Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 2.djvu/134

 GHAUTEEA. (93)

HAUTEEA, in English "wharf or bank-men," is the name given to a class of people, always Brahmins, who at certain religious festivals line the banks of the Ganges, extorting a fee from each bather.

At Benares, for a distance of five miles, "the bank of the Ganges is besprinkled with temples and earthen and wooden platforms, which overlook the brink of the holy stream; scarcely a cubit's length is left for a landing-place for boats and travellers. Every one of these platforms is occupied by its proprietor, who sits cross-legged, in the simple dignity of nudity, mumbling out, in a measured and monotonous voice, the names of his favourite divinities. Every orthodox Hindoo as he comes out of the broad bosom of Gunga makes an offering to the Ghauteea, who, in return, marks his forehead and pronounces a blessing. When the bathers are foreigners, they are not allowed even to approach the stream in places occupied by the Ghauteeas, until they pay down the sum demanded of them.

"Some of these Ghauteeas go to the most distant provinces and join a troop of pilgrims coming to Benares; or they follow in the wake of some Rajah or Baboo who has vowed to perform a tour of pilgrimages. The whole of the party are then dubbed his 'zimans' by the Ghauteea; he considers them under his special protection; no one else may take a fraction from them, and the Ghauteea and his partners alone reap the harvest. If other Ghauteeas interfere, serious affrays ensue, and the magistrate is bewildered with their mutual complaints and recriminations. Suppose that the rich pilgrim chooses to assert independence of will and to make presents to other Ghauteeas, then the parties who think themselves aggrieved threaten to stab themselves in his presence, and rather than be responsible for shedding the blood of the Brahmin Ghauteea, he is fain to give in on any conditions."—(Calcutta Review.)