II

kādēsh, translated Sodomite,' properly denotes a man dedicated to a deity; and it appears that such men were consecrated to the mother of the gods, the famous Dea Syria, whose priests or devotees they were considered to be. The male devotees of this and other goddesses were probably in a position analogous to that occupied by the female devotees of certain gods, who also, as we have seen, have developed into libertines; and the sodomitic acts committed with these temple prostitutes may, like the connections with priestesses, have had in view to transfer blessings to the worshippers. In Morocco supernatural benefits are expected not only from heterosexual, but also from homosexual intercourse with a holy person. The kedēshim are frequently alluded to in the Old Testament, especially in the period of the monarchy, when rites of foreign origin made their way into both Israel and Judah. And it is natural that the Yahveh worshipper should regard their practices with the utmost horror as forming part of an idolatrous cult.

"The Hebrew conception of homosexual love to some extent affected Muhammadanism, and passed into Christianity. The notion that it is a form of sacrilege was here strengthened by the habits of the Gentiles. St. Paul found the abominations of Sodom prevalent among nations who had ' changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the creator.' During the Middle Ages heretics were accused of unnatural vice as a matter of course. Indeed, so closely was sodomy associated with heresy that the same name was applied to both. In La Coutume de Touraine-Anjou the word hérite, which is the ancient form of hérétique, seems to be used in the sense of 'sodomite'; and the French bougre (from the Latin Bulgarus, Bulgarian), as also its English synonym, was originally a name given to a sect of heretics who came from Bulgaria in the eleventh century and was afterwards applied to other heretics, but at the same time it became the regular expression for a person guilty of unnatural intercourse. In mediaeval laws sodomy was also repeatedly mentioned together with heresy, and the punishment was the same for both. It thus remained a

religious offence of the first order. It was not only a 'vitium nefandum et super omnia detestandum,' but it was one of the four 'clamantia peccata,' or crying sins, a 'crime de Majestie, vers le Roy celestre.' Very naturally, therefore, it has come to be regarded with somewhat greater leniency by law and public opinion in proportion as they have emancipated themselves from theological doctrines. And the fresh light which the scientific study of the sexual impulse has lately thrown upon the subject of homosexuality must also necessarily influence the moral ideas relating to it, in so far as no scrutinising judge can fail to take into account the pressure which a powerful non-volitional desire exercises upon an agent's will."

Holia.-A low caste of drummers and leather-workers who claim to be degraded Golars or Telugu Ahīrs, under which caste most of the Holias seem to have returned themselves

in 1901.2 The Holias relate the following story of their origin. Once upon a time two brothers, Golar by caste, set out in search of service, having with them a bullock. On the way the elder brother went to worship his tutelary deity Holiāri Deva; but while he was doing so the bullock accidentally died, and the ceremony could not be proceeded with until the carcase was removed. Neither a Chamār nor anybody else could be got to do this, so at length the younger brother was prevailed upon by the elder one to take away the body. When he returned, the elder brother would not touch him, saying that he had lost his caste. The younger brother resigned himself to his fate and called himself Holu, after the god whom he had been worshipping at the time he lost his caste. His descendants were named Holias. But he prayed to the god to avenge him for the treachery of his brother, and from that moment misfortunes commenced to shower upon the Golar until he repented and made what reparation he could; and in memory of this, whenever a Golar dies, the Holias are feasted by the other Golars to the present day. The story indicates a connection between the

1 This article is compiled from a paper by Mr. Bābu Rao, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Seoni District.

2 In this year only 33 Holias were

returned as against more than 4000 in 1891; but, on the other hand, in 1901 the number of Golars was double that of the previous census.

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INJHWAR

213

castes, and it is highly probable that the Holias are a degraded class of Golars who took to the trade of tanning and leatherworking. When a Holia goes to a Golar's house he must be asked to come in and sit down or the Golar will be put out of caste; and when a Golar dies the house must be purified by a Holia. The caste is a very numerous one in Madras. Here the Holia is superior only to the Madiga or Chamar.1 In the Central Provinces they are held to be impure and to rank below the Mahārs, and they live on the outskirts of the village. Their caste customs resemble generally those of the Golars. They believe their traditional occupation to be the playing of leathern drums, and they still follow this trade, and also make slippers and leather thongs for agricultural purposes. But they must not make or mend shoes on pain of excommunication from caste. They are of middle stature, dark in colour, and very dirty in their person and habits. Like the Golars, the Holias speak a dialect of Canarese, which is known as Golari, Holia or Komtau. Mr. Thurston gives the following interesting particulars about the Holias: "If a man of another caste enters the house of a Mysore Holia, the owner takes care to tear the intruder's cloth, and turn him out. This will avert any evil which might have befallen him. It is said that Brahmans consider great luck will wait upon them if they can manage to pass through a Holia village unmolested. Should a Brahman attempt to enter their quarters, the Holias turn him out, and slipper him, in former times it is said to death."

