Volume 2 / Part 2 — Dhoba
Reading edition
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Exogamous divisions.
3. Marriage customs.
4. Funeral rites.
5. Caste panchāyat and social penalties.
6. Occupation and social customs.
1. General notice.
2. Exogamous divisions.
The caste has twelve exogamous septs, though the list is probably not complete. These appear to be derived from the names of villages. Marriage is forbidden between the Bāghmār and Bāghcharia septs, the Marātha and Khatnāgar and Marālwati septs and the Sonwāni and Sonsonwāni septs. These septs are said to have been subdivided and to be still related. The names Bāghmār and Bāghcharia are both derived from the tiger; Sonnwāni is from Sona-pāni or gold-water, and the Sonsonwāni sept seems therefore to be the aristocratic branch or crême de la crême of the Sonwānis. The children of brothers and sisters may marry but not those of two sisters, because a man’s maternal aunt or mausi is considered as equivalent to his mother. A man may also marry his step-sister on the mother’s side, that is the daughter of his own mother by another husband either prior to or subsequent to his father, the step-sister being of a different sept. This relaxation may have been permitted on account of the small numbers of the caste and the consequent difficulty of arranging marriages.
3. Marriage customs.
The bridegroom goes to the bride’s house for the wedding, which is conducted according to the Hindu ritual of walking round the sacred post. The cost of a marriage in a fairly well-to-do family, including the betrothal, may be about Rs. 140, of which a quarter falls on the bride’s people. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. A pregnant woman stops working after six months and goes into retirement. After a birth the woman is impure for five or six days. She does not appear in public for a month, and takes no part in outdoor occupations or field-work until the child is weaned, that is six months after its birth.
4. Funeral rites.
The dead are usually buried, and all members of the dead man’s sept are considered to be impure. After the funeral they bathe and come home and have their food cooked for them by other Dhobas, partaking of it in the dead man’s house. On the ninth, eleventh or thirteenth day, when the impurity ends, the male members of the sept are shaved on the bank of a river and the hair is left lying there. When they start home they spread some thorns and two stones across the path. Then, as the first man steps over the thorns, he takes up one of the stones in his hand and passes it behind him to the second, and each man successively passes it back as he steps over the thorns, the last man throwing the stone behind the thorns. Thus the dead man’s spirit in the shape of the stone is separated from the living and prevented from accompanying them home. Then a feast is held, all the men of the dead man’s sept sitting opposite to the panchāyat at a distance of three feet. Next day water in which gold has been dipped is thrown over the dead man’s house and each member of the sept drinks a little and is pure.
5. Caste panchāyat and social penalties.
The head of the caste is always a member of the Sonwāni sept and is known as Rāja. It is his business to administer water in which gold has been dipped (sona-pāni) to offenders as a means of purification, and from this the name of the sept is derived. The Rāja has no deputy, and officiates in all ceremonies of the caste; he receives no contribution from the caste, but a double share of food and sweetmeats when they are distributed. The other members of the Panch he is at liberty to choose from any got or sept he likes. When a man has been put out of caste for a serious offence he has to give three feasts for readmission. The first meal consists of a goat with rice and pulse, and is eaten on the bank of a stream; on this occasion the head of the offender is shaved clean and all the hair thrown into the stream. The second meal is eaten in the yard of his house, and consists of cakes fried in butter with rice and pulse. The offender is not allowed to partake of either the first or second meal. On the third day the Rāja gives the offender gold-water, and he is then considered to be purified and cooks food himself, which the caste-people eat with him in his house. A man is not put out of caste when he is sent to jail, as this is considered to be an order of the Government. A man keeping a woman of another caste is expelled and not reinstated until he has put her away, and even then it is said that they will consider his character before taking him back. A man who gets maggots in a wound may be readmitted to caste only during the months of Chait and Pūs.
6. Occupation and social customs.
The Dhobas act as priests of the Gonds and are also cultivators. Their social position is distinctly higher than that of the Gonds and some of them have begun to employ Brāhmans for their ceremonies. They will eat the flesh of most animals, except those of the cow-tribe, and also field-mice, and most of them drink liquor, though the more prominent members have begun to abstain. The origin of the caste is very obscure, but it would appear that they must be an offshoot of one of the Dravidian tribes. In this connection it is interesting to note that Chhattīsgarh contains a large number of Dhobis, though the people of this tract have until recently worn little in the way of clothing, and usually wash it themselves when this operation is judged necessary. Many of the Dhobis of Chhattīsgarh are cultivators, and it seems possible that a proportion of them may also really belong to this Dhoba caste.