After A Century and A Quarter by G.S Ghurye

AFTER A CE
TUR
AND A QU
RTE
LONIKAND THEN AND NOW
G. S. GHUR YE
,Lessor Emeritus o( Sociology
Univel'liity of Bombay
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811 cIu! .. me autlun"
Caste and Class in India

Indian Costume
Culture and Society
O(;cidental Civilization
Indian Sadhus
Racc Relations in Negro Africa
The Mahadev Kolis
&xual Behaviour of the American Female
Fa m ily and Kin in Indo-European Culture
Vidyas
Hharata Natya and Its Costume
The Scheduled Tribes
AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER
~a 1 . 1~09'5i 79'L
~u
@ G. S. GKURYI:
First impression:
June 1960
Jaiyshtha 1882
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PREFACE
THE COLLECTION of the material which form the basis of
this book was inspired by Coats' study of Lonikand, a viii g
near Poona, made in 1819. It was made possible by th
research grant which the Syndicate of the Univ rsity of
Bombay kindly placed at my disposal for a pilot-surv y in
Haveli taluka in the years 1954 to 1958. The actual field work
in accordance with the plan of this pilot-survey was carried
out by Dr. L . N. Chapekar and then by Dr. M. G. Kulkarni,
both being then Research Assistants in the Univer ity Department of Sociology. Dr. Kulkarni further helped with th
sample-survey and the preparation of the manuscript. Dr. A.
Bopegamage prepared the plan of Lonikand print daft r
"Perspective". I am deeply thankful to these friend s.
G. S. GHlJRYJ:
"Prasad"
Khar, Bombay 52
1-6-60
CONTENTS
v
PREFACE
PERSPECTIVE
PLAN
XI
OF LoNIKAND
1.
LoNIKANO :
2.
ORGANIZED SOCIAL LIVING
25
3.
RELICIO-SOCIAL
44
4.
DOMESTIC LIFE :
5.
DOMESTIC LIFE : SoclO-EcONOMIC
6.
APPR.A ISAL
GENERAL VIEW
BIO-SOCIAL
70
R2
107
"No one can study the growth of towns without a realization

that their siting, their expansion or retrogression and their
irrftuence upon national life are due to many factors, physical
conditions, historical developments and, in part, the quality
of their townsmen."
-S1II WILLIAM SAVAGE
in
The Making
01
O1.lr To1D'l\.8 .
"If a positive policy of town and country planning is to be

pursu d with advantage, it must be backed by a progressive
understanding 'Of the personal and social needs of the
community and of how environmental conditions affect
the satisfaction of these needs and the development of
community life. To create this understanding demands wide
nd continuous factual observation and study."
- Report of the Committee on Qualifications

of Town-planners in
Town and Count", Planning, 1941-51
(Cmci 82(4)
LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS
A typlc.J village scene.
The spreading neem tree in front of the Chawdl with typical ho
In
the background and the way leading out to the Poona-Ahmedn ar
Road.
The Chawdl-the community centre.
Storeyed houses of some of the well-la-do people In the Shlnd -ali near
the Vithal-Rukmini temple of the Ravirao Shinde family.
Another group of typical houses.
One of the worse type of hous
In the Maharwada.
Newer type of houses.

Maharwada-the quarters where the scheduled caste of M hars live.
View of the Shlnde-ali with the Vithal-Rukrnlni temple In the background and crumbling village waU- lIea-further to the right.
The residencc-cum-shop and the Mali tea shop. off th
Poona
Ahmadnagar road about the spot where n lane lends Into the villaa .
The village-well.
Charnbharwada-the quarters where thc scheduled
Chrunbhars live, off the Poonn-Ahmadnngnr road.
caste
of
th
The old dilapidated temple of Mnhadev near the cremation ground with
the 'tulasi-vrindavan' by its side.
The lane leading out of the main
gat~Dlndj DarlDaja .
Aspect of the village looking Inwards from the Chawdl.

Side view of the Bhairav temple near the temple or Mahadev.
The temple of Mahadev in the north-east quarter of the vUlage.
The temple of Vithal-Rukm1ni built by the Ravirao Shinde family with
ita 'nagarkh1ina', the drumhouae, at the hitherend.
The 'Sthan' of Mhasoba.
A Lohar-blacksmith-at work in his worksbop attaclled to hI. hoUle.
A Chambhar-leatherworker-at work in his hoUle.
PERSPECTIVE
G
ROUPINGS of human beings b s d on

space or locality and those centred on
interests of all kinds are mor r c nt than
groupings based on kinship. If early humanity order d its life
through the grouping of the horde or the ext nded family, it
rooted itself in spatial groupings in many parts of the world
from the Neolithic age. And the usage of American sociologists designating a spatial grouping alone as community
stresses the significance of this mode of grouping. Its arH st
type is what in English is called a village, i.e., a group of
human beings who live by working on land within a fairly
restricted area. There is no doubt that humanity, civiliz d or
non-civilized, lived as members of these tiny communities
called villages, with whatever interconnection possible, for
long, before in Mesopotamia or more probably in Pal stin ,
one of its sections devised the newer mode of spatial grouping
called a town or a city. Everybody knows that, though some
1:ot only large but even very large cities existed long before
the nineteenth century of the Christian era, it is only during
the nineteenth and even more so in the first half of our c ntury
that towns and cities have grown tremendously in numb r
and in size.
The growth in number and in size of towns and cities is
due among other things to the growth of population. It stands
to reason that growth of population, which is not the sole
cause of the growth in number and in size of towns and cities,
may not leave the primary spatial grouping of village without
significant change. TI-.rough the main technological stages,
muscle, steam and even electricity, the importance of face to
face intercourse between and first-hand contact of human beiugs has remained paramount, whatever may be the case in
xii
the newer stage of nuclear and automational technology.

