who has the title of Kapardar, takes him to the temple and invests him with the Durbar kl posJiak or royal robes, affix- ing also the tika or badge of office on his forehead with turmeric, rice and sandalwood, and rubbing his body over with ottar of roses. Until lately the Kapardar's family had a considerable grant of rent-free land, but this has now been taken away.
A Halba is or was also the priest of the temple at Sihawa, which is said to have been built by the first Raja over the spring where he was healed of his leprosy. The Halbas are also connected with the Rajas of Bastar, and a suggestion has been made ! that they originally belonged to the Telugu country and came with the Rajas of Bastar from Warangal in the Deccan. Mr. Gilder derives
1 By the Rev. G. K. Gilder of the Methodist Episcopal Mission of Raipur.
the name from an old Canarese word Halbar or Ha/daru, meaning ' old ones or ancients ' or ' primitive inhabitants.' The Halba dialect, however, contains no traces of Canarese, and on the question of their entering Bastar with the Rajas, Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, Diwan of Bastar, writes as follows : In the following saying relating to the coming of the Bastar Rajas, which is often repeated, the Halba's name does not occur
Chalkibans Raja Dibdibi baja. Kosaria Rawat Pita Bhatra. Peng Parja Raja Mutia, Te?idu khuti Pania lava. Which may be rendered : " The Raja was of the Chalki race. 1 The drum was called Dibdibi.
Kosaria Rawat, Pita Bhatra, Peng Parja and Raja Muria,2 these four castes came with the Raja. The tribute paid (to the Raja) was a comb of tendu wood and a lava quail." This doggerel rhyme is believed to recall the circumstances of the immigration of the Bastar Rajas. So the Halbas did not perhaps come with the Raja, but they were his guards for a long time.
In the Dasahra ceremony a Halba carried the royal Chhatra or Umbrella, and the Raja walked under the protection of another Halba's naked sword. A Halba's widows were not sold and his intestate property was not taken over by the Raja. 2. Halba Thus the Halbas occupy a comparatively honourable in n BasIar rS Position in Bastar. They are the highest local caste with and the exception of the Brahmans, the Dhakars or illegitimate descendants of Brahmans, and a few Rajput families.
The reason for this is no doubt that they have become landholders in the State, a position which it would not be difficult for them to acquire when their only rivals were the Gonds. They are moderately good cultivators, and in Dhamtari can hold their own with Hindus, so that they could well surpass the Gond. Traditions also remain in Bastar of a Halba revolt. It is said that during Raja 1 Chalki is said to have been a also be taken from the Chalukya Brahman who gave shelter to the Rajput clan. pregnant fugitive widow of a Raja
2 The Rawats or Ahhs are graziers, and her child was the ancestor of the and the Bhatra, Parja and Muria are Bastar dynasty. But the name may primitive tribes allied to the Gonds.
Bhandara.
Daryao Deo's reign, about 125 years back, the Halbas rebelled and many were thrown down a waterfall ninety feet high, one only of these escaping with his life.
The eyes of some were also put out as a punishment for the oppression they had exercised, and a stone inscription at Donger records the oath of fealty taken by the Halbas before the image of Dantcshwari, the tutelary deity of Bastar, after their insurrection was put down in Samvat 1836 or A.D. 1779. The Halbas were thus a caste of considerable influence, since they could attempt to subvert the ruling dynasty. In Bhandara again the caste have quite a different story, and say that they came from the United Provinces or, according to another version, the Makrai State, where they were of the status of Rajputs and wore the sacred thread. There a girl of their family, of great beauty, was asked in marriage by a Muhammadan king.
The father could not refuse the king, but would not give his daughter in marriage to one not of his own caste. So he fled south and took asylum with the Gond Raja of Chanda, from whom the Halba zamlndars subsequently received their estates. It seems unnecessary to attach any importance to this story ; the tale of the beautiful daughter is most hackneyed, and the whole has probably been devised by the Brahmans to give the Halba zamlndars of Bhandara a more respectable ancestry than they could claim if they admitted having come from Bastar, certainly no home of Rajputs. But if this supposition is correct it is interesting to note how a legend may show a caste as originating in some place with which it never had any connection whatever ; and it seems a necessary conclusion that no importance can be attached to such traditions without corroborating evidence.
