XII. ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN, HISTORY, AND MANNERS OF THE RACE OF MEN CALLED BUNJARAS. By Captain JOHN BRIGGS, Persian Interpreter to the Hyderabad Subsidiary Force. Read 25th January, 1814*. TO WILLIAM ERSKINE, Esq. Bombay. MY DEAR SIR, Jalna, 8th December, 1813. It is a considerable time since you first suggested to me the research into the history of that race of people in the Deccan denominated Bunjaras. At that period I made a rough sketch of some of the most prominent features of their character; and, having traced a faint outline of what I conceived would be new and interesting, sent it down to you, rather to show the nature of this people, and what was to be expected from its traditions, than to exhibit any thing final or conclusive regarding them. Since that, I have been enabled to add something to my former paper;, and although the present is still far from being a satisfactory account, yet it embraces all that I have been able to procure concerning them in my insulated and obscure station: if, however, it be considered worthy of a place among the papers of the Bombay Literary Society, you are at liberty to publish. it with all its imperfections on its head. The peninsula of India, commonly called. Deccan, whose northern boundary is marked by the rivers Nerbudda and Maha-Nudda, forms nearly an equilateral triangle of about eight hundred miles base. This vast tract of territory (previously to the Mahomedan invasion in the four- * This paper was originally read on the 25th May, 1812; and afterwards in its present state on the 25th January, 1814. teenth century) was divided among the Hindoos into five nations, each of which had probably a separate monarch; but their manners, habits, dress, and language, which they have retained till the present time, were certainly distinct from each other. These were: The Murhuttas of Murhutt. The Tellingas of Telling. The Cunnuras of Cunnur. The Goonds of Goondwara. The Tamoolas of Tamool. Each of these people was divided from its neighbour either by broad rivers, thick forests, or stupendous mountains: but still these limits were not always of an insurmountable nature; for we find, from the earliest periods of which we have any satisfactory accounts, that they not only had mutual intercourse with each other by means of commerce, but that their sovereigns frequently united their forces to repel the attacks of foreign enemies. The spices, salt, and fish of that part of Tamool called Male-bar, furnished supplies to Cunnur, which returned either the gold of its mountains, the manufactures of its looms, or its surplus grain. Cunnur procured also articles from its neighbours of Murhutt and Telling; coarse cloth, cotton, and silks from the former, and diamonds, chintz, and muslins from the latter: but the Goonds being situated in a hilly and woody country, had little communication with their neighbours, and even at the present period are in a state of comparative barbarism. Mutual intercourse serves to polish and refine the manners of mankind, and society tends to soften the feelings, and, by promoting a love of novelty, naturally begets luxury and progressive improvements in the arts. The rarities of one country are transported to another, more extensive connexions are formed, and in times of peace commerce is improved and manufactures flourish. Independently of trade in articles of luxury, however, the nature of the country, of the climate, and of the inhabitants of India promotes an intercourse even for their very existence. The uncertainty of the periodical falls of rain is frequently productive of famine; and in such a case, the only two alternatives left for the people of one part of the country, are either to emigrate into another, or to have grain brought to them;-the latter therefore is naturally adopted. Unlike the natives of Europe, custom and religious habit, whether the offspring of wise laws or fanatical superstition, preclude the greater part of the Hindoos from partaking of animal food, which is even a very unusual aliment amongst any of them. Few of the productions of the soil will keep for any length of time; and as the harvest, when good, is most ample, little precaution is taken for future emergencies. Under such circumstances, the transport of grain from one place to another becomes an occupation of considerable extent and importance, and has for many ages been carried on by the class of people who furnish the subject of this paper. But although the cause of this necessary tansport has been accounted for, and although the demand must occasionally be very great, yet it will naturally depend upon the failure of the crops; so much, that it would be too precarious for any very large body of people to undertake it as its sole occupation, so that we find this transport trade extended to all kinds of merchandize: and as the Deccan is devoid of a single navigable river*, and has no roads that admit of wheelcarriages, the whole of this extensive intercourse is carried on by laden bullocks, the property of that class of people denominated Bun-jaras. The appellation by which this race is known, is probably a compound Hindoo word expressive of their habit of burning the woods, or from their living in the woods. They are divided into four classes, which have branched into numerous families, and whose language, habits, and manners