The community of a village requires some men who have
the appropriate qualities and the necessary ability for leadership of the group. Perhaps the dictum that a group gets the
government it deserves embodies the valid experience that
appropriate leaders are inherent in the group itself. The
situation envisaged in this dictum is, however, one of status
quo and has no reference to the quality of life desired to be
achieved and lived. When one thinks of leaders for a comDlunity, one has in view a goal; and that is good and efficient
living for the group as a whole and its constituent individual
members. Size of a grouping and adequate number of appropriate leaders must have some relation. It should be possible
in theory to determine both the kind of leaders and their requisite number for a group of a specific size-varying within
certain limits-for a given type and kind of good and efficient
living. But do we know either through social history or
through contemporary and appropriate enquiry or through
social biology of our people whether the requisite number of
appropriate leaders will be generally found in a given size of
our population, and particularly in the kind of common villagl:!
population? Weare afraid that we have no data to go by on
this very important problem. We feel- it is a purely subjective and an a priori reasoning-that the probability of satisfying the leadership needs, without in the least minimizing the
role of specific and special education for leadership, in this
matter, is much greater in a fair-sized village than in the
small and very small ones.
The size of village commonly prevalent among preliterate
people may provide some indication of the more or less normal
size of this type of spatial grouping under rather primitive
technology. The Lango of East Africa, we are informed, live
in compact villages varying in size from 10 to 150 huts. l
Frankfort2 quotes Gordon Childe's statement that the settlements of Neolithic Europe covered no more than 1.5 to 6.5
acres each with eight to ten households. Later, Childe asserted
that the normal size of such a settlement was about 16 to 30
1. Encyclopaedia Britannica (14th Ed.), vide Lango.
2. The Birth of Civilization in the Near East, p . 37.
PERSPECTIVE
xiii
households with about 200 to 400 souls. Frankfort himself appears to concur in Childe's opinion as far as the ancient Near
East is concerned. Childes himself wrote: "The effective unit
of social organization in pure Neolithic times was generally
very small. A typical Thessalian village, rather advanced in
the period, covered an area of 100 by 45 meters or just over
one-tenth of an acre." Griffith Taylor, the geographer, thinks
that in modern European conditions a settlement with less
than 500 persons may be called a "village".4
In our civilization the unit of spatial grouping has continued to be named, over most of the country, after the Sanskrit term for it, viz., 'grama'. This term is as old as the
oldest extant literature not only of us Indians but also of the
whole human race, having been, quite often and in conjunction
with some specific traits of rural life, mentioned in the Rigveda 5 The word 'grama'-appearing in Indo-Aryan languages
of today as either 'gam' in North India and Gujarat, 'gai' in
Bengal or 'gav' in Maharashtra and in the Dravidian languages
as 'graum'G--etymologically means a collection, and in that
sense is quite current in such usages as 'indriyagrama', the
totali cy of senses. The headman of a village or its leader was
an important personage and was called 'gramat:li'. We do not
know either the size or the social structure of villages in the
Rigvedic age beyond this fact.
Some references in the Upanishads throw occasional light
on some features of rural life. Thus we know 7 that the
physical configuration usually contrasted with a village was
'arat:lya', forest. The settlement of a kingdom and the establishment of administration by a sovereign ruler are referred
to only in terms of villages. s The later contrast between
'paura' and 'janapada', i.e., town and country, does not figure;
instead only 'janapada', country and its folk 'janapadas' are
3. Man Makes Himself, p. 109
4. Our Evolving Civilization, p. 199.
5. Macdonell and Keith: Vedic Index, vide "Griima".
6. Manual of Administration of the Madra.6 Preridency,
(1893), p. 331.
7. Chhiindogya V., 10, 1-3.
8. Pras-na, ill, 4.
Vol. III
xiv
mentioned. And we are informed that a great king, evidently

greater than a local potentate, could remove his subjects from
one part of the country to another and ask them to settle down
where and when he chose.o That these villages, the units of
spatial grouping, were not isolated but on the contrary were
very well served by lines of communication, at least in the
north-western part of what was British India, is clear from
an express statement and an indirect reference, the latter testifying to the very well settled and organised mode of countryliving. To elucidate a certain relation between the individual
and the Sun, the similie of a great road stretching between
two villages and mutually connecting them is used. 1o The
use of an analogy of a man brought blindfold from the
Giindhiira country, round about Taxila, beyond its confines,
'atijana', and left there with his blinds removed and asked to
go to his country, being told in which direction it lay, even
more tellingly establishes the security and safety, good condition and regularity of inter-communication and roads from
one village to another in a chain. 1t
Indologists are accustomed to get unexpected sidelights
on a number of curious facts of ancient social life, in the
works of the great grammarians, Pii~ini and Pataiijali. These
revelations may be considered to be the actualities of about
the fifth to the second century B.C., at least in the region of
British India, extending from Taxila to Kanpur. In one of
his aphorisms, Pii~ini has mentioned "griima" village, and
'nagara' town in one compound. Pii~ini's mention of 'nagara'
is perhaps the oldest reference to town by this designation.
In the Rigveda, we come across mention of towns with the
appellation 'pur'.12 In later literature 'pur' or 'pura', which
is the basic word in the component 'paura' of the combination
'paurajiinapada',13 stands for town or urban and 'janapada' for
country or rural habitat. Yet, 'pur' or 'pura' is not the same
9. Brihadar~layaka, II, 1, 18.
10. Chhiindogya, VIII, 6, 2.
ll. Ibid., VI, 14, 1-2.
12. Vedic Index.
13. See Junagadh inscription of Rudradaman in D.C. Sircar, Select
Inscriptions, Vol. I, p. 174.
.
PJi)RSPECTIVE
xv
as 'nagara', the latter word being used to designate a large