The caste have local divisions known as Bastarha, 3. internal Chhattlsgarhia and Marethia, according as they live in s 1™01111"61 ' & J subcastes. Bastar, Chhattlsgarh, or Bhandara and the other Maratha Districts. The last two groups, however, intermarry, so only the Bastar Halbas really form a separate subcaste. But the caste is also everywhere divided into two groups of pure and mixed Halbas. These are known in Bastar and Chhattisgarh as Purait or Nekha, and Surait or Nfiyak, re- spectively, and in Bhandara as Barpangat and Khalpangat or
those of good and bad stock. The Suraits or Khalpangats are said to be of mixed origin, born from Halba fathers and women of other castes. But in past times unions of Halba mothers and men of other castes were perhaps not less fre- quent. These two sets of groups do not intermarry. A Surait Halba will take food from a Purait, but the Puraits do not return the compliment ; though in some localities they will accept food which does not contain salt. The two divisions will take water from each other and exchange leaf- pipes. In Bhandara the Barpangat or pure Halbas have now further split into two groups, the zamlndari families having constituted themselves into a separate subdivision ; they practise hypergamy with the others, taking daughters from them in marriage but not giving their daughters to them.
This is simply of a piece with their claim to be Rajputs, hypergamy being a custom of northern India. 4. Exo- The exogamous sections of the caste afford further gamous evj(j ence f their mixed origin. Many of the names recorded sections. ° -' are those of other castes, as Baretha (a washerman), Bhoyar (Bhoi or bearer), Rawat (herdsman), Barhai (carpenter), Malia (Mali or gardener), Dhakar (Vidur or illegitimate Brahman), Bhandari (barber), Pardhan (Gond), Mankar (title of various tribes), Sahara (Saonr), Kanderi (turner), Agri (Agarwala
Bania), Baghel (a sept of Rajputs), Elmia (from Velama, Telugu cultivators), and Chalki and Ponwar (Chalukya and Panwar Rajputs). It may be concluded that these groups
are descended from ancestors of the caste after which they are named.
There are also a number of territorial and titular names of the usual type, and many totemistic names, as Gho- rapatia (a horse), Kawaliha (lotus), Aurila (tamarind), Lendia (a tree), Gohi (a lizard), Manjur (a peacock), Bhringraj (a black- bird) and so on. In Bastar they revere the animal or plant after which their sept is named and will not kill or injure it. If a man accidentally kills his devak or sacred animal he will tear off a small piece of his cloth and throw it away to make a shroud for the corpse. A few of them will break their earthen pots as if a relative had died in their house, but this is not general. In Bastar the totemistic groups are named barags, and many men also belong to a thok, having some titular name which they use as a surname. Nowadays
marriage is avoided by persons having the same tJwk or sur- name as well as between those of the same barag. In view of the information available the most probable s- Theory theory of the origin of the Halbas is that they were a mixed ° • ^ of caste, born of irregular alliances between the Uriya Rajas the caste, and their retainers with the women of their household servants and between the different servants themselves. Mr. Gokul Prasad points out that many of the names of Halba sections are those of the haguas or household menials of the Uriya chiefs.
The Halbas, according to their own story, came here in attendance on one of the chiefs, and are still employed as household servants in Ranker and Bastar. They are clearly a caste of mixed origin as they still admit women of other castes married by Halba men into the community, and one of their two subcastes in each locality consists of families of impure descent. The Dhakars of Bastar are the illegitimate offspring of Brahmans with women of the country who have grown into a caste, and Mr. Panda Baijnath quotes a proverb, saying that ' The Halbas and Dhakars form two portions of a bedsheet.' Instances of other castes similarly formed are the Audhelias of Bilaspur, who are said to be the offspring of Daharia Rajputs by their kept women, and the Bargahs, descended from the nurses of Rajput families. The name Halba might be derived from hal, a plough, and be a variant for harwaha, the common term for a farmservant in the northern Districts.
This derivation they give themselves in one of their stories, saying that their first ancestor was created from a sod of earth on the plough of Balaram or Haladhara, the brother of Krishna ; and it has also the support of Sir G. Grierson. The caste includes no doubt a number of Gonds, Rawats (herdsmen) and others, and it may be partly occupational, consisting of persons employed as farmservants by the Hindu settlers. The farmservant in Chhattlsgarh has a very definite position, his engagement being permanent and his wages consisting always in a fourth share of the produce, which is divided among them when several are employed. The caste have a peculiar dia- lect of their own, which Dr. Grierson describes as follows : 1 Linguistic Survey, vol. vii. p. Sir G. Grierson at the time of the 331, and a note kindly furnished by census.
