Note 60 — G

Tribal organization. 2. There seems to be little doubt that the clear distinction which now prevails between the Ghasiya and the neighbouring tribes is of comparatively modern growth. A case recently occurred in which a Ghasiya adopted a Chero boy, and he has been readily received and married among them. Unlike many of the kindred tribes, the Ghasiyas in Mirzapur have retained a complete set of totemistic septs. These are seven in number. The first sept is the Khatangiya, which is said to mean “a man who fires a gun.” This sept worship the matchlock. Then comes the Sunwân or Sonwân, who are the highest in rank. When any Ghasiya becomes impure, one of the Sunwân sept is said to take a little bit of gold (sona) and put it in a vessel of water, which he sprinkles on the impure person with a mango leaf. From this practice of using gold it is said that the tribe takes its name. It may more probably be connected with their business of gold-washing.60 The Janta is said to take their name from the quern or flour-mill (janta). They have a story that a woman of the sept was delivered of a child while sitting at the mill, from which her descendants gained their name. The Bhainsa say they are descended from the godling (deota) Bhainsâsur,61 whom they worship with the sacrifice of a young pig on the second of the light half of Kârttik. Of the Simariya or Simarlokwa sept there is a curious legend which explains their abhorrence of Kâyasths, and is told in an imperfect form by Mr. Risley. The Mirzapur version runs that once upon a time a Ghasiya was groom (sais) to a Kâyasth. One day he went with his master’s son for a ride in the jungle. They came to a very large and deep well: the boy dismounted and looked into it. The Ghasiya said,—“Let us both look down and see whose reflection looks best in the water.” Then the Ghasiya pitched the boy into the water. The boy was hurt, but managed to hold on to the side of the well. He called out to the Ghasiya,—“You have played a vile trick on me, but as we are old friends I will give you something which will ensure your prosperity.” So he took a piece of tile which lay in the well, and having scratched on it an account of what had happened, he gave it to the Ghasiya saying,—“Take this to my father, and he will give you a great reward.” The foolish Ghasiya did as he was told, and when the Kâyasth read the message, he sent men to the well without the Ghasiya’s knowledge. They found the boy dead. So the Kâyasth planned his revenge. One day he said to the Ghasiya, “As you have been my old and faithful servant, I intend to give a feast to your tribe.” On the day of the Holi all the Ghasiyas—men, women, and children—collected. Then the Kâyasth said:—“There is a great cotton tree (semal) in the forest which I wish to cut in order to burn the old year (Sambat),62 but not a bit of the wood or leaves must touch the ground, otherwise there will be no merit in the sacrifice, and you must bring the tree as it stands.” So all the Ghasiyas stood under the tree and tried to hold it up as it was being cut, but it fell down and crushed them all. Only one pregnant woman escaped, who took refuge with a Panika. The Kâyasth tried to seize and kill her; but the Panika passed her off as his wife, and her descendants were called Simarlokwa, or “the people of the cotton tree,” and to this day this sept eat with Panikas, and on each Holi festival throw out all their earthen vessels in memory of this tragedy and cherish a hereditary hatred of Kâyasths.63 The Koiya sept have a legend that a Ghasiya was servant of a Gond Râja, and went out hunting with him. One day the Râja killed a wild dog (Koiya, Cuon rutilans) and persuaded the Ghasiya to eat it; whence this contemptuous title clung to his descendants. The Markâm sept take their name from the tortoise. This is also a sept among the Gonds.64 One day a Ghasiya crossed a river in a boat. The floods arose and he was unable to return, when a tortoise took him on his back and carried him across. Hence the sept worship the tortoise. The Bengal Ghâsis have a Kachhua (tortoise) and a Simarloka or cotton tree sept.65 These septs are exogamous, and hypergamy is so far practised that the Sunwân is the most respectable of all, and marriage alliances with that sept are much desired. The Mirzapur Ghasiyas are very vague in their traditions: some fix their head-quarters at a place called Koriya in Sarguja, others say they come from Nâgpur, others from Singrauli, in Mirzapur. In Sarguja there is said to be a mountain called Didûnkûra, in which there resides a deity called Janta Deo, whose only representative is a stone in the form of a flour-mill (janta). He is said to have some connection with the sept of that name, and many Ghasiyas worship him through a Baiga.