town, a city, rather than a town; and further gradation is
indicated by the appellation 'mahanagara' great city14, and
'sakhanagara' sub-city 1 5 .
Patafijali commenting on Pfu:lini's aphorism lays down his
conclusion about the distinction between 'grama' and 'nagara'
by stating that there are four kinds or types of 'samstyaya's,
agglomerations of folk. They are 'grama', 'ghosha', 'nagara'
and'samvaha'. Of these 'samvaha' is not met with anywhere
and P.K. Acharya in his compendious and comprehensive
Dictionary of Architecture, too, does not list the word. Of the
first three, in later literature the term 'ghosha' generally denotes a cow-herds' village or hamlet. Almost in Pataii jali's
time 'nagara' had usurped the place of the older word 'pura'
as an appellation for an urban unit of habitation.
Kau~ilya has devoted a chapter of his work ArthaJastra
(1I, 1) to lay down the principles and practice of settling the
population 'janapada nivesa'. He prescribes that the physical
extent of a village, 'grama', should be betwee:n one and two
'kosa', i.e., between 2250 to 4500 yards. Ten such villages
were to have one fort for their protection. The unit of socioadministrative practice next to a village was one of ten villages. Manu too envisaged the same unit as the next larger
than a village. The next larger cluster, according to Kau~ilya,
for which a bigger fort was to be built, was formed by 200
villages. And bigger units for protection consisted of those of
400 and of 800 villages. Manu's scheme envisaged a group
of 20, of 100, and of 1000 villages for administrative purposes.
His exhortation for the provision of military protection seems
to be perfunctory, contemplating as it does, units of one, two,
five and hundr~d villages. I6
Inscriptional evidence does not bear out this schematic
hierarchy of village grouping. In a copper-plate grantI7 of the
famous king, Vakpatiraj of Dhara dated 980 A .C. a donated
14 MahapaTinibb ana Su.tta, S.B.E. Series, Vol. XI, p . 99; P. K.
Acharya, ManasaTa.
15. Mahlibh{irata, XII, 87, 6-8.
16. Manusmriti, VII, 114-17.
17. Indian Antiqu.ary, XIV, p . 159.
xvi
village is described as belonging to the 'Tinisapadradvadasaka',

Tinisapadra- Twelve, i.e., to the group of twelve villages known
from its principal village as such. Another18 , belonging to
the 11th century A.C. and hailing from Kotah, describes a
village as situated in the twelve-village-group of a particular
village, the name of which cannot be correctly deciphered, and
the latter as situated in the district of 'Chachchuroni'. Further south, according to a record of the 11th century from
Bijapur taluka 1o , the village Honwad was a member of the
Bage-Fifty group-a group of fifty villages with Bage as its
chief village. Bage is identified with Raibag. This group
was included in another bigger unit which was a Six-Hundred
group though unnamed. And this last formed part of a still
larger unit, which is called the 'Taddavadi Thousand' and
was evidently a group of one thousand villages. 'Taddavadi
Thousand' is otherwise called 'Taddavadi-nad'.
Grouping of villages into larger units leads one to an
inquiry about the total number of population settlements in
the country. The total number of settlements or villages in
an administrative or political unit may change in accordance
with changes in the fortunes of kings or their dynasties. This
change is due to inclusion in or exclusion from a particular
administrative or political unit. But it cannot affect the total
number of villages in a particular region or country. The
previous condition of settlements, the prosperity or otherwise
over long periods and the r.ate of growth of population and
its quality determine the increase, decrease or statu.s quo of
their number.
In the Haveli taluka of which Lonikand is a constituent
village, the total number of villages has continued to be almost
the same for over a century. We have come across only one
village which did not figure at the Census of 1881 but did so
about 20 years thereafter. Available land having come to be
assigned to different units, new units can only start as subunits and may rise to the status of independent villages or
the pre-existing units may grow in size of their population.
It appears to us that it is the latter process that has been
18. EpigTaphia Indica, XXIII, pp. 131-35.
19. Indian Antiquary, XIX, pp. 268-9.
PERSPECTIVE
xvii
going on, not over a century or so, but, over more than a
thousand years.
A few of the inscriptional records make mention of the
number of villages comprised within a particular region or a
political unit whose extent we know or have reason to be sure
about. Thus the famous Aihole inscription of about the 7th
century AC. specifies the total number of villages comprised
in what the record refers to as the 'three Maharashtras' over
which a particular king ruled, as ninety-nine thousand. It is
not quite certain as to exactly what portion of our country
was covered by the 'three Maharashtras', as the earliest mention of Maharashtra as a unit occurring in the stone pillar
inscription from Eran in Saugar District refers to only one
Maharashtra 20 In another inscription according to AS. Altekar21 dated 768 AC. the Karhataka district in Maharashtra
had 4000 villages. The number of villages comprised in Karhataka is stated in 1054 A.C. to have been 10,000. This change
. ill all probability was the result of administrative or political
manipulation. The country of Puri Konkana, which in the
inscriptional records is equivalent to our present districts of
Nasik and Thana and also included a part of Kolaba district,
had about 1100 AC. fourteen thousand villages 22 About
eighteen eighties these districts comprised a total number of
4859 villages and 2290 hamlets! In an inscription of 1079 AC.,
the Amoda plates of Prithvideva II, the entire area known
as Kosala-to gauge the extent of Kosala, one must be reminded that the whole of Chhattisgarh Division equals only
southern portion of Kosala-is said to contain twenty-one
thousand villages 23 Another part of the country nearby, the
Komomandala of the inscriptions, corresponding to the modern
1'egion surrounding the village Komo in the Pendra Zamindari, 25 miles north by west of Ratanpur, had 750 villages
about the middle of the 12th century AC. Another area in
the quarter, Dandora of the inscriptions and Sarguja State
of today, comprised 2100 villages, and Baghelkhand nine
20.
21.
22.
23.
V.V. Mirashi, Inscriptions in the KaZachuri Chedi Era, pp. 608-09.