2

of the

Injhwār.—A caste of agricultural labourers and fisher- 1. Origin men found in the Maratha tract of the Wainganga Valley, caste. comprised in the Bhandāra and Bālāghāt Districts. In 1901 they numbered 8500 persons as against 11,000 in 1891. The name Injhwar is simply a Marathi corruption of Binjhwār, as is for bis (twenty) and Ithoba for Bithoba or Vithoba. In his Census Report of 1891 Sir Benjamin Robertson remarked that the name was often entered in the census books as Vinjhwār, and in Marathi B and V are practically 1 Mysore Census Report (1891), p. 254.

2 Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 258.

3 This article is principally based on information collected by Mr. Hira Lāl in Bhandara.

2. Sub

divisions.

interchangeable. The Injhwārs are thus a caste formed from
the Binjhwārs or highest subdivision of the Baiga tribe of
Bālāghāt; they have adopted the social customs of the
Marathi-speaking people among whom they live, and have
been formed into a separate caste through a corruption of
their name. They still worship Injha or Vindhya Devi, the
tutelary deity of the Vindhyan hills, from which the name of
the Binjhwārs is derived. The Injhwārs have also some
connection with the Gowāri or cowherd caste of the Maratha
country. They are sometimes known as Dūdh-Gowāri, and
say that this is because an Injhwār woman was a wet-nurse
of the first-born Gowāri. The Gowāris themselves, as a low
caste of herdsmen frequenting the jungles, would naturally be
brought into close connection with both the Baigas and Gonds.
Their alliances with the Gonds have produced the distinct
caste of Gond-Gowāri, and it is not improbable that one fact
operating to separate the Injhwārs from their parent tribe of
the Baigas was an admixture of Gowāri blood.
But they
rank higher than the Gond-Gowāris, who are regarded as
impure; this is probably on account of the superior position
of the Binjhwārs, who form the aristocracy of the Baiga tribe,
and, living in the forests, were never reduced to the menial
and servile condition imposed on the Gond residents in
Hindu villages. The Injhwārs, however, admit the superiority
of the Gowāris by taking food from their hands, a favour
which the latter will not reciprocate. Several of the sept or
family names of the caste are also taken from the Gonds, and
this shows an admixture of Gond blood; the Injhwārs are
thus probably a mixed group of Gonds, Gowāris, and
Binjhwārs or Baigas.

The Injhwārs have four subcastes, three of the territorial and one of the occupational class. These are the Lānjiwār, or those living round Lānji in Bālāghāt; the Korre, or those of the Korai hill tract in Seoni; the Chandewār or Marātha Injhwārs who belong to Chanda, and are distinguished by holding their weddings only in the evening after the Maratha custom, while other Injhwārs will perform the ceremony at any time of day; and the Sonjharias, or those who have taken to washing for gold in the beds of streams. Of their sept or family names some, as already stated, are taken from

II

MARRIAGE AND OTHER CUSTOMS

1

215

the Gonds, as Mesrām, Tekām, Marai, Ukya. Three names,
Bhoyar, Kawara and Kohrya (from Kohli), are the names of
other castes or tribes, and indicate that members of these
became Injhwars and founded families; and others are of
the territorial, titular and totemistic types. Among them
may be mentioned the Pithvālyās, from pith, flour; all
families of this sept should steal a little rice from somebody
else's field as soon as it is ripe, husband and wife making a
joint expedition for the purpose. They must not speak a
word to each other from the time they start until they have
brought back the rice, pounded and cooked it, offered it to
the god and made their meal. The Paunpats, named after
the lotus, will not touch the flowers or leaves of the lotus
plants, or even drink water from a tank in which the lotus
grows.
The Dobokria Rāwats are so named because they
make an offering of two goats to their gods. Some of the
septs are subdivided. Thus the Sonwāni or gold-water sept,
whose members readmit social culprits, is divided into the
Paunpat or lotus Sonwānis; the Gurhiwal, who revere a
brass vessel tied to a bamboo on the first day of the year;
the Sati Sonwāni, who worship the spirit of a sati woman
ancestor; and the Mūngphātia Sonwānis, whose token is the
broken mung pulse. At present these subsepts cannot
intermarry, the union of any two Sonwānis being forbidden,
but it seems likely that intermarriage may be permitted in
the course of time.

other

The social customs of the Injhwārs resemble those of 3. Marthe lower Maratha castes. Marriage is forbidden between riage and members of the same sept and first cousins, and a man should customs. also not take a wife from the sept of his brother or sister-inlaw. This rule prevents the marriage of two brothers to two sisters, to which there is of course no objection on the ground of affinity. Girls are usually not married until they are grown up; but in places where they have been much subjected to Hindu influences, the Injhwārs will sometimes wed an adult girl to a basil plant in order to avoid the stigma of keeping her in the house unmarried. The boy's father goes to make a proposal of marriage, and the girl's father, if he approves it, intimates his consent by washing 1 A corruption of Uika. 2 See the articles Mahār and Kunbi.