" Linguistic evidence also points to the fact that the H albas are an aboriginal tribe, who have adopted Hinduism and an Aryan language. Their dialect is a curious mixture of Uriya, Chhattlsgarhi and Marathi, the proportions vary- ing according to the locality. In Bhandara it is nearly all Marathi, but in Bastar it is much more mixed and has some forms which look like Telugu." If the home of the Halbas was in the debateable land between Chhattlsgarh and the Uriya country to the east and south of the Mahanadi, their dialect might, as Mr. Hira Lai points out, have originated here.
They themselves give the ruined but once important city of Sihawa on the banks of the Mahanadi in this tract as that of their first settlement ; and Uriya is spoken to the east of Sihawa and Marathi to the west, while Chhattlsgarhi is the language of the locality itself and of the country extend- ing north and south. Subsequently the Halbas served as soldiers in the armies of the Ratanpur kings and their posi- tion no doubt considerably improved, so that in Bastar they became an important landholding caste. Some of these soldiers may have migrated west and taken service under the Gond kings of Chanda, and their descendants may now be represented by the Bhandara zamindars, who, however, if this theory be correct, have entirely forgotten their origin. Others took up weaving and have become amalgamated with the Koshti caste in Bhandara and Berar. 6. Mar- Girls are not usually married until they are above nage. |-en years \^ f or nearly adult as age goes in India ; but there is no rule on the subject. Many girls reach twenty without entering wedlock. If the parents are too poor to pay for their daughter's marriage the neighbours will sub- scribe. In Bastar, however, the Uriya custom prevails, and an unmarried girl in whom the signs of puberty appear is put out of caste.
In such a case her father marries her to a mahua tree. The strictness of the rule on this subject among the Uriyas is probably due to the strength of Brahmanical influence, the priestly caste possessing more power and property in Sambalpur and Orissa than in almost any part of India. If a death occurs in the family of the bridegroom just before the date fixed for the wedding, and the ceremonies of purification cannot be completed prior to
it, the bride is formally wedded to an achar ' or mahua tree ; L ' the marriage crown is tied on to the tree, and the bride walks round it seven times.
After the bridegroom's puri- fication the couple are taken to the same tree, and here the forehead of the bridegroom is marked with turmeric paste and rice. The couple sit one on each side of the tree, and the Tikawan ceremony or presentation of gifts by the relatives and friends is performed, and the marriage is con- sidered to be complete. If an unmarried girl goes wrong with an outsider of low caste she is expelled from the community ; but if with a member of a caste from whom a Halba can take water she may be readmitted to caste, pro- vided she has not eaten food cooked in an earthen pot from the hands of her seducer; but not if she has done so.
If there be a child of the seducer she must wait until it be weaned and either taken by the putative father or given away to a Chamar or Gond. The girl can then be given in marriage to any Halba as a widow. Women of other castes married by Halbas are admitted into the community. This happens most frequently in the case of women of the Rawat (herdsman) caste. A match which is commonly arranged where practic- 7. import- able is that of a brother's daughter to a sister's son. And a.n fe ,of the ° sister s son. a man always shows a special regard and respect for his sister's son, touching his feet as to a superior, while, when- ever he desires to make a gift as an offering of thanks or atonement or as a meritorious action, the sister's son is the recipient.
At his death he usually leaves a substantial legacy, such as one or two buffaloes, to his sister's son, the remainder of the property going to his own family. This recognition of a special relationship is probably a survival of the matriarchate, when property descended through women, and a sister's son would be his uncle's heir. Thus a man would naturally desire to marry his daughter to his nephew in order that she might participate in his property, and hence arose the custom of making this match, which is still the most favoured among the Halbas and Gonds, though 1 Buchanania latifolia. are valued because the fruit of the first and the flowers of the second afford 2 Bassia latifolia. Both these trees food. igo HALBA i'art the reasons which led to it have been forgotten for several centuries. 8. The Matches are usually arranged on the initiative of the wedding bov's father through a mutual friend who resides in the ceremony. / . » girl's village, and is known as the Mahalia or matchmaker. When the contract is concluded the boy's father sends a present of fixed quantities of grain to the girl, which are in the nature of a bride-price, and subsequently on an auspicious day selected by the family priest he and his friends proceed to the girl's village.
The girl meets them, standing at the entrance of the principal house, dressed in the new clothes sent on behalf of the bridegroom, and holding out her cloth for the reception of presents. The boy's father goes up to her and smooths her hair with his hand, chucks her under the chin with his right hand, and makes a noise with his lips as if he were kissing her. He then touches her feet, places a rupee on the skirt of her cloth, and retires. The other members of his party follow his example, giving small presents of copper, and afterwards the women of the girl's party treat the bridegroom in the same manner, but they actually kiss him {chumnd).