State and Government in Ancient India (1955, ed.) , p. 201.
Mirashi, Zoc. cit. CXXXIV, 149.
Mirashi. 01>. cit .. 1)1). 404. 454.
xviii
AFTER A
CENTURY AND .It.
QUABTR
hundred. The inscription which provides this information

records that 5600 villages constituted the country called
Vihara, which is not identified2-l. In the third quarter of the
16.h century according to Abu! Fazal's2~ data, Jhalawad-only
a part of present Saurashtra-contained 1200 villages. May
we not conclude that the total number of unit settlements or
villages in our country appears to have remained more or less
the same for over a thousand years?
There must have existed other types of habitats, perhaps
smaller than and as parts of a village or others bigger than
a standard village as the occurrence of the word 'palli'2G meaning a hamlet, shows. But their actual record cannot be dated
earlier than the first century A.C., getting first mention in the
Mahabhiirata, the Manusmriti and the Yajnavalkyasmriti. We
read in t.he first-mentioned work (III, 13, 220) not only about
'janapada's or rural units and 'nagara's or cities but also
about 'khe~as'. 'Khe~a', which is unmistakably the original
of the modern Marathi term 'khe~en' for a village and the
basis for the Gujarati word 'khe~ut', is next attested in a list
of types of habitats recorded in the Bhagawata-pura~la (V, 30) ,
quoted by P .K. Acharya 27 The village par excellence in
Western India towards the end of the ancient period evidently
gave its appellation to the modern district of Khaida in Gujalat. Acharya28 has referred to some inscriptions of about the
6th to the 8th century AC. in which a whole district or even
perhaps a division is called 'khe~aka'-'Khe~akamaJ;l~ala' or
'Khe~akahara'. 'Khe~aka' as the name of a particular village
occurs in a Rashtrakuta inscription of the reign of Krishna II. .
In a Karnataka inscription, again quoted by Acharya, the
word appears in the modern Marathi form of 'khe~a', as a
type of spatial grouping along with other types which graced
the Kuntaladesa or Karnataka.
In inscriptions of the middle of the 7th century A.C.
modern Sankheda in Broach district and Pimpalner near
24. Ibid., pp. 451-54.
25. Jarrett and Blockmann, Ain-I-Akbari, Vol. ll, p. 242.
26 . Saptasati.
27. Manasara, Vol. VII, vide 'Khetaka'.
28. Ibid.
PRSPECTIVE
xix
Dhulia in West Khandesh appear as LSangamakhe~aka' and

'Pippalakhe~agrama'29 .
Yajnavalkya, about the 2nd century A.C., is perhaps the
earliest author and also one of the very few-may be almost
the only one--who gives some indication of the sizes of the
different types of habitational units current in the country in
his time. He 30 mentions only three types, two of which, the
smallest and the biggest are 'grama', village, and 'nagara', city.
The intermediate type he designates 'kharva~a'. Apararka
commenting on the passage from Yajnavalkya states. that
'kharava~a' is a collection of houses which is bigger than a
village and smaller than a 'nagara', city.
Medhatithi, an early commentator, about the 9th century
A.C. commenting on a passage in the Manusmriti (VIII, 219)
states that a 'grama', village, is a collection of 'sala's, houses.
The definition of 'grama', village, given by Medhatithi appears
to have been acceptable to writers like Apararka. And it ean
be seen that though it is incomplete and imperfect, none which
is proposed or accepted is completely satisfactory. The only
specification that should be attempted is to state the minimum
and maximum number of houses which when in juxtaposition,
is a collection large enough to function as a unit of orderly
living.
Manasiira (IX, 456) does not appear to make any distinction between 'grama' and 'nagara', while, Vishwariipa, a
writer later than Apararka, commenting on the above-referred
to passage from ajnavalkyasmriti interprets the term 'khar' va~a' to mean a particular type of village, viz., one in which
the main vegetation is thorny or prickly. And the fact is
that the term does not appear in later literature as a designation of a village proper, except in the Karnataka inscription
already referred to.
Ano cher word designating a village or a village-like unit
is 'palli'. As we have mentioned elsewheres1, the word is
listed in Sanskrit lexicons and is known in descriptive lite29. V. V. Mirashi, l1~scriptions in the Kalachuri Chedi Era, pp. 76.
112, 114.
30. Ydjnavalkyasmriti, II, 167.
31. G. S. Ghurye, The Scheduled Tribes .
)ex
AFTER
A CENTURY AND
A QUARTER
rature of modern times in connection with the social organization of the Bhils of Rajasthan and Malwa. It is not described
in any of the Sanskrit works mentioned above. But it occurs
more than once in the Prakrit work, SaptaJati of Hala, generally assigned to the 2nd century AC. and considered to be
representative of popular usages, as a designation of a regular
village, with its headman named in the standard manner, as
'grama':li'. Inscriptions of the 5th to the 8th century AC. in
the Kalachuri Chedi era, however, record a number of villages
with names ending in 'palli' and more often in 'pallikii'33. Thus,
we have 'Suvarnarapalli' Sankheda in Broach district, 'Purohitapallika', modern Pal and 'Wara<_:lapallikii, modern Bardoli
ill Surat district and 'Kamsarapallikii', 'Maureyapallikii', 'Sawaneyapallika', modern Karholi, Morwadi and Samundi respectively in Nasik district.
'Padra' or 'padraka' is another term which in old records
designated a village or was the last member of its name. Just
as the term 'khe~a' meaning a village is preserved in the name
Kheda, a town in Gujarat, in its own form, so another village
in the same region has preserved the term 'padra'. Pardi near
Navsari in Gujarat is identified with 'padraka' mentioned in
Navsari plates of 739 AC.34
The earliest record of the occurrence of 'padra' as the
end-member of the name of a village occurs, however, in early
Nasik inscriptions3ii One of about 120 A.C. records among
many other gifts that of ~ cocoanut palms in the village of
'Chitkhalapadra' in the district of 'Karpura', while another of
about 150 AC. records the grant of the villages 'PiSachipadraka' and 'Siilmalipadraka'. Another inscription of the fourth
century A.C. attests the currency of this term 'padraka' further east in the name of 'Akasapadra' a village in Akola
district 36 and another of the beginning of the fifth century
further north in Barwani in the name 'Sohajanapadraka'.
Sondarn, a village about twelve miles north of the Narmada
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
VII, 28, 31, 32.

