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[edit] Rishi

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A title of the patit or degraded priests, who minister to the spiritual wants of the lower castes; a section of the Bhar caste in Manbhum. The term appears to have been borrowed from the Brahmanical system in compara-tively recent times, as the caste has also a set of the totemistic sections characteristic of the Kolarian race.

[edit] Notes

Rishi and Mochi are synonyms of the same caste, but the members repudiate the name of Chamar. There can be no doubt, however, that they belong to the same race, although long residence in Bengal has altered them in several respects.

Buchanan met with a tribe of fishermen in Puraniya called Rishi, and he was of opinion that they were originally an aboriginal tribe of Mithila. Rishi, however, is often used as a pseudonym to hide the real paternity of a caste, thus the Mushahar Dom often calls himself "Rishi-balaka," or son of a Rishi, and the Bengali Chamar tries to pass incognito as a Rishi.

In the census returns of 1872, Rishis are enrolled as Chamars, or Mochis, among the semi-Hinduized aborigines. In Bengal they number 393,490 persons, and are chiefly met with in the twenty-four Pergunnahs, Burdwan, Nadiya, and Jessore, while in Dacca 24,063 are returned.

The origin of the Rishi caste is given in the following legend, related by a Brahman of theirs.

One of the Praja-pati, or mind-born sons of Brahma, was in the habit of providing the flesh of cows and clarified butter, as a burnt offering (Ahuti) to the gods. It was then the custom to eat a portion of the sacrifice, restore the victim to life, and drive it into the forest. On one occasion the Praja-pati, whose wife was pregnant, failed to resuscitate the sacrificial animal, she having clandestinely made away with a portion. Alarmed at this, he summoned all the other Praja-patis, and they sought by divination to discover the cause of the failure. At last they ascertained what had occurred, and as a punishment the wife was cursed, and expelled from their society. The child which she bore was the first Mochi, or tanner, and mankind having lost the power of reanimating cattle slaughtered for food, the good ceased to kill them.

A Brahman was bestowed on the Rishis by Ballal Sen, and the story goes that in the palace of that monarch there was a Brahman, who having made himself especially disagreeable by insisting upon being appointed to one of the newly formed castes, had it intimated to him by the Rajah that he would belong to the caste which should first appear to him in the morning. There was also a Rishi, a celebrated player on the Naqarah, or kettledrum, whose duty it was to sound the reveille. It was easily arranged that the Brahman should first cast his eyes on him when he awoke, and his descendants have ever since ministered to this despised race.

The Rishis of Dacca can give no other history of themselves. In the city they occupy about 450 houses, and in several parts of the district large settlements are found. The subdivisions are numerous, varying in different parts of the country. In Bikrampur they have separated into three ssepts:�

1. Rishi, musicians and basket makers. 2. Chamar, tanners. 3. Baital, showmakers and curriers.

In other quarters, however, they are divided into Bara-bhagiya and Chhota-bhagiya, the latter being chiefly found in Bhowal cultivating the soil, and acting as musicians. It is remarkable that they observe the Sraddha on the eleventh day as the Chandals do, and abstain from skinning the carcasses of their own cattle.

The only gotra is Sandilya, while Rishi is the general title of the caste, but a few, descended from servants of the Nawabs, who received rent-free lands, still style themselves Chaudharis. They have no Dals, or trades unions, but they possess a Panchait, and a president addressed Paramanik, or Moiali.1 Nine-tenths of the caste worship Siv, but imitate the Sudras in most of their religious ceremonies, while others, peculiar to themselves, resemble those of the Chamars. Though utterly vile, they are permitted to make offerings at the shrines of Kali, which a Jogi is not allowed to do. They keep many Hindu festivals, the chief being that in honour of Visva-karma, on the last day of Bhadra. When smallpox prevails, they offer a pig to Sitala, first of all smearing the snout with red lead, and repeating certain incantations, after which it is set free, and anyone can seize it

Like the Chamar, Dhoba, Dosad, and other low castes, the Rishi observe the Jalka Devi worship whenever cholera or other epidemic disease breaks out. The Rishi women, however, only collect contributions in their own quarter of the city, and wear the wreath of plantain, date palm, or Bena1 (Andropogon muri-catus) leaves, for two and a half days, instead of six, as among the Chamars.