Betrothals can be held only in the five months from Magh (January) to Jeth (May), while marriages may be celebrated during the eight dry months. The auspicious date is selected by the Joshi or caste-priest, who is chosen by the community for his personal qualities. If the names of the couple do not point to an auspicious union the bridegroom's name may be changed either temporarily or permanently.
The Joshi takes two pieces of cloth, which should be torn from the scarf of the boy's father, and ties up in each of them some rice, areca nuts, turmeric and dub grass {Cynodon dactylori). One of these is marked with red lead, and is intended for the bride, and the other, which is left plain, is for the bridegroom. At the wedding some of this rice with pulse is placed with a twig of mahua in a hole in the marriage-shed and addressed : ' You are the goddess Lachhmi ; you have come to assist in the marriage.' The Halbas, like the other lower castes of Chhattlsgarh, have two forms of wedding, known as the ' Small ' and ' Large,' the former bein^; held at the bridegroom's house with cur-
tailed ceremonies, and being much cheaper than the latter or Hindu marriage proper, which is held at the bride's house.
The ' small ' wedding is more popular among the Halbas, and for this the bride, accompanied by some of her girl and boy friends, arrives at the bridegroom's village in the evening, her parents following her only on the third day. On entering the lands of the village her party begin singing obscene songs filled with abuse of the bridegroom's parents and relatives. Nobody goes to receive or welcome them, and on reaching the bridegroom's house they enter it without ceremony and sit down in the room where the family gods are kept. All this time they continue singing, and the musicians keep up a deafening din in accompaniment. Sub- sequently the bride's party are shown to their lodging, known as the DulJii-kuria or bride's apartments, and here the bride- groom's father visits her and washes her big toes first with milk and then with water.
The practice of washing the feet of guests, which strikes strangely on our minds when we meet it in Scripture, was obviously a welcome attention when travellers went bare-footed, or at most wore sandals, and arrived at their journey's end with the feet soiled and bruised by the rigours of the way. Another of the bridegroom's friends pretends to act as a barber, and shaves all the bride's men friends with a piece of straw as if it were a razor. For the marriage ceremony proper the bride and bridegroom stand facing each other by the marriage hut with a sheet held between them ; the Joshi or caste-priest takes two lamps and mingles their flames, and the cloth between the couple being pulled down the bridegroom drags the bride over to him.
If the wedding is held on a Sunday, Tuesday or Saturday the bridegroom stands facing the east, and if on a Monday, Thursday or Friday, to the north. After this the cloths of the couple are tied together, or the end of the bridegroom's scarf is tucked in the bride's waistcloth, and they go round the marriage-post seven times, the bride following the bride- groom throughout. A plough-yoke is then brought and placed close by the marriage-post and the couple take their seats on it, the bride sitting on the left of the bridegroom. The bundles of rice consecrated by the Joshi are given to them and they throw it over each other. The bridegroom
takes some red lead and smears the bride's face with it, making a line from the end of her nose up across her forehead and along the parting of her hair. He says her name aloud and covers her head with her cloth. This signifies that she is a married woman, as in Chhattlsgarh unmarried girls go about with the head bare. After this the mother and father of the bride come and wash the feet of the couple with milk and water. This ceremony is known as Dharam Tlka, and after its completion the bride's parents will take food in the bridegroom's house, which they abstain from doing from the date of the betrothal up to this washing of the feet.
It is on this account that they do not accompany the bride but only follow her on the third day, but the reason for the rule is by no means clear. On the following day more ceremonies are performed, and the friends of the couple touch their foreheads with rice and make presents to them of cowries.
Last of all the bride's parents come and give them cattle and other articles according to their means. These gifts are known as Tikawan and remain the separate property of the bride which she can dispose of as she pleases. The ceremonies usually extend over four days, the wedding itself taking place on the third. The bride's party then go home, leaving her with her husband, and after a week or so they return and take the couple to the bride's house for the ceremony known as Pinar Dhawai or getting their yellow wedding clothes washed.