Mirashi, op. dt., pp. 27, 76, 118, 156.
Ibid. p . 139.
Sircar, op. cit., pp. 159, 196-202.
Ibid., p. 207.
PERSPECTIVE
appears as 'Samipadraka' in an inscription of 706 A.C. and

'Sirishapadraka' was the name of a village in Anklesvar taluka
of Broach district in the 7th century 3i. An inscription of the
11th century A.C. from Shergadh in Kotah district records
the grant of a village called 'Vilapadraka'38.
In Maharashtra the word is still in use as a designation
of a hamlet or a special village at least. Thus 'Agripa~' is a
village of Agris. 'Navpa9a', new village, too occurs as the name
of a village or villages. According to Appadorai39 , in Tamil
inscriptions of the 11th to the 13th century or so, though Cur'
was the term applied to a village in the agricultural tracts,
villages in the pastoral tracts were variously called 'ur', 'ceri',
'palli' and 'pa9i'. The last word is no doubt the same as
Marathi 'pa91i'; and even in agricultural tracts small villages
were called 'pa9agai', i.e., hamlet. 'Pa9agai' can har dly bu t
be dimunitive of 'pa9a'.
The physical extent, the number of inhabitants and the
structure and functioning of this physical unit of economic,
social, administrative and political life of the people are aspects of rural settlements which naturally attract our serious
attention and are unfortunately either not mentioned, or, if
mentioned, very perfunctorily so, in old literature and inscriptions. Thus, Kaulilya40, whose categorical injunction that the
physical extent of a village should vary between 2250 to 4500
yards is referred to above, lays down that on the population
side it should be peopled with not less than hundred and not
more than five hundred families of Sudra cultivators. The
minimum number of families prescribed gives us at least four
hundred persons as the constituent inhabitants of a village.
The smallest size of village permitted by the same authority,
taking the dimension mentioned as the measure of its radius
only, could give about 5 square miles for the inhabitants. This
is evidently a very high minimum!
In the Smritis of Manu (VIII, 237) and Y1ijnavalkya (II,
167) we learn that two contiguous villages were, as far as
37.
38.
39.
40.
Mirashi, op. cit., pp. 18, 82-3, 59-65.

Epigraphia Indica, xxm, pp. 131-35.
Economic Conditions in South em India, Vol. I, pp. 77-8 & f.n. 32.
Arthasdstra, II, 1.
xxii
AFTER A CENTURY A N D A QUARTER
their cultivated or cultivable fields were concerned, to be

separated by an open uncultivated area, whose extent was
in the measuring practice of the times, one hundred bows.
Both Medhatithi, the oldest commentator, and Kulliika, the
late Bengali commentator of Manu, explain the measure of a
'bow as equal to four hands. Computing one hand to equal
one and a half foot in modern terms, the open and uncultivated space between two contiguous villages would have been
150 feet wide. The extent of this open country was in the
case of a city, 'nagara', to be only thrice this measure according
to Manu but four times according to Yajnavalkya.
The extent of open country, as Manu makes it very clear,
was specifically intended as a free grazing or wandering land
for the animals of the villages. Nobody had a right to raise
any crop in this area without an adequate fence round it.
But Yajnavalkya, as interpreted by the commentators, is more
emphatic and specifically prescribes it to be left without any
cultivation, whether protected or unprotected. We cannot
ascertain from this injunction the actual physical extent of
an average village in the time of either Manu or Yajnavalkya.
Nor even Manasara, the great authority on architecture who
came perhaps two centuries after Yajnavalkya, enables us to
form a fairly accurate idea about it. As P.K. Acharya 41 points
out, Manasara's plan of a village envisages it as a walled
place, with four gates at the four corners and a wide road
running round inside the wall and dividing the village into
four main blocks. It is very remarkable that the plan of
Lonikand given at the outset resembles so closely Mlinasara's
ideal plan of fifteen centuries before!
While North Indian inscriptions, to judge from those collected together by D.C. Sircar and also from the later ones
collected together by V.V. Mirashi, do not help to shed any
light on the size of villages, those from South India between
1000 and 1500 A.C. have enabled Appadorai 42 to give us illuminating data. He states that the size of villages in South India
during the above-mentioned period differed widely. According to one record a new village was settled on a piece of land
41. Op. cit., VIII, vide 'gram a' .
42. Op. cit., pp. 73-74.
PERSPECTIVE
xxiii
measuring 12 'velis' or 80 acres. The Tanjore inscription

