Note 80 — C

Religion. 5. To the east of the Province they very seldom belong to any recognised Hindu sect. Devi and the Pânchonpîr are their tribal deities. Devi is worshipped on the 14th of Phâlgun with an offering of cocoanuts, sweets (batâsha, halwa), cakes (pûri) and garlands of flowers. The Pânchonpîr are honoured with sweet cakes (malîda) and loin-cloths, which the worshippers put on after offering them to the godlings. To the West the Relis are Nânakpanthis and the Golas Vaishnavas. The Relis worship Nânak especially on the Ganga Sâtwîn and at the Basant Panchami, when the halwa sweetmeat is offered to him and then distributed among the worshippers. Women especially worship Shaikh Saddu. In Bulandshahr they worship Mâta or the small-pox goddess, Mîrân Sâhib, and Châmar Devi. Their tribal saint is Nâmdeva, of whom they know nothing save that he was the first printer. One person of this name is one of the authors of the Sikh Granth and another or perhaps the same is regarded by the Marâthas as their oldest poet, and is said to have been a contemporary of Kabîr, and to have lived in the twelfth or thirteenth century. Of the Nâmdeopanthis who recorded themselves to the number of 10,358 at the last Census, the unity of the deity and the uselessness of ceremonial appear to be the leading characteristics of the creed. Like Râêdâsi Chamârs and Senapanthi Nâis, the Nâmdeopanthi cotton printers have been separated from their caste-fellows by the superior purity of their belief, and now form a separate sub-caste, shown in the caste returns as Nâmdeobansi.80 They employ Brâhmans as their priests; to the east these are usually Sarwariyas; to the west Saraswat, Kanaujiya and Gaur Brâhmans serve them. They burn their dead in the orthodox way, and throw the ashes, if possible, into the Ganges or one of its tributaries. On the day of the Diwâli they worship the dies with which they stamp the cloth as fetishes. The more careful perform the annual srâddha during the pitrapaksha or fortnight sacred to the sainted dead in the month of Kuâr.