Page:The Imperial Gazetteer of India - Volume 2 (2nd edition).pdf/398

 BHIL TRIBES.

388

of giving the blood

right

belief that the

to

damp

claimed

is

man from whose

veins

their zeal for this usage.

would gladly

let

by certain

The

which

it

and the fails

Rajputs, on the other hand,

the practice die, as they say that they shrink from

The

the application of this impure Bhil blood. dislike to the

families,

flows dies within a year

it

ceremony

is

true

ground of

their

probably due to the quasi-acknowledgment

conveys of their need of investiture by an older and conquered

race.

The Bhi'ls, The Mughals

although grouped in distinct classes, are one people.

(1600) found them hard-working and loyal subjects, and under the Delhi emperors they seem to have continued quiet and orderly. But during the i8th century, in the disturbances that marked the transfer of power from the Mughals to the Marathas, they asserted their independence ; and the Marathas, failing to bring them to order, treated

them

their lives

as outlaws,

without

trial.

and permitted

A

their lowest officers to take

Bhil caught in a disturbed part of the

country was, without inquiry, flogged and hanged.

Exposed

Torture was freely

and

his ears shaved was burnt to death chained to a red-hot iron Hundreds were thrown over a high cliff near Antur, and large seat. bodies of them, assembled under a promise of pardon, were beheaded Their women were mutilated or smothered by or blown from guns. smoke, and their children dashed to death against the stones.

used.

from

to

with his nose

the sun,

slit

his head, the Bhil

Cruelties like these drove the Bhils to desperation.

They took

refuge

Western Vindhyas and the Satpuras, or along the forest-covered banks of the Mahi, the Narbada, and the In these tracts, protected by the nature of the country, they have Tapti.

in the rocky fastnesses of the

since dwelt.

The

Bhils, roving

and

restless

by disposition, and

necessity, long defied their oppressors.

skilful

hunters by

Superstitious in the extreme,

and possessing little attachment to fixed spots, their hive-like habitations on the isolated knolls were abandoned without regret on the occurrence of any evil omen. Addicted to bouts of drinking, they burst forth in frenzied bands on the more settled country, and were a scourge to the lowlands.

Ten thousand

of the Gaekwar’s troops,

sent for the purpose of their coercion, were defeated and driven with

After an unsuccessful attempt on the 1818 to bring them to order by force, kinder A large body of the Bhils were thus measures were resorted to. reclaimed. They took service under our officers, and formed a Bhil This corps stormed the corps which in 1827 numbered 600 men.

disgrace from their fastnesses. part of the

British in

fastnesses of the unreformed sections of the race, seized their leaders,

and reduced the whole of the clans to habits of order. By the personal influence of some of their early officers, Robertson, Ovans, and Outram,