BHIL TRIBES.
388
of giving the blood
right
belief that the
to
damp
claimed
is
man from whose
veins
their zeal for this usage.
would gladly
let
by certain
The
which
it
and the fails
Rajputs, on the other hand,
the practice die, as they say that they shrink from
The
the application of this impure Bhil blood. dislike to the
families,
flows dies within a year
it
ceremony
is
true
ground of
their
probably due to the quasi-acknowledgment
conveys of their need of investiture by an older and conquered
race.
The Bhi'ls, The Mughals
although grouped in distinct classes, are one people.
(1600) found them hard-working and loyal subjects, and under the Delhi emperors they seem to have continued quiet and orderly. But during the i8th century, in the disturbances that marked the transfer of power from the Mughals to the Marathas, they asserted their independence ; and the Marathas, failing to bring them to order, treated
them
their lives
as outlaws,
without
trial.
and permitted
A
their lowest officers to take
Bhil caught in a disturbed part of the
country was, without inquiry, flogged and hanged.
Exposed
Torture was freely
and
his ears shaved was burnt to death chained to a red-hot iron Hundreds were thrown over a high cliff near Antur, and large seat. bodies of them, assembled under a promise of pardon, were beheaded Their women were mutilated or smothered by or blown from guns. smoke, and their children dashed to death against the stones.
used.
from
to
with his nose
the sun,
slit
his head, the Bhil
Cruelties like these drove the Bhils to desperation.
They took
refuge
Western Vindhyas and the Satpuras, or along the forest-covered banks of the Mahi, the Narbada, and the In these tracts, protected by the nature of the country, they have Tapti.
in the rocky fastnesses of the
since dwelt.
The
Bhils, roving
and
restless
by disposition, and
necessity, long defied their oppressors.
skilful
hunters by
Superstitious in the extreme,
and possessing little attachment to fixed spots, their hive-like habitations on the isolated knolls were abandoned without regret on the occurrence of any evil omen. Addicted to bouts of drinking, they burst forth in frenzied bands on the more settled country, and were a scourge to the lowlands.
Ten thousand
of the Gaekwar’s troops,
sent for the purpose of their coercion, were defeated and driven with
After an unsuccessful attempt on the 1818 to bring them to order by force, kinder A large body of the Bhils were thus measures were resorted to. reclaimed. They took service under our officers, and formed a Bhil This corps stormed the corps which in 1827 numbered 600 men.
disgrace from their fastnesses. part of the
British in
fastnesses of the unreformed sections of the race, seized their leaders,
and reduced the whole of the clans to habits of order. By the personal influence of some of their early officers, Robertson, Ovans, and Outram,