The bridegroom stays here two or three weeks, and during this time he must work at building or repairing the walls of his father-in-law's house. The custom of serving for a wife still obtains among the Halbas, and the above rule may perhaps indicate that it was once more general. At the end of the bridegroom's visit his father-in- law gives him a new cloth and pair of shoes and sends him back to his parents' house with his wife. The expenses of the wedding average about fifty rupees for the bride- groom's family and from five to thirty rupees for the bride's family. 9. Going- After the wedding if the bride is grown up she lives with her husband at once ; but if she is a child she goes ceremony. ° back to her parents until her adolescence, when the ceremony of Pathoni or ' Going away ' is performed. On this occasion
some people from the bridegroom's home go to fetch her and their number must be even, so that when she returns with them the party may be an odd one, which is lucky. They take a new cloth for the bride and stay the night at her house ; next morning the bride's parents put some rice, pulse, oil and a comb in a basket for her, and she sets out with the party, wearing her new cloth. But when she gets outside the village this is taken off her and placed in the basket, which she has to carry on her head as far as her husband's house. As she enters his village the people stretch a rope across the way and prevent her passage until her father-in-law gives them a present. On arriving at his house her feet are washed by her mother-in-law, and she is then made to cook the food brought in her basket.
After a fortnight she again goes back to her parents' house and stays with them for another year, before finally taking up her abode with her husband. It has been remarked that this return of a married woman to her parents' house for such lengthened periods is likely to be a pregnant source of immorality, and the advantage of the custom has been ques- tioned ; the explanation may perhaps be that it is an out- come of the joint family system by which young married couples live with the bridegroom's parents, and that the object is to accustom the girl gradually to the habits of a fresh household and the yoke, necessarily irksome, of her mother-in-law. The proverb with reference to a young wife, ' If your husband loves you your mother-in-law can do nothing,' indicates how formidable this may be in the event of any cooling of marital affection ; and it is well known that if she does not please her husband's family a young wife may be treated as little better than a slave.
To throw a young girl, therefore, into a family of complete strangers is probably too severe a trial, and this is the reason of the goings and returnings of the bride after her wedding between her husband's home and her own. The remarriage of a widow must be held during io. Widow- the bright fortnight of the month, and on any odd day of ™a d rnage the fortnight excluding the first. The couple are seated divorce, together on a yoke in a part of the courtyard cleaned with cowdung, and their clothes are tied together, while the VOL. Ill O 194 //ALBA husband rubs vermilion on his wife's hair. A bachelor should not take a widow in marriage, and if he does so he must at the same time also wed a maiden with the regular ceremony, as otherwise he is likely after death to become a masan or evil spirit. In order to avoid this contingency a bachelor who espouses a widow in Ranker is first wedded to a spear. Turmeric and oil are rubbed on his body and on the spear, and he walks round it seven times. Divorce is freely permitted in Chhattlsgarh at the instance of either party and for the most trivial reasons, as a mere allegation of disagreement ; but if a husband puts away his wife when she has not been unfaithful to him he must give her some- thing for her support.
In some localities no ceremony is performed at all, but a wife or husband who tires of wedlock simply leaves the other as the case may be. In Bastar a wife cannot divorce her husband. A divorced woman does not break her glass bangles until she marries again, when new ones are given to her by her second husband. ii. Reii- A large proportion of the Halbas of Chhattlsgarh belong glon- to the KabTrpanthi sect. These are known as Kabirhas and abjure the consumption of flesh and alcoholic liquor ; while the others who indulge in these articles are known as Sakatha or Sakta, that is, a worshipper of Devi or Durga. These latter, however, also revere all the village godlings of Chhattlsgarh. 12. Dis- The dead are always buried by the Kablrpanthis and posal °j, usually by other Halbas, cremation being reserved by the latter as a special mark of respect for elders and heads of families. A dead body is wrapped in a new white cloth and laid on an inverted cot.
The Kablrpanthis lay plantain leaves at the sides of the cot and over the body to cover it. One of the mourners carries a burning cowdung cake with the party. Before burial the thread which every male wears round his waist is broken, the clothes are taken off the corpse and given to a sweeper, and the body is wrapped in the shroud and laid in the grave, salt being sprinkled under and over it. If the dead body should be touched by any person of another caste, the deceased's family has to pay a fine or give a penal caste-feast. After the interment the mourners bathe and return to the deceased's house in their wet clothes.
Before entering it they wash their feet in water, which is kept for that purpose at the door, and chew the leaves of the nlm tree {Melia indica). They smoke their clwngis or leaf-pipes and console the deceased's family and then return home, washing their feet again and changing their clothes at their own houses. On the third day, known as Tij Abakan, the male members of the family with the relatives and mourners walk in Indian file to a river or tank, where they are all shaved by the barber, the sons of the dead man or woman having the entire head and face cleared of hair, while in the case of other relatives, the scalp-lock and moustache may be left, and the mourning friends are only shaved as on ordinary occasions.
