Note 82 — Volume II.

Internal structure. 4. The Mirzapur Bhuiyas have not the intricate and confusing internal structure characteristic of the Bengal tribe. They describe themselves as divided into eight septs—Tirvâh, Magahiya, Dandwâr, Mahatwâr, Mahthek, Musahar, and Bhuînhâr or Bhuiyâr. Of these the Dandwâr, Magahiya, Mahatwâr, Tirvâh, appear in the Bengal lists from Lohardaga and the Musahar in Manbhûm.82 Some of these sub-divisions are totemistic, some local, and some occupational. Thus the Tirvâh say they take their name from the fact that their original ancestor was thrown when a baby into a river. One of the Dandwâr sept rescued and brought him to the bank (tîr). Another version of the story is that the ancestor of the sept was born on the river bank, fell in accidentally, and was rescued by a Dandwâr. The Magahiya is a local sept derived from Magadha or Bihâr, their place of origin. The Dandwâr, again, is apparently an occupational sept. They take their name from dand, athletic exercises, in which like Nats they are said to be proficient. The Mahatwâr derive their name from the fact that they were formerly leaders (mahto) of the tribe. The Musahar are so called because they eat mice and rats (mûs). They say that they were originally natives of Magadha or Bihâr, and emigrated into Mirzapur only some three or four generations ago. They have now no connection with their original seat in the way of marriages, pilgrimages, or deriving their priests, barbers, or tribal officers from there. The septs of the Tirvâh, Dandwâr, and Mahatwâr intermarry, and the Magahiya, Mahthek, Bhuiyâr or Bhuînhâr, and Musahar intermarry. But these rules appear to be in a very uncertain state, because there seems no doubt that they also marry within their own sept, but not with a family with whom an alliance has been contracted within two or three generations, which is as far as memory runs. The internal structure of the tribe is, in fact, in a state of transition. The Musahar and Bhuînhâr or Bhuiyâr septs have practically completely separated, and this process will doubtless continue until still more endogamous groups are formed.