Rishis burn their dead, but no religions ceremony is performed at the pyre. On the fourth, tenth, and thirtieth day after death, the Purohit offers "pinda" to the manes of the deceased.

Men and women are impure for thirty days after a birth or death.

A father generally receives from fifty to sixty rupees for his daughter. The bride is dresssd in red garments, and, if rich, rides, but if poor, walks, to the bridegroom's house. Widows still marry, but the offspring of a "Sagai" marriage is degraded, and the sons have to pay a heavy fine before they can obtain wives. The Levirate marriage is unknown at the present day.

Rishis will not touch beef as the Chamara do, but they are very partial to chickens, and regard pork as a delicacy. Like the Chamars they are notorious spirit drinkers and Ganjha smokers.

The female Rishi differs from the Chamain in never acting as a midwife, in wearing shell bracelets instead of huge ones of bell-metal, and in never appearing as a professsonal singer.

Rishis work as tanners, shoemakers, saddlers, musicians, and basket makers. They tan hides like the Chamars, but the only ones they will cure are those of the cow, goat, buffalo, and deer. Their mode of preparing skins is as follows:- The raw hide is rubbed, and then soaked for fifteen to twenty days in a strong solution of lime. It is then deprived of its hair and of any fat that remains, and steeped for six days in acid tamarind juice. Finally, it is put in a vat containing a solution of lac and pounded "Babul" (Acacia), "garan" (Ceriops Roxburghianus), and "Sundari" (Heritiera minor) barks, the hide being after this immersion regarded as properly cured.

The town Rishis buy hides from their brethren resident in those parts of the country where cattle abound. The village Rishis every morning row up and down the rives in their neighbourhood in search of carcasses, and when epidemic diseases attack the herds, they find so much to do, that the villagers attribute the spread of the disease to them. It is, doubtless, often the case that they puncture a healthy cow with an Acacia thorn impregnated with virus, but they are rarely, if ever, detected at this villainous trade. The people, however, firmly believe that they do act in this way.

The Rishi will not touch a corpse, but will skin the carcass of a dead animal. The skin of the buffalo, sacrificed at the Durga Pujah, is their perquisite, and the skinning of the animal often gives rise to bitter quarrels between rival families.

The Rishis make shoes, but of inferior quality to those manufactured by the Chamars, also, famous baskets with rattan (Calamus rotang), from which they derive one of their popular names, "Bet-Mochi," the natives asserting that the baskets are so closely woven that they will hold water. They also collect the roots of the "Dub" grass (Panicum), and manufacture the brush (Manjan) used by weavers for starching the warp. In some parts, the Rishi castrates bull calves, but this they stoutly deny.

The caste has barbers and washermen who are Rishis, and in the city the Hindustani, or Khonta brahman, officiates for them. Illegitimate children are usually brought up to be barbers, or washermen, and wherever the community is a large one no inconvenience is felt.

The Tabla-walah, or drum maker, is always a Rishi. Goats' skins are used for the covering, while cows hides supply the strings for tightening the parchment. On every native drum, at one or both ends, black circles (Khiran) are painted to improve the pitch. The Rishi prepares a paste of iron filings and rice, with which he stains the parchment. At all Hindu weddings the Rishis are employed as musicians, and engaged in bands, as among Muhammadans. Their favourite instruments are drums of various shapes and sizes, the violin, and the pipe.

In former years, the marriage ceremonies of the Rishi were scenes of debauchery and intemperance, but of late intoxicating liquors have been prohibited until all the regular forms have been observed. Even Hindus, who rarely have anything favourable to say of the Rishi, confess that nowadays, owing to some unknown cause, both the Chamars and Rishis have become more temperate and more attentive to their religious duties than formerly.

1 "Bena," in Bengali, "Virana" and Vira-taram" in Sanskrit, are the names of the plant, "Khas-Khas" the Persian for the fibrous roots.

1 Perhaps the Arabic Muwali, one who assists.