For his services the barber receives a cow or a substantial cash present, which he divides with the washerman. The latter subsequently washes all clothes worn at the funeral and on this occasion. On the Akti festival, or commencement of the agricultural year, libations of water and offerings of urad l cakes are made to the spirits of ancestors. A feast is given to women in honour of all departed female ancestors on the ninth day of the Pitripaksh or mourning fortnight of Kunwar (September), and feasts for male ancestors may be held on the same day of the fortnight as that on which they died at any other time of the year.2 Such observances are practised only by the well-to-do. Nothing is done for persons who die before their marriage or without children, unless they trouble some member of the family and appear in a dream to demand that these honours be paid to them. During an epidemic of cholera all funeral and mourning ceremonies are suspended, and a general purification of the village takes place on its conclusion.
If a person has been killed by a tiger, the people go 13. Pro- out, and if any remains of the body are found, these are Ke^Srits burnt on the spot. The Baiga is then invoked to bring of those back the spirit of the deceased, a most essential precaution ^ed a as will shortly be seen. In order to do this he suspends a violent
copper ring on a long thread above a vessel of water and then burns butter and sugar on the fire, muttering incanta-
1 A black pulse. 2 The Hindus number the days of each lunar fortnight separately.
196 HALBA
14. Im-
purity of women.
15. Child-
birth.
tions, while the people sing songs and call on the spirit of the dead man to return. The thread swings to and fro, and at length the copper ring falls into the pot, and this is taken as a sign that the spirit has come and entered the vessel.
The mouth of this is immediately covered and it is buried or kept in some secure place. The people believe that unless the dead man's spirit is secured it will accompany the tiger and lure solitary travellers to destruction. This is done by calling out and offering them tobacco to smoke, and when they proceed in the direction of the voice the tiger springs out and kills them. And they think that a tisrer directed in this manner grows fiercer and fiercer with every person whom it kills. When somebody has been killed by a tiger the relatives will not even remove the ornaments from the corpse, for they think that these would constitute a link by which its spirit would cause the tiger to track them down. The malevolence thus attributed to persons killed by tigers is explained by their bitter wrath at having encountered such an untimely death and consequent desire to entice others to the same.
During the monthly period of menstruation women are spoken of as ' Mund maili ' or having the head dirty, and are considered to be impure for four or five days, for which time they sleep on the ground and not on cots. In Ranker they are secluded in a separate room, and forbidden to cook or to touch the clothes or persons of other members of the family. They must not walk on a ploughed field, nor will the men of their family drive the plough or sow seed during the time of their impurity. On the fifth day they wash their heads with earth and boil their clothes in water mixed with wood ashes. Cloth stained with the menstrua] blood is usually buried underground ; if it is burnt it is supposed that the woman to whom it belonged will become barren, and if a barren woman should swallow the ashes of the cloth the fertility of its owner would be transferred to her. When pregnant women experience longings for strange kinds of food, it is believed that these really come from the child in the womb and must be satisfied if its develop- ment is not to be retarded. Consequently in the fifth
month of a wife's first pregnancy, or shortly before delivery, her mother takes to her various kinds of rich food and feeds her with them. It is a common custom also for pregnant women, driven by perverted appetite, to eat earth of a clayey texture, or the ordinary black cotton soil, or dried clay scraped off the walls of houses, or the ashes of burnt cowdung cakes. This is done by low-caste women in most parts of the Province, and if carried to excess leads to severe intestinal derangement which may prove fatal. A pregnant woman must not cross a river or eat anything with a knife, and she must observe various precautions against the machinations of witches.
At the time of delivery the woman sits on the ground and is attended by a midwife, who may be a Chamar, Mahar or Ganda by caste. The navel cord is burnt in the lying-in room, but the after-birth, known as Phul, is usually buried in a rubbish pit outside the house. The portion of the cord attached to the child's body is also burnt when it falls off, but in the northern Districts it is preserved and used as a cure for the child if it suffers from sore eyes. If a woman who has borne only girl children can obtain the dried navel-string of a male child and swallow it, they believe that she will have a son, and that the mother of the boy will henceforth bear only daughters. This is the reason why the cord is carefully secreted and not simply thrown away.
