Volume 3 / Part 3 — KOLI
Reading edition
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice of the caste. 532
2. Subdivisions. 534
3. Exogamous divisions. 535
4. Widow-marriage or divorce. 535
5. Religion. 536
6. Disposal of the dead. 536
7. Social rules. 536
1. General notice of the caste.
Siva kī jholi
Us men ka Koli,
or ‘The Koli was born from Siva’s wallet.’
2. Subdivisions.
3. Exogamous divisions.
4. Widow-marriage or divorce.
5. Religion.
The Kolis of Nimār chiefly revere the goddess Bhawāni, and almost every family has a silver image of her. An important shrine of the goddess is situated in Ichhāpur, ten or twelve miles from Burhānpur, and here members of the tribe were accustomed to perform the hook-swinging rite in honour of the goddess. Since this has been forbidden they have an imitation ceremony of swinging a bundle of bamboos covered with cloth in lieu of a human being.
6. Disposal of the dead.
The Kolis both bury and burn the dead, but the former practice is more common. They place the body in the grave with head to the south and face to the north. On the third day after the funeral they perform the ceremony called Kandhe kanchhna or ‘rubbing the shoulder.’ The four bearers of the corpse come to the house of the deceased and stand as if they were carrying the bier. His widow smears a little ghī (butter) on each man’s shoulder and rubs the place with a small cake which she afterwards gives to him. The men go to a river or tank and throw the cakes into it, afterwards bathing in the water. This ceremony is clearly designed to sever the connection established by the contact of the bier with their shoulders, which they imagine might otherwise render them likely to require the use of a bier themselves. On the eleventh day a Brāhman is called in, who seats eleven friends of the deceased in a row and applies sandal-paste to their foreheads. All the women whose husbands are alive then have turmeric rubbed on their foreheads, and a caste feast follows.
7. Social rules.
The Kolis eat flesh, including fowls and pork, and drink liquor. They will not eat beef, but have no special reverence for the cow. They will not remove the carcase of a dead cow or a dead horse. The social status of the tribe is low, but they are not considered as impure, and Gūjars, Kunbis, and even some Rājpūts will take water from them. Children are named on the twelfth day after birth. Their hair is shaved in the month of Māgh following the birth, and on the first day of the next month, Phāgun, a little oil is applied to the child’s ear, after which it may be pierced at any time that is convenient.