detailing the sizes of 17 villages is much more to the point
.lUd likely to be much more representative of the prevalent
state 'of affairs. The sizes varied from two 'velis' or 13! acres
to 152 'velis' or about 1014 acres.
We have an old account of the founding of Muruda, a
village in the Konkana, about three centuries ago, brought to
light in 1865 by V.N. Mandlik 43 Muruda, which is today
almost a town, was in 1865 a very big village with a population of about 1358 persons. Besides Brahmins, there were
Sonars, Kallsars, Bhandaris, Kunbis, SULars, Nhavis, Parits,
Chambhars, Lingayat Guravs and Muslims residing in the villuge. Mandlik from available evidence concluded that the
village was founded in the 13th or the 14th century, more
than two centuries before the extant document. The founding party had not more than thirteen Brahmin families with
them. Their leaders acquired a cleared jungle near the village
of Asuda and divided it among the thiri:een families. When
and how the other sections of the population of Muruda came
there we are not informed. Nor do we get any idea of the
total land owned by the village proprietors at its founding.
As was correctly observed in 1786-87: "The boundaries of
the villages have been but seldom altered; and though the
villages themselves have been sometimes injured, and even
desolated by war, famine and disease, the same name, the
same limits, the same interests and even the same families
have continued for ages."44
The internal structure and functioning of a village have
received still less notice in the early literature and find relatively very meagre place even in the inscriptions. We early
bave the word 'gramal)i' and we know from Vedic literature
that he was in all probability the headman of a village. We
know for certain that he was a very important personage
in the political set-up of a kingdom. His significance in the
coronation ceremony renders it probable that he was a leader
of village folk rather than an officer appointed over them by
43. Ma.ndlik'a Writings and Speeches, pp. 201-6.
44. Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the Houae of
Commons.
xxiv
their king.
When we come to the age of the early Smritis we find
that in Manusmriti 'gramaI;!'i' is replaced by 'gramika'. The
headman ' in this normative literature is no longer called
'gramaJ:li'. This change from old practice is the more intriguing because we find that popular literature of the same
period speaks of 'gramaJ:li'. And the way it speaks of him
assures us that he was an august personage, his son playing
pranks with or being covetted as a lover by the village lasses,
his daughter being sought after by most eligible youths and
his wife proudly assuring the village-folk of her husband's
capability to protect them against eventualities45
Manu 46 who exhorts his king to appoint an officer for
every village as the overlord, 'adbipati', i.e., as the manager,
administrator or protector, speaks of him as 'gramika' and not
a~ 'grama':li'. The 'gramika' was entitled to receive from the
villagers, his subjects so to say, whatever was due to be paid
to the king in daily rations and services from them. Over
and above these dues in kind, the head or overlord of ten
villages was entitled, free of all dues, to have a piece of
village land measuring a 'kula'. The term 'kula' as explained
by the Bengali commentator Kulluka denoted as much land
as could be ordinarily ploughed and cultivated with the help
01 two ploughs, each drawn by six bullocks.
The text from Hiiritasmriti quoted by Kulluka about the
grades of ploughs in use hy cultivators is interesting. Four
grades were distinguished, the fourth of which drawn by
three bullocks was an extraordinary variety and specific to
certain criminals. The first variety was the one drawn by
eight bullocks. Readers' special attention may be drawn here
to the observation of Coats made more than a century and a
quarter before about the currency of such ploughs in Lonikand which is referred to in the sequel. It is noteworthy that
this type of plough was the most standard one as it was
called 'dbarmahala', just-plough. The second variety employed only six bullocks and was meant for ordinary cultivators
for subsistence. Kulluka calls it the 'madhyamahala', the
45. BaIa, Saptasati, I, 30-31, IV, 70, V, 10, VI, 92, VII, 8, VIII 28, 31-2.
46. Manusmriti, VIT, 115-19.
PERSPECTIVE
xxv
middling-plough. The third type drawn by four bullocks only

was employed by householders, [who were twice-born] .
The early commentator Medhatithi interprets 'kula' to
mean a part of a village and provides us with the interesting
piece of information that it denoted a part of a village generally known as 'ha~~a'-note the synonym which means a
bazaar or market--but in some regions as 'ush~a'.47
Inscriptions, one from Bellary district, another from Dinajpur district and a third from Bhumara in Nagod district and
a fourth from Dhara, thus representing four widely separated
parts of the country, mention 'gramika' as the chief officer,
person or as the headman of a village. TheY's are dated about
225, 482, 509 and 980 A.C. respectively. Fleet commenting on
the term in the last-mentioned inscription added the note that
the officer or person corresponded to Marathi 'pa~il' and
Kannada 'gau~a'.
The chief person and the headman of a village in current
terminology is called 'pa~il' or 'patel' in Indo-Aryan speaking
regions. In the Dravidian-speaking areas he is variously
known as 'monigar', 'pot ail' , 'naidu', 'reddy', 'peddacaupu',
'nautamcar' etc. 49 Mirashi GO has drawn our attention to inscriptions, the earliest of which is the one from Mandhata on
the Narmada, others being from Dhureti in Rewa, Jubbulpore and Kumbhi and dated between 8th to the 12th century ~
which make mention as an important person of 'panakila'.
Marathi 'pa~' is the direct descendant of this Sanskrit word
'pa~~akila'.
In Maharashtra till about the end of the 15th century,

