The daily picket. (Canton, Miss.) 18??-19??, 1903-06-25
THE TRIBES OF BOMBAY.
Singular Marriage Customs and 9th
er Peculiar Practices of
the People.

the People.
The first of series of monographs
dealing with the ethnographical sur
vey of Bombay has been issued. The
survey is being carried out under the
direction of Mr.. r. E. Enthoven, the
superintendent of the provincial cen
sus, and, says the Bombay Gazette, it
is proposed to issue monographs Civ
ing as full an account as possible of
the most important or most interest
ing tribes in the presidency. To make
the work of the survey as complete
and as accurate as may be, Mr. En-
thoven invites the assistance of all
who may be able to supply informa-
tiOn regarding the various castles in
to which the population is split up.
The educated members of castles will
no doubt avail themselves of the op-
portunity to submit materials con-
cerning the origin and customs Of
their communities, They can also as
sist, as Mr.. Enthoven asks them to,
by useful criticism of the various
monographs as they are published,
for it is intended to finally republish
the whole Of the series in a single
volume. The survey will include an
4hropome trieal operations, and be-
ginning in this direction has been al
ready made in making physical meas
urements of Brahmans, Marathas,
Kunbis, Bills and Mahars.
Totemism, which is still found in
certain tribes. and the survival of
particular marriage customs are
among the special matters in regard
to which it is hoped that much new
information wili be elected as re-
suit of the present Investigations.
The monograph which has just been
published is an account of the Ahir
tribe, the materials for which have
been collected and compiled by Mr.
ID. r. Bhandarkar from the Bombay
Gazette and other sources. The
Ahirs number 1O4,S94 and are espe-
cially numerous in Khandesh, Mask.
Clutch and Kathiawar, by far the
largest numbers being found in the
Two last named parts of the presi-
dency. The Ahirs of Clutch and Ka-
thiawar, however, differ considerably
from those of the Deccan districts,
no doubt as the result of local inhu-
ences. There have been various the
ories as to the origin of the tribe,
but the conclusion now reached is
that they were at first a non-Hindoo
and a non-Aryan tribe Of shepherds
or herdsmen, leading nomadic life
They were subsequently Incorporate
ed into the Goala caste, an expert
ence that occurred to many other
foreign or aboriginal pastoral tribes.
1t is considered probable that they
entered India from Afghanistan and
migrated from the Punjaub eastward
and southwark. They appear to have
held sway over Khandesh, Mask, Ka-
thiawar, Palanpur and Cutch and the
greater part of Goojerat was in their
possession when the Kathis appeared
there in the eighth \ century. In
Khandesh the Ahirs form so great
proportion of the population that
the Khandesh dialect of Marathi is
called Ahirani, and is spoken by
half the people. In Clutch and Kathi-
awar they have also preserved their
own dialect.
AS to the customs of the tribe in
Che latter parts of the country. the
widow of an Ahir marries her late
husbands younger brother. In the
Deccan the widow is generally mar
ried in the same way, or to her
cousin by her mother-in-law or aunt
in-law, though if she be an adult she
can marry any man she likes. Tote
mistic sects exist among these peo-
pie, showing their non-Aryan origin,
while the theory of their foreign ori-
gin is strengthened by the fact that
the people of one of their endoga-
nous sections are called Romabans.
This is held to point to a foreign
horde from Romak, identified by San
skirt scholars with Alexandria and
other places outside India where as
tronomy was studied. The mono
graph of the Ahirs is an admirable
beginning of the series to be pub
lished, and indicates the valuable re-
suits which will accrue from the sur
vey now being carried out.