Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1893-06-27

The Theology OF the Sweeper Caste.
From the Times Of Indial
Among the yet unsolved problems of In
dian ethnology, and one that the census
has only dealt with to make confusion
worse confounded, Ia the religion of the
sweeper caste. It resms clear enough,
through all the confusion, that the supreme
deity of the Chuhras is Laljura or Lsibee,
"a god without form or dwelling place"
A mound of earth surmeunted by q piece
of stick and piece of cloth for flag Is
this diety's shrine, and to It pooish is made
and little sacrifice offered of ghee or
grain. It needs no conservation, this sim
pie shrine; and wherever the sweeper
may be, IL sickness comes, or q gift is de-
sired, the little shrine may be set up with
Its queer bit of rag and stick, and the wor-
shippers prayer is made. 1t is curious to
note how this primitive faith differs from
Hinduism, both ancient and modern, as
well as from Buddhism.
The sweeper Will have nothing to do, for
instance, with the transmigration of souls.
Once q sweeper always q sweeper, and even
the ideal sweeper, Pr Jhota, with bis broom
of gold and basket of silver, "cleans now
the fourth heaven, the house of God, and
sweeps the apartments of the Highest"
The good sweeper goes to heaven, however,
after death; but In the heaven of the
sweeper there Ia nothing to do but bathe
and sit at ease. The bad sweeper on the
other hand, goes to hell, where he Is tor
mented by fire and wounds till the Deity Is
pleased to vouchsafe relief. Between these
two extremes ia a kind of purgatory, where
the sweeper who is not good enough for
the one place and not bad enough for the
other undergoes q sort of probation which
either kills or cures him.
or Bslmik, the great lerder of one sect of
sweepers, and now himself, like Pir Jhots,
a sweeper in the courts of heaven: the &C
counts differ so widely that 1t is difficult
to identify him. 1t seems clear, however,
that with the profession ofsweeper he COM
bined the recreation of poetry, and
there is some amount of evidence in favor
of his having been the author of the Ra-
mayana. He lie alternately represented as
a low caste hunter of the Karnal Nerdsk,
and as Bhil highwayman who was con-
verted by saint whom he was about 10
rob. There is legend, too, that he lsy
down bis life for the sweepers of Bensres,
and induced the people of that city to ad.
NIT sweepers into their presence, as they
had never done before.
AS for Lalbeg, the other great leader, he
takes us back at once into the days of Ho-
meric myth. He was born from the coat |
of Bslmik and suckled by hsre-in proof |
whereof Chuhrss to this day abstain from |
eating hares. On the other hand, Lslbeg |
was also born from a pitcher, through the |
power of Abdul Kader Jilani, and when the |
Prophet Elias was turned into a sweeper |
for splitting on the saints in heaven, 1t was |
Lslbeg who relieved him. He was born |
also to the barren wife of Shsik Ssrna of |
Moolton; go that altogether there can be |
no doub. as to his existence. Even a sweep
er leader is not born thrice for nothing.
Maj. Temple, it is true, denies the per-
aonality Of the man, deriving his name
from "Lsl bhekh," or bhikhss, the Red
Monk-or, more properly, saffron-colored
monk-sn abstract personifcation of the |
priests of the sweepers, and generic only.