the headman of a village was called Mokadam. He acted in
the dual capacity of a leader of the village folk and of a Gov-
ernment officerGl Perhaps the earliest mention of 'patH',
'mokadam', is met with in a 'mahzar', judicial record, dated
47. Manusmriti, VII, 119.
48. D.C. Sircar, op. cit., pp. 205, 324; Fleet, Gupta Inscriptions, p. ll2 ,
Indian Antiquary, XIV, p. 161.
49. Manual of the Administration of the Madras Presidency, Vol..
I, p. 154.
50. Op. cit., pp. 331, 374, 652.
51. V.T. Gune, The Judicial System of the Marathas (1953) , pp. 19-20_
xxvi
AFT E R A CENTURY AND A 'QUARTER
1474 AC. It is noteworthy that his symbol attesting his signature in these records is a plough. Another judicial recordr.2
though a little later than this, being dated 1548 AC., is even
nlore interesting and pertinent as it refers to a dispute about
the 'pa!ilki' rights of the village Ravet in Haveli taluka, which
lies to the north-west of Poona city almost as distant from it
as Lonikand is to its north-east. And this happens to be
the earliest mention of the importance of 'pa~il' and also of
reference to him without the addition of the Muslim term
mokadam'. The importance and power of 'pii~l' may be
appreciated from the fact that even such a quietistic and carei-ree individual as the saint-poet Tukaram used the wrath of
the 'pa~l' and the village folk to illustrate his forlorn condition u3 It is well known that the great generals of the Shinde
family used to glory in being addressed as 'pa~ilbua'.
Elphinstone observes: G4 "The PatHs are most important
functionaries in the villages, and perhaps the most important
c1ass in the country."
In a number of inscriptions llG of North India and Maharashtra recording grants of villages or lands in villages, along
with the headman of the village concerned others called
'mahattaras' or 'mahallakas' are mentioned as persons to whom
the grant was made known or by whom the grant was noted
and acquiesced in. Perhaps the earliest reference to the term
'mahattara' is to be found in a Pallava inscription from Kondakur taluka, Guntur district, as it is assigned to the fourth
century AC. From the reference it is quite clear that the
term 'mahattara' signified an office or a dignity. A certain
temple, for the upkeep of which the inscription records a grant,
1S there described as the temple built by a 'mahattara' by name
Kuli. In an inscription from MaUasarul in Burdwan district
we find mentioned side by side Brahmins with adjectival prefixes from their villages with others to whose village-prefixes
52. Ibid, pp. 142-43.
53. . Abhanga No. 1708, p. 387 of Tukaram's Gotha (published by
Pandurang Javji).
54. Report on the Territories Conquered from the Paishwa, p. 15.
55. Mirashi, op. cit., pp. CX IV - V, 40-43, 114, 116; Indian Antiqv4ry,
XIX, pp. 304-10; Sircar, op. cit., pp. 281, 324, 342, 355, 417
PE.SPECTIVE
XX\..u
is added after them the term 'mahattara'IjG.

Two Bengal inscriptionsG7, one from Rajshahi district dated
432-33 A.C. and the other from Dinajpur district dated 482
A.C., mention a body called 'ash!akuladhikaral)a', the fonner
with the prefix 'grama' after the names of persons and the
latter with the prefix 'mahattara' after the names. The expression 'adhikaral)a' is a known technical term meaning 'court of
justice and office of administration'; and 'ash~akula' is taken
to signify families representing the villagers in their affairs
which generally numbered eight. It is held that the Bengal
village-life from about the first centuries after the Christian
era was regulated by a governing body of the village which
consisted of eight families, and therefore, had eight members.
We may add that some of these families or rather some of their
members bore the dignity or held the office called 'mahattara'.
If, as is rendered probable by the data, Bengal villages
regulated their affairs with the help of eight members from
the leading families of the village, in other parts, particularly
in Central India, there is inscriptional evidence to show that
the affairs of the villages there were conducted by a governing
body consisting of five persons and was therefore designated
'panchamal)~ali'. The Sanchi inscription 58 in which this tenn
occurs is dated 412 A.C. 'Panchamal)~ali,' both the idea and
the tenn, is the 'panchayat'1j9 of the recent past, continuing
present and evolving future. 'Panchayat', with the implicit
faith of the people that what the 'pancha's or even five persons
say and decide is the word and decree of God, came to control
and regulate village life in Maharashtra during the Peshwa
rule, as Gune60 has ably demonstrated. With the advent of
the British till almost today-or rather till about 1950, since
when the new Panchayats may be said to have established
themselves-Panchayat ruled in caste matters. And now has
begun its role in the evolving future of the village and national
56. Sircar, op. cit., pp. 444, 360-I.
57. Ibid, pp. 281, 324.
58. Sircar, op. cit., p. 273.
59. Mirasru, op. cit., p. 373, i.n. 6.
60. V.T. Gune, The Judicial System of the Marathas (1953), pp. 39,
49-50, 83.
xxviii
AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER:
community.
North of the Godavari, in Berar, Nagpur and Jubbulpore
region as also in U.P. the eleventh century inscriptions61 testify
to the existence of a compromise and composite institution ,
the village governing body or jury being called 'Panchakula'.
The term is compounded of the first part of 'panchamaJ:l<;iaU'
and the second part of 'ash~akula' of Eastern India or Bengal.
In the middle region of our country in the 11th century after
Christ, we may conclude, village affairs were controlled and
regulated by a governing body of five representing five families.
The functioning of villages in post-Muslim times till today
-when the old system of providing technical and special services for the efficient running of village life through hereditary
officers and servants with their rent-free land and seasonal
and occasional rights of perquisites in kind and in services is
being displaced-was dependent on a number of hereditary
officers and hereditary servants. These were variously named
in the different parts of the country. Whereas they were
known as 'balutas'-and this term in a slightly modified form
as 'balouta' occurs in the 13th century Marathi work of thegreat saint-poet Jnanesvara 62-in Maharashtra, 'ayangadee's in
Southern India 63 , 'wuswaya' in Gujarat6~. In the Punjab we
understand they are termed 'lagis'. The existence of these
hereditary servants is attested in the 11th to the 15th century
inscriptions of South India . Appadorai 65 states that they were
called 'ayagaras', 'kanachigaras', 'panimakkal' or 'gramaparikara'. The last term is compounded of the two Sanskrit words
'grama' meaning village and 'parikara' meaning retinue and is
thus significantly expressive.
In the large number of inscriptions recording grants of
villages or village lands we rarely come across mention of
61. Mirashi, op. cit., pp. CX/iv-v, 382-84.
62. Jnanesvari, XIII, 34.
63. Mark Wilks, Historical Sketches of the Sou.th of India (1810; ed.
1930), pp. 137.
64. Thomas Marshall in Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society
III (1823), p. 390.
65. Op . cit., I, p. 267.
.PERSPECTIVE
xxix
anybody of the village concerned other than those mentioned

