II THE KANJARS AND THE GIPSIES 3 333 In Gujarat the Mīrs or Mirasis are also known as Dom after the tribe of that name; they were originally of two classes, one the descendants of Gujarat Bhāts or bards, the other from northern India, partly of Bhāt descent and partly connected with the Doms.1 And the Sansias and Berias in Bombay when accompanied by their families usually pass themselves off as Gujarāti Bhāts, that is, bards of the Jāt caste from Mārwar or of the Kolis from Gujarāt.2 Major Gunthorpe states that the Kolhātis or Berias of Berār appear to be the same as the Domras of Bengal; and Mr. Kitts that the Khām Kolhātis are the Domarus of Telingāna.* In writing of the Kanjar bards Sherring also says: "These are the Kanjars of Gondwana, the Sansis of northern India ; they are the most desperate of all dacoits and wander about the country as though belonging to the Gujarati Domtaris or showmen." The above evidence seems sufficient to establish a prima facie case in favour of the Dom origin of these gipsy castes. It may be noticed further that the Jallad Kanjars of the United Provinces are also known as Sūpwāla or makers of sieves and winnowing-fans, a calling which belongs specially to the Doms, Bhangis, and other sweeper castes. Both Doms and Bhangis have divisions known as Bānsphor or breaker of bamboos,' a name which has the same signification as Sūpwāla. Again, the deity of the criminal Doms of Bengal is known as Sānsari Mai.5 and the The Kanjars and Berias are the typical gipsy castes of 2. The India, and have been supposed to be the parents of the Kanjars European gipsies. On this point Mr. Nesfield writes: Gipsies. "The commonly received legend is that multitudes of Kanjars were driven out of India by the oppressions of Tamerlane, and it is inferred that the gipsies of Europe are their direct descendants by blood, because they speak like them a form of the Hindi language." Sir G. Grierson states: "According to the Shāh-nāma, the Persian monarch Bahrām Gaur received in the fifth century from an Indian 7 1 Bombay Gazetteer, Muhammadans of Gujarat, p. 83. 2 Kennedy, Criminal Tribes of Bombay, p. 257. 3 Criminal Tribes, p. 46. 4 Berar Census Report (1881), p. 140. 5 Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. 6 Nesfield, .c. p. 393. king 12,000 musicians who were known as Lūris, and the Lūris or Lūlis, that is gipsies, of modern Persia are the descendants of these." These people were also called Lutt, and hence it was supposed that they were the Indian Jāts. Sir G. Grierson, however, shows it to be highly improbable that the Jāts, one of the highest castes of cultivators, could ever have furnished a huge band of professional singers and dancers. He on the contrary derives the gipsies from the Dom tribe: "Mr. Leland has made a happy suggestion that the original gipsies may have been Doms of India. He points out that Romany is almost letter for letter the same as Domni (), the plural of Dom. Domni is the plural form in the Bhojpuri dialect of the Bihāri language. It was originally a genitive plural; so that Romany-Rye, ' A gipsy gentleman,' may be well compared with the Bhojpuri Domni Rai, 'A king of the Doms.' The Bhojpuri-speaking Doms are a famous race, and they have many points of resemblance with the gipsies of Europe. Thus they are darker in complexion than the surrounding Bihāris, are great thieves, live by hunting, dancing and telling fortunes, their women have a reputation for making love-philtres and medicines to procure abortion, they keep fowls (which no orthodox Hindu will do), and are said to eat carrion. They are also great musicians and horsemen. The gipsy grammar is closely connected with Bhojpuri, and the following mongrel, halfgipsy, half- English rhyme will show the extraordinary similarity of the two vocabularies : 2 Gipsy. The Rye (squire) he mores (hunts) adrey the wesh (wood) Bhojpuri. S Rai Gipsy. Bhojpuri. J Gipsy. Bhojpuri. J mare andal (بیش .besh (Pers The kaun-engro (ear-fellow, hare) and chiriclo (bird). You sovs (sleep) with leste (him) drey (within) the wesh (wood) Gipsy. And rigs (carry) for leste (him) the gono (sack, game-bag). Bhojpuri. J 1 Ind. Ant. xv. p. 15. 2 In Sir G. Grierson's account the Bhojpuri version is printed in the gon Nagari character; but this cannot be reproduced. It is possible that one or two mistakes have been made in transliteration. II THE KANJARS AND THE GIPSIES 335 Gipsy. Oprey (above) the rukh (tree) adrey (within) the wesh (wood) Bhojpuri. Gipsy. 1 Are chiriclo (male-bird) and chiricli (female-bird). Bhojpuri Tuley (below) the rukh (tree) adrey (within) the wesh (wood) J Tule rukh andal Gipsy. Are pireno (lover) and pireni (lady-love). besh In the above it must be remembered that the verbal terminations of the gipsy text are English and not gipsy." Sir G. Grierson also adds (in the passage first quoted): "I may note here a word which lends a singular confirmation to the theory. It is the gipsy term for bread, which is mänrō or manro. This is usually connected either with the Gaudian mänr 'rice-gruel' or with manrua, the millet (Eleusine coracana). Neither of these agrees with the idea of bread, but in the Magadhi dialect of Bihāri, spoken south of the Ganges in the native land of these Maghiya Doms, there is a peculiar word manda or manra which means wheat, whence the transition to the gipsy mänrō, bread, is eminently natural." The above argument renders it probable that the gipsies are derived from the Doms; and as Mr. Nesfield gives it as a common legend that they originated