The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1893-09-07
THE SWEEPERs OF INDIA.
Interesting Legends \ bout One OF the
Many Castles of That Country.

Among the yet unsolved problems
OF Indian ethnology, and one that
the census has only dealt with to
make confusion worse COMPOUNDED. is
the religion of the sweeper caste. It
seems clear enough through all the
confusion that the supreme deity of
the Chubras is Laljura or Lalbeg, "a
god without form or dwelling place"
A mound of earth surmounted by
a piece of stick and a bit of cloth for
alag is this deity's shrine, and to it
poojah is made and a little sacrifice
offered of ghee, or grain. It needsno
conservation, this simple shrine, and
wherever the sweeper may be, if sick
ness comes or "a gift is desired. the
little shrine may be set up with it's
queer bit of rag and stick, and the
worshiper's prayer is made. It is
curious to note how this primitive
faith differs from Hindooism, both
ancient and modern, as well as from
Buddhism.
The sweeper will have nothing to
do, for instance, with the transmigra-
ton of souls. Once a sweeper, al
ways sweeper, and even the ideal
sweeper, Pr Jhota, with his broom
OF gold and a 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 is
nothing to do but battle 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 is a kind
Of purgatory, where the sweeper
who is not good enough for one place
and not bad enough for the other
undergoes a sort of probation which
either kills or cures him.
Of Balmik, the great leader of one
sect of sweepers, and now himself,
like Pr Jhota, a sweeper in the courts
Of heaven, the accounts differ so
widely that it is difficult to identify
him. 1t seems clear, however, that
with the profession of sweeper he
combined the recreation of poetry,
and there issome amount of evidence
in favor Of his having been the au-
thor of the Ramayana. He is alter
lately represented as q low caste
hunter of the Karnal Nardak and as
Bill highwayman who was con-
yerted by saint whom he was about
20 rob. There is a legend, too, that
he laid down his life for the sweepers
Of Benares and induced the people of
that city to admit sweepers into their
presence, as they had never done be-
fore.
AS for Lalbeg, the other great
leader, he takes us back at once into
the days of Homeric myth. He was
born from the coat of Balmik and
sucked by hare-in proof whereof
Chubras to this day abstain from eat
ing hares On the other hand, Lal-
beg was also born from pitcher,
through the power of Abdul Kader
Jilani, and when the Prophet Elias
was turned into a sweeper for spit
ting on the saints in heaven it was
Lalbeg who relieved him. He was
born also to the barren wife of Shaik
Sarno of Mooltan, so that altogether
there can be no doubt of his exist
/ ence. Even a sweeper leader is not
born thrice for nothing. Major Tenn
pie, it is true, denies the personality
of the man. deriving his name from
''Lal bhokh," or bhikha, the Red
Monk-or more properly saffron col
ored monk-an abstract personifca-
ton of the priest of the sweepers,
and generic only. Times of India.