Note 3 — HALBA

Which may be rendered: “The Rāja was of the Chalki race.3 The drum was called Dibdibi. Kosaria Rāwat, Pita Bhatra, Peng Parja and Rāja Muria,4 these four castes came with the Rāja. The tribute paid (to the Rāja) 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 Rājas. So the Halbas did not perhaps come with the Rāja, but they were his guards for a long time. In the Dasahra ceremony a Halba carried the royal Chhatra or Umbrella, and the Rāja 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 Rāja.