from the Kanjars, this is perhaps another connecting link between the Doms and Kanjars. The word gipsy is probably an abbreviation of 'Egyptian,' the country assigned as the home of the gipsies in mediaeval times. It has already been seen that the Doms are the bards and minstrels of the lower castes in the Punjab, and that the Kanjars and Sānsias, originally identical or very closely connected, were in particular the bards of the Jāts. It is a possible speculation that they may have been mixed up with the lower classes of Jāts or have taken their name, and that this has led to the confusion between the Jāts and gipsies. Some support is afforded to this suggestion by the fact that the Kanjars of Jubbulpore say that they have three divisions, the Jāt, Multāni and Kuchbandia. The Jat Kanjars are, no doubt, those who acted as bards to the Jāts, and hence took the name; and if the ancestors of these people emigrated from India they may have given themselves out as Jāt, 3. The Thugs derived from the Kanjars. 4. The Doms. In the article on Thug it is suggested that a large, if not the principal, section of the Thugs were derived from the Kanjars. At the Thug marriages an old matron would sometimes repeat, "Here's to the spirits of those who once led bears and monkeys; to those who drove bullocks and marked with the godini (tattooing-needle); and those who made baskets for the head." And these are the occupations of the Kanjars and Berias. The Goyandas of Jubbulpore, descendants of Thug approvers, are considered to be a class of gipsy Muhammadans, akin to or identical with the Kanjars, of whom the Multani subdivision are also Muhammadans. Like the Kanjar women the Goyandas make articles of net and string. There is also a colony of Berias in Jubbulpore, and these are admittedly the descendants of Thugs who were located there. If the above argument is well founded, we are led to the interesting conclusion that four of the most important vagrant and criminal castes of India, as well as the Mirasis or low-class Hindu bards, the gipsies, and a large section of the Thugs, are all derived from the great Dom caste. The Doms appear to be one of the chief aboriginal tribes of northern India, who were reduced to servitude like the Mahārs and Chamārs. Sir H. M. Elliot considered them to be "One of the original tribes of India. Tradition fixes their residence to the north of the Ghagra, touching the Bhars on the east in the vicinity of the Rohini. Several old forts testify to their former importance, and still retain the names of their founders, as, for instance, Domdiha and Domingarh in the Gorakhpur district. Rāmgarh and Sahukot on the Rohini are also Dom forts.") Sir G. Grierson quotes Dr. Fleet as follows: "In a south Indian inscription a king Rudradeva is said to have subdued a certain Domma, whose strength evidently lay in his cavalry. No clue is given as to who this Domma was, but he may have been the leader of some aboriginal tribe which had not then lost all its power"; and suggests that this Domma may have been a leader of the Doms, who would then be shown to have been dominant in southern India. As already seen there is a Domāru caste of Telingana, with whom Mr. Kitts 1 Quoted in Mr. Crooke's article on Dom. II THE CRIMINAL KANJARS 337 identified the Berias or Kolhātis. In northern India the Doms were reduced to a more degraded condition than the other pre-Aryan tribes as they furnished a large section of the sweeper caste. As has been seen also they were em ployed as public executioners like the Māngs. This brief mention of the Doms has been made in view of the interest attaching to them on account of the above suggestions, and because there will be no separate article on the caste. criminal In Berar two main divisions of the Kanjars may be 5. The recognised, the Kūnchbandhia or those who make weavers' Kanjars. brooms and are comparatively honest, and the other or criminal Kanjars. The criminal Kanjars may again be divided into the Mārwāri and Deccani groups. They were probably once the same, but the Deccanis, owing to their settlement in the south, have adopted some Maratha or Gujarāti fashions, and speak the Marathi language; their women wear the angia or Marātha breast-cloth fastening behind, and have a gold ornament shaped like a flower in the nose; while the Marwari Kanjars have no breast-cloth and may not wear gold ornaments at all. The Deccani Kanjars are fond of stealing donkeys, their habit being either to mix their own herds with those of the village and drive them all off together, or, if they catch the donkeys unattended, to secrete them in some water-course, tying their legs together, and if they remain undiscovered to remove them at nightfall. The animals are at once driven away for a long distance before any attempt is made to dispose of them. The Mārwāri Kanjars consider it derogatory to keep donkeys and therefore do not steal these animals. They are preeminently cattle-lifters and sheep-stealers, and their encampments may be recognised by the numbers of bullocks and cows about them. Their women wear the short Mārwāri petticoat reaching half-way between the knees and ankles. Their hair is plaited over the forehead and cowrie shells and brass ornaments like buttons are often attached in it. Bead necklaces are much worn by the women and bead and horse-hair necklets by the men. A peculiarity about the 1 Gayer, Lectures, p. 59. 2 Gunthorpe, p. 81. Mr. Kennedy says: "Sansia and Beria women have VOL. III a clove (lavang) in the left nostril; the Ꮓ |