In Bastar on the sixth or naming day the female relatives and friends of the family are invited to take food at the house. The father touches the feet of the child with blades of dub grass {Cynodon dactyloti) steeped first in milk or melted butter, then in sandal -paste, and finally in water, and each time passes the blade over his head as a mark of respect. The blades of grass are afterwards thrown over the roof of the house, so that they may not be trampled under foot. The women guests then bring leaf-cups containing rice and a few copper coins, which they offer to the mother, the younger ones bowing before her with a prayer that the child may grow as old as the speaker. All the women kiss the child, and the elder ones the mother also. The offerings of rice and coins are taken by the midwife. The names of the Halbas are. of the ordinary type 16. Names.
found in Chhattlsgarh, but at present they often add the termination Sinha or Singh in imitation of the Rajputs. Two names are sometimes given, one for daily use and the other for comparison with that of the girl when the marriage is to be arranged. As already seen, either the bride's or bridegroom's name may be changed to make their union auspicious. When a daughter-in-law comes into her husband's house she is usually not called by her own name, but by some nickname or that of her home, as Jabalpurwali, Raipurwali (she who comes from Jabalpur or Raipur), and so on. Sometimes men of the caste are addressed by the name of the clan or section and not by their own.
A woman must not utter the names of her husband, his parents or brothers, nor of the sons of his elder brother and his sisters. But for these last as well as for her own son-in-law she may invent fictitious names. These rules she observes to show her respect for her husband's relatives. A child must not be called by name at night, because if an owl hears the name and repeats it the child will probably die. The owl is everywhere regarded as a bird of the most evil omen. Its hoot is unlucky, and a house in which its nest is built will be destroyed or deserted. If it perches on the roof of a house and hoots, some one of the family will probably fall ill, or if a member of the household is already ill, he or she will probably die. 17. Social The social customs of the caste present some differ- ences. In Bastar, where they have a fairly high status,
the Purait Halbas abstain from liquor, though they will eat the flesh of clean animals and of the wild pig. The Halbas of Raipur on the other hand, who are usually farmservants, will eat fowls, pigs and rats, and abstain only from beef and the leavings of others. In Bastar, Sunars, Kurmis and castes of similar position will take water from the hands of a Halba, and Kosaria Rawats will eat all kinds of food with them. In Chhattlsgarh the Halbas will accept water from Telis, Kahars and other like castes, and will also allow any of them to become a Halba. In Chhattlsgarh they will take even food cooked with water from the hands of a man of these castes, provided that they are not in their own villages. These differences of custom status.
are probably due to the varying social status of the caste. In Bastar they hold land and behave accordingly, while in Chhattlsgarh they are only labourers. They do not employ Brahmans for ceremonial purposes but have their own caste priest, known as Joshi, while among the Kablrpanthis the local Mahant or Bairagi of the sect takes his place. They have a caste pandiayat or committee, the head- 18.
Caste man of which is known as Kursha ; he has jurisdiction *an over ten or twenty villages, and is usually chosen from the Kotwar, Chanap or Naik sections. It is the duty of the men of these sections to scatter the sonpdni or ' water of gold ' l as an act of purification over persons who have been temporarily put out of caste for social offences. They are also the first to eat food with such offenders on readmission to social intercourse, and thereby take the sins of these persons upon their own heads. In order to counteract the effect of this the purifier usually asks three or four other men to eat with him at his own house, and passes on a part of his burden to them. For such duties he receives a pay- ment of money varying from four annas to a rupee and a half.
Among the offences punished with temporary exclusion from caste are those of rearing the lac insect and tasar silk cocoons, probably because such work involves the killing of the insects and caterpillars which produce the dye and silk. In Bastar a man loses his caste if he is beaten with a shoe except by a Government servant, and is not readmitted to it. If a man seduces a married woman and is beaten with a shoe by her husband he is also finally expelled from caste. But happily, Mr. Panda Baijnath remarks, shoes are very scarce in the State, and hence such cases do not often arise.
They never yoke cows to the plough as other castes do in Bastar, nor do they tie up two cows with the same rope. The dress of the Halbas, as of other Chhattlsgarh castes, 19. Dress, is scanty, and most of them have only a short cloth about the loins and another round the shoulders. They dispense with both shoes and head-cloth, but every man must have a thread tied round his waist. To this thread in former times, Colonel Dalton remarks, the apron of leaves was not 1 It is simply water in which gold has been clipped.
improbably suspended. The women do not wear nose -rings, spangles on the forehead or rings on the toes ; but girl children have the left nostril pierced, and this must always be done on the full moon day of the month of Pus (December). A copper ring is inserted in the nostril and worn for a few months, but must be removed before the girl's marriage. A married woman has a cloth over her head, and smears vermilion on the parting of her hair and also on her fore- head. An unmarried girl may have the copper ring already mentioned, and may place a dab of vermilion on her forehead, but must not smear it on the parting of her hair. She goes bare-headed till marriage, as is the custom in Chhattisgarh.