differ from those of the Deccan nations so materially, as at once to stamp them as foreigners. They however appear to have adopted the dress of the Murhuttas, the most northern of the Deccan people; and it is fair to infer from this fact, which comes in confirmation of their own oral traditions, that they first settled in that country; but the precise period of their arrival remains in obscurity, although it is probable they accompanied the first Mahomedan armies which so frequently invaded the Deccan from * The rivers are too impetuous for navigation when they are swollen by the periodical rains; and in the hot season they become too shallow, except in those short portions of their course where a very small number of great rivers have reached their utmost magnitude. + Probably the last, bun or wun being either a wood or waste. Y Hindoostan in the fourteenth century. To the dress of the Murhuttas the Bunjara women have added massive rings of ivory, either plain or dyed, round their arms, which they have substituted for lighter metallic bracelets; and the men wear at the end of the strings with which they fasten their short drawers round the waist, a profusion of heavy and gaudycoloured tassels, and are easily distinguishable by these peculiarities of dress. Their habits, however, they have preserved entirely distinct; and have retained their language so completely, that I have ascertained it to be the same as that spoken in the province of Marwar at the present day. Among their habits is one which is remarkable, and comes in strong confirmation of their own accounts, (if confirmation was required in addition to that of the retention of their language,) and this is, the fact of each horde of any size having a bhatt, or bard, who recounts in metrical rhapsodies the actions of their forefathers, and is the principal actor in all festivals; he plays on a kind of guitar, and the airs are some of them very pretty. The Bhatts are common, even at the present time, among the people of Marwar; and both facts confirm the tradition of the Bunjara histories. This retention of their habits and native tongue for several centuries, is perhaps one of the most remarkable instances of the kind to be found in any history, when we consider that they have no written records, and, unless among themselves, no intercourse in the language. Excepting the Gipsies in Europe, I know of no other where a small colony without literature has preserved its original language; but as the causes of this retention are the same, the effects are naturally similar; for each has avoided living in towns, and has remained entirely separated from the natives amongst whom it has settled. The Bunjaras of the Deccan are of that description of people which in Hindoostan is called Rujpoot, a word, as far as I have been able to ascertain, signifying the Chutree tribe of Hindoos, and whose occupations, strictly speaking, ought to be confined to a military life; and in this tribe also is the lineal succession of royalty preserved. The Rujpoot may cultivate with his own hands his own land; but he must not work as a villain for another, he can only serve as a soldier; but custom permits him to perform many things for himself, that it would be disgraceful for him to do as the menial of another. It is to this class of Hindoos that the Bunjaras belong; and, in the Deccan, consist of four principal tribes: viz. 1. Rahtore. 2. Burteeah. 3. Chowhan. 4. Powur. The Rahtore, with whom I have had most intercourse, is the most numerous tribe; and in order to give some idea of the care they take to preserve their genealogy, I have affixed a table to this paper which traces one branch of it, from its founder Bheeca down to Ram Chundur the present chief. I have obtained it with much trouble, and insert it, as it serves to exhibit in a very strong point of view the precision with which they preserve their purity of blood, and the lineal succession to the chiefship. Of these Rujpoot emigrants, we know nothing from historical records; their numbers were probably too few either to be felt in their native provinces, or in those into which they arrived: but, according to their own oral traditions, the tribe of Rahtore is from the neighbourhood of Ujmeer in Marwar, "the original country of the Rahtore Rujpoots;" and the colony from whence the Rahtore Bunjaras are sprung was led into Deccan by Bheeca, consisting of seven families related to each other by the nearest ties of consanguinity, and the chiefs of each family had the following names:-1. Alun. 2. Balun. 3. Mohun. 4. Moochal. 5. Jatsee. 6. Dhurumsee. 7. Gote. From the circumstance of Bheeca's having no children, he is said to have adopted one Cumdur, the son of the rajah of Joudpoor, as his heir, who succeeding to the office of chief of the Rahtore Bunjaras, assumed the family name of his patron; and the tribe consequently at the present day is vulgarly called Bhoocia, and traces in a direct line from Bheeca eleven individuals, down to Ram Chundur the present chief. Concerning the origin of the second tribe called Burteeah, there is a remarkable tradition, which, however ridiculous in fact, bears on the face of it a degree of simplicity and originality which renders it worth relating. But as a tribe of Rujpoots called Burteeah exists at the present day in the neighbourhood of Bhicaneer, and is also mentioned by the celebrated |