Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/215

 — BASTAR. Iron ore of good quality

the Goddvari.

worked, as the demand

is little

205

The Census

is

is

reported to abound, but

it

insignificant.

of 1881 returned the total population of Bastar State at

196,248, spread over an area of 13,062 square miles, and inhabiting 2204 villages, and 38,271 houses; average density of population, 15 per

square mile



villages per square mile, '17

persons per house,

103,046, and females,

males,

were

— Hindus,



houses per square mile,

Classified according to

5 ‘13.

93,202.

According to

Muhammadans,

159,123;

sex,

779;

2

'93



there were there

religion,

Kabirpanthfs,

3;

and aboriginal tribes still following their primitive faiths, The most numerous of the aboriginal tribes is the Gonds, 36,341. locally known as Marids and Bhathrds, and a scattering of Bhils. Among the Hindus, the Brahmans are few in number the mass of the Hindu population consisting of Dhers or Mhars, Mails or Marais, Kunbis, Ahi'rs or Gaulis, and Kallars, and other cultivating or inferior castes. The numbers for each caste and tribe are not given separately in the Census Report. The Brahmans for the most part dwell in and around Jagdalpur. They all eat fish and goat’s flesh, and will drink water from the hands of the Gahiras, or cowherds. A caste known as Dhakars are the illegitimate offspring of Brahmans, and wear the sacred thread. A practice formerly existed in Bastar and the neighbouring State of Jaipur of bestowing the sacred thread as a reward for good service, or of selling it to persons of certain castes. The Halbas or Halwds, a Sikhs,

2





cultivating clan of the

more

occupy the

Gond

level

and

tribe,

who

also wear the sacred thread,

cultivated

tracts,

principally

in

the

The Gadwas or Gadbas, corresponding to the Kols of Rajmahal, who are found towards the east, subsist by cultivation and by labour. A Gadwd woman dresses in a singular fashion taking a cloth, 3 feet by 6, made from the bark of the northern part of the State.



karing

with broad

tree,

round her

horizontal

bands of

red,

yellow,

and

blue,

and Next she secures this cloth with a girdle composed of not less than 40 separate cords about 20 inches long, with the ends bound together and worn in front. She she passes

then fastens

it

it

down

waist, brings

it

across

the

shoulder,

before the bosom.

crowns her hair with a chaplet of the large white seeds of the ktisa grass, often twisted with strings of beads ; large earrings of brass wire hang from the upper cartilage of each ear down to the shoulder, while an earring resembling a brass button decorates the lobe of the ear. On festivals, both men and women dance to a fife and drum, and sometimes a man and a woman will step out of the crowd and sing alternately impromptu verses of uncouth raillery. It is in Bastar that the Gonds studied to most advantage. A detailed account of them found under the headings Central Provinces and Gonds.

may be

principal of the

Gond

clans, other

will

be

The

than those enumerated above, are