Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 3.djvu/166

 DULLEEP SING. (149)

ULLEEP SING is an inhabitant of Morta, in the Meerut district, and a Thugga. Thuggas are Hindoos by religion, and are regarded as being the offspring of an Ulicit intercourse between a Brahmin woman and a man of inferior caste. They are a hardy and active race, and very good cultivators. Their tribal appellation Thugga, must not be confounded with "Thug," an assassin and robber, to which it has no reference whatever. The Thuggas, however, constitute an example of how it has become necessary from time to time, under the Hindoo system of caste, to create new tribes or sects to suit particular emergencies. Those who were born under the conditions already noticed, could not be received into any other, even though it might be a lower caste than their own; and, while this tribe is probably recruited occasionally from such sources, those already born cannot marry elsewhere. It might be supposed that the illegitimate offspring of a male Brahmin could become allied to the illegitimate child of a Brahmin woman; but this could not be, each must be resolved into its own peculiar sect or tribe, and could not emerge from it; and these, as may be supposed, are very numerous. In process of time some of these tribes have become powerful, and they are to be found under different local appellations in most parts of India. The Thugga tribe is not large, and is chiefly found in the Meerut and Delhi divisions of the North-Western Provinces. It is divided into two sects—the Beesa, or uncorrupted, who do, and the Dussa, or corrupted, who do not, permit the re-marriage of widows. Thuggas are generally settled in their habits, and, like most Hindoos, subsist mainly on vegetable diet. They are of average longevity.

Dulleep Sing is forty years of age, and of middle height. He is a landholder and farmer, and is in comfortable circumstances. His costume is handsome, and even rich. He wears a tunic of embroidered cloth, over which is a good Cashmere shawl. His features are regular, decidedly of the Aryan type, indicative of his descent, and also of a peaceful calling.