A widow should not have vermilion on her face at all, noi should she use glass bangles or ornaments about the ankles. She may have a string of glass beads about her neck. A woman's cloth is usually white with a broad red border all round it. The Gonds and Halbas tie the cloth round the waist and carry the slack end from the left side behind up the back and over the head and right shoulder ; while women of higher castes take the cloth from the right side over the head and left shoulder.
Girls are tattooed before marriage, usually at the age of four or five years, with dots on the left nostril and centre of the chin, and three dots in a line on the right shoulder. A girl is again tattooed after marriage, but before leaving for her husband's house. On this occasion four pairs of parallel lines are made on the leg above the ankle, in front, behind, and on the sides. As a rule, the legs are not otherwise tattooed, nor the trunk of the body. Groups of dots, triangles and lines are made on the arms, and on the left arm is pricked a zigzag line known as the sikri or chain, the pattern of which is distinctive.
Teli and Gahra (Ahlr) women also have the sikri, but in a slightly different form. The tattooing is done by a woman of the Dewar caste, and she receives some corn and the cloth worn by the girl at the time of the operation. If a child is slow in learning to walk they tattoo it on the loins above the hips, and believe that this is efficacious. Men who suffer from rheumatism also get the affected joints tattooed, and are said to experience much relief. The tattooing acts no
doubt as a blister, and may produce a temporarily beneficial effect. It may be compared to the bee-sting cure U>v rheumatism now advocated in England. Tattooing is believed to enhance the beauty of women, and it is also said that the tattoo marks are the only ornament which will accompany the soul to the other world. From this belief it seems clear that they expect to have the same body in the after-life. Nearly all the Halbas are now engaged in agri- 21. Occu- culture as tenants and labourers. Seven zamlndari estates pat are held by members of the caste, six in Bhandara and one in Chanda, and they also have some villages in the south of the Raipur and Drug Districts. It is probable that they obtained this property in reward for military service, at the period when they were employed in the armies of the Ratanpur kings and of the Gond dynasty of Chanda.
In the forest tracts of Dhamtari they are considered the best cultivators next to the Telis, and they show themselves quite able to hold their own in the open country, where their villages are usually prosperous. In Bastar they still practise shifting cultivation, sowing their crops on burnt-out patches of forest. Though hunting is not now one of their regular occupations, Mr. Gokul Prasad describes them as catching game by the following method : Six or seven men go out together at night, tying round their feet ghunghunias or two small hollow balls of brass with stones inside which tinkle as they move, such as are worn by postal runners.
They move in Indian file, the first man carrying a lantern and the others walking behind him in its shadow. They walk with measured tread, and the ghunghunias give out a rhythmical harmonious sound. Hares and other small animals are attracted by the sound, and at the same time half-blinded by the light, so that they do not see the line of men. They approach, and are knocked over or caught by the men following the leader.
Halba/Halbi
(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, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
Synonyms: Halbi, Halva, Halvi, Halwa, Holva [Orissa] Groups/subgroups: Bastaria, Chhattisgarhi, Purit or Pure Halba, Surit or Mixed Halba [Madhya Pradesh a nd/or Chhattisgarh] Rakshit, Sahu, Sureit [Orissa]
- Subcastes: Barpangat, Barpangat, Bastarha, Chhatti
sgarhia, Khalpangat, Khalpangats, Marethia, Nekha, Surait [Russell & Hiralal] Surnames: Bende, Daikwad, Kallar, Krishan, Nandanwa r, Pakhale, Peru, Raut, Tirgu [Maharashtra] Bakra, Barobundia, Bhaia, Dera, Jeeram, Kuar, Majhi,Marapalia, Nayak, Nekal, Rana, Samarath, Sukaloo, Sunia [Orissa]
- Exogamous sections: Agri, Aurila, Baghel, Baretha,
Barhai, Bhandari, Bhoyar, Bhringraj, Chalki, Ohaka r, Elmia, Ghorapatia, Gohi, Kanderi, Kawaliha, Lendia, Malia, Manjur, Mankar, Pardhan, Ponwar, Rawat Sahara [Rus sell & Hiralal] Bag (tiger), Bagh, Baradwajpakshi (a kind of bird), Bharadwaj pakshi, Gaduda, Goria pakshi, Goriapaksh i, Honu, Honu (monkey), Kochim, Nag (cobra), Nag Kochim (tor toise) [Orissa] Exogamous units/clans (bans): Bhagel (tiger), Bhart iya, Goria, Kachim (tortoise), Kilkiliya, Nag (snak e), Netam (pig) [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh] Gotra: Kashyap [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh] Exogamous units/lineages (bans): [Madhya Pradesh an d/or Chhattisgarh]
