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II

HALWAI

203

The real reason why the Halwai occupies a good position perhaps simply results from the necessity that other castes should be able to take cakes from him. Among the higher castes food cooked with water should not be eaten except at the hearth after this has been specially cleansed and spread with cowdung, and those who are to eat have bathed and otherwise purified themselves. But as the need continuously arises for travellers and others to take a meal abroad where they cannot cook it for themselves, sweetmeats and cakes made without water are permitted to be eaten in this way, and the Halwai, as the purveyor of these, has been given the position of a pure caste from whose hands a Brāhman can take water. In a similar manner, water may be taken from the hands of the Dhimar who is a household servant, the Kahār or palanquin-bearer, the Barai or betel-leaf seller, and the Bharbhūnja or rice-parcher, although some of these castes have a very low origin and occupy the humble position of menial servants.

The Halwai's shop is one of the most familiar in an Indian bazar, and in towns a whole row of them may be seen together, this arrangement being doubtless adopted for the social convenience of the caste-fellows, though it might be expected to decrease the custom that they receive. His wares consist of trays full of white and yellow-coloured sweetmeats and cakes of flour and sugar, very unappetising to a European eye, though Hindu boys show no lack of appreciation of them. The Hindus are very fond of sweet things, which is perhaps a common trait of an uneducated palate. Hindu children will say that such sweets as chocolate almonds are too bitter, and their favourite drink, sherbet, is simply a mixture of sugar and water with some flavouring, and seems scarcely calculated to quench the thirst produced by an Indian hot weather. Similarly their tea is so sweetened with sugar and spices as to be distasteful to a European.

The ingredients of a Halwai's sweets are wheat and gram-flour, milk and country sugar. Those called batashas consist merely of syrup of sugar boiled with a little flour, which is taken out in spoonfuls and allowed to cool. They are very easy to make and are commonly distributed to

1. Derivation and

historical notice.

schoolboys on any occasion of importance, and are some-
thing like a meringue in composition. The kind called barafi
or ice is made from thick boiled milk mixed with sugar,
and is more expensive and considered more of a treat than
batashas. Laddus are made from gram-flour which is mixed
with water and dropped into boiling butter, when it hardens
into lumps. These are taken out and dipped in syrup of
sugar and allowed to cool. Pheni is a thin strip of dough
of fine wheat-flour fried in butter and then dipped in syrup
of sugar.
Other sweets are made from the flour of singāra
or water-nut and from chironji, the kernel of the achar1 nut,
coated with sugar. Of ordinary sweets the cheaper kinds
cost 8 annas a seer of 2 lb. and the more expensive ones
IO or 12 annas. Sweets prepared by Bengali confectioners
are considered the best of all. The Halwai sits on a board
in his shop surrounded by wooden trays of the different
kinds of sweets. These are often covered with crowds of
flies and in some places with a variety of formidable-looking
hornets. The latter do not appear to be vicious, however,
and when he wishes to take sweets off a tray the Halwai
whisks them off with a palm-leaf brush.
palm-leaf brush. Only if one of
them gets into his cloth, or he unguardedly pushes his hand
down into a heap of sweets and encounters a hornet, he may
receive a sting of which the mark remains for some time.
The better-class confectioners now imitate English sweets,
and at fairs when they retail boiled grain and ghi they
provide spoons and little basins for their customers.

Hatkar, Hatgar.2--A small caste of Berār, numbering about 14,000 persons in 1911. They are found principally in the Pusad taluk of Yeotmāl District, their villages being placed like a line of outposts along the Hyderābād border. The Hatkars are a branch of the Dhangar or shepherd caste, and in some localities they are considered as a subcaste of Dhangars. The derivation of the name Hatkar is obscure, but the Hatkars appear to be those Dhangars who first took to military service under Sivaji and hence became a

1 Buchanania latifolia.

2 Based principally on the account of the Hatkars on p. 200 of Sir A.

Lyall's Berar Gazetteer, with some notes taken by Mr. Hira Lal in Buldāna.

II

GAULI HATKAR'S REVERENCE FOR CATTLE

205

distinct group.
"Undisciplined, often unarmed, men of the
Māwals or mountain valleys above the Ghauts who were
called Mawallees, and of those below the mountains towards
the sea, called Hetkurees, joined the young leader."1 The
Hatkars were thus the soldiers of the Konkan in Sivaji's
army. The Ain-i-Akbari states that the Hatkars were
driven westward across the Wardha by the Gonds. At
this time (A.D. 1600) they were holding the country round
Bāsim by force of arms, and are described as a refractory
and perfidious race.2 "The Hatkars of Berār are all Bargi
or Bangi Dhangars, the shepherds with the spears. They
say that formerly when going on any expedition they took
only a blanket seven cubits long and a bear-spear. They
would appear to have been all footmen. The Naiks or
village headman of Bāsim were principally Hatkars. The
duty of a Naik was to maintain order and stop robbery ;
but in time they became law-breakers and their men the
dacoits of the country.
Some of them were very powerful,
and in 1818 Nowsaji Naik's troops gave battle to the
Nizam's regular forces under Major Pitman before Umarkhar.
He was beaten and sent to Hyderābād, where he died, and
the power of the Naiks was broken by Major Sutherland.
He hanged so many that the Naiks pronounce his name to
this day with awe. To some of the Naiks he gave money
and told them to settle down in certain villages. Others
who also came, expecting money, were at once hanged." 3
But it would appear that only those leaders were hanged.
who did not come in before a certain fixed date.

Gauli

for cattle.

The Hatkars are also called Bangi Dhangars, and in 2. The Berār rank above other Dhangars because they took to Hatkar's soldiering and obtained grants of land, just as the Marathas reverence rank above the Kunbis. Another group have given up sheep-tending and keep cattle, which is a more respectable occupation on account of the sanctity of cattle, and these call themselves Gauli Hatkars. These Gauli Hatkars have given up drinking liquor and eating fowls. They will not touch or sell the milk of buffaloes and cows before sunset on Mondays, the day on which they worship Krishna.

1 Colonel Meadows Taylor, Tara, p. 404. 2 Ain-i-Akbari, quoted in Berar Gazetteer, p. 200.

3 Berar Gazetteer.

If

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