II

SOCIAL POSITION—THE JAÌN GURAOS

181

A lemon charmed by a magician is buried under the corpse and a man follows the body strewing the seeds of rala, while nails are driven into the threshold of the house.1

The caste has now a fairly high social status and ranks 7. Social above the Kunbis. They abstain from all flesh and from position. liquor and will take food only from the hands of a Marātha Brahman, while Kunbis and other cultivating and serving castes will accept food from their hands. They worship Siva principally on Mondays, this day being sacred to the deity, who carries the moon as an ornament on his head, crowning the matted locks from which the Ganges flows.

Of the Jain Guraos Mr. Enthoven quotes the following 8. The Jain interesting description from the Bombay Gazetteer: "They Guraos. are mainly servants in village temples which, though dedicated to Brahmanic gods, have still by their sides broken remains of Jain images. This, and the fact that most of the temple land-grants date from a time when Jainism was the State religion, support the theory that the Jain Guraos are probably Jain temple servants who have come under the influence partly of Lingayatism and partly of Brahmanism. A curious survival of their Jainism occurs at Dasahra, Shimga and other leading festivals, when the village deity is taken out of the temple and carried in procession. On these occasions, in front of the village god's palanquin, three, five or seven of the villagers, among whom the Gurao is always the leader, carry each a long, gaily-painted wooden pole resting against their right shoulder. At the top of the pole is fastened a silver mask or hand and round it is draped a rich silk robe. Of these poles, the chief one, carried by the Gurao, is called the Jain's pillar, Jainācha khāmb."

1. Traditions of the caste.

Halba, Halbi.1-A caste of cultivators and farmservants whose home is the south of the Raipur District and the Kanker and Bastar States; from here small numbers of them have spread to Bhandāra and parts of Berār. In 1911 they numbered 100,000 persons in the combined Provinces. The Halbas have several stories relating to their own origin. One of these, reported by Mr. Gokul Prasād, is as follows: One of the Uriya Rājas had erected four scarecrows in his field to keep off the birds. One night Mahādeo and Pārvati were walking on the earth and happened to pass that way, and Pārvati saw them and asked what they were. When it was explained to her she thought that as they had excited her interest something should be done for them, and at her request Mahādeo gave them life

1 This article is compiled principally from a monograph by Munshi Kanhya Lal, Assistant Master, Raipur High School, and formerly of the Gazetteer Office; and also from papers by Mr. Panda Baijnath, Superintendent of

Bastar State, and Mr. Gokul Prasad, Tahsildar of Dhamtari. The descriptions of marriage, funeral and birth customs are taken from Munshi Kanhya Lāl's monograph.