above. Nor do we find mention of villagers through other
than the general expression of 'gramaku~umbina's, villagehouseholders or the specific mention of Brahmins in the ex..
'pression 'Brahmat).adin', Brahmins and others. Only one inscription6o , and that curiously enough from Central India,
Nagodh district and a sixth century one, by one of the "indigenous kings of Central India" states that the persons and
bodies which were made aware of the king's orders were not
only the usual Brahmins and other householders but also
'saravakaru's, all the artisans. And be it noted that the late
Maharashtrian usage-earliest recorded in Goodine's Report
on the Village Communities of the Deccan more than a century
ago-alternatively spoke of 'balute-alute' as 'karunaru'. In the
expression 'karunaru' the first member 'karu' is the same as in
the inscription referred to above and means 'artisan', artizanry.
'That certain artisans and craftsmen must have been an essential and unavoidable component of a village nee<i not be harped
upon. But it should be pointed out that Manu 67 permitted the
king to take free one day's work for himself or the society in
a month from all artisans, craftsmen and casual labourers.
We may conclude therefore that the artisans and craftsmen oi
a village, although not usually considered important enough
to be mentioned among the responsible and weighty public of
a village, were there on the village-establishment from early
times and continued to be so in most parts of the country. In
Maharashtra as we shall make it clear they attained mucb
higher status and almost consistently figured in the judicial
an.d administrative proceedings, their signatures, or ratheI
symbols in place of signatures, having been required to be
affixed to the decree-documents.
The South Indian data of the middle ages, from about 1000
to 1500 AC., to judge by Appadorai's collection, do not eitheI
mention the total number of these members in a village 01
group them in broad or detailed categories. Appadorai o8 himself has classed them under three heads as (i) officers, (ii) arti66. Sircar, op. cit., pp. 370-71.
67. Manusmriti, VII, 138.
GB. Op. cit., Vol. I, p. 2GB.
xxx
AFTER
CENTURY
AND A
QUAa'tEIl:
sans, and (iii) others. The first modern account of the village
organization is perhaps the one given by William in his memoir
submitted to Government in 1786-87 and incorporated in The
Fifth Report from the Select Committee of the House of
Commons, in 181269 Wilk's account was published in 1810 and
Lt. Col. Munro's70 report on Anantpur district was made only
four years before Wilk's publication. Grant Duff's accountl l
of the Maharashtrian village structure is almost contemporaneous with those of Munro and Wilks. Coats reporting on
Lonikand as he found it in 1819 gave a clear picture of the
village structure and functioning, describing in detail the role
of each section and every group within the section. Thomas
Marshall in his Statistical Account of the Perganna of Jamboosur72 submitted in 1820 provided an equally illuminating
description of Gujarat rural scene. But by far the most detailed, specific and intimate description of rural life is the
one given by Goodine in 1852. Goodine's task was primarily
to report on the existing practice regarding customary remuneration received by village officers and servants in Ahmednagar
district. As a later quotation from his important contribution
will testify, Goodine went deeply into the malaise of rural Hff'
and properly evaluated the pre-British scene and frankly
showed the glaring defects of the British system.
The traditional 'bara balute', twelve hereditary officials and
servants, were noted by many before him; and Grant Duff
went further than others baore him and stated that the complete village establishment consisted of, besides, 'patel', 'kulkarni' and 'chougula', twenty four persons 'called the Barah
Baloutay and Barah Alowtay" and enumerated them listing
separately every one. Goodine 78 not only gives us all this but
adds the very interesting information about the 'bara-balute'
being arranged in three 'rows' or 'lines'. The term for the
former way of speaking is 'kass', which he assures us was the
69. Firminger's ed. Vol. I (1917), pp. 157-8.
70. Wilks: Historical Sketches of the South of India, p. 139, i.n.
71. James Grant Duff, A History of the Marathas, Vol. I (Ed. 1912)
pp. 24-5.
72. Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society, Vol. III (1823).
73. Op. cit., pp. 10-11.
PERSPECTIVE
Muslim way of expressing the hierarchy and is a Urdu word.

The term for the latter way of referring to their gradation
was 'o!ee' (o!a) , row or line, an ordinary Marathi word in
daily use. To avoid misunderstanding we hasten to inform
our readers that this classification, though in three groups, is
not to be confounded with Appadorai's grouping mentioned
above.
Both Grant Duff and Goodine have listed the twenty-four
artisans and craftsmen and officers. Here we wish to stress
the fact that the South Indian inscriptions do not specify the
number of hereditary servants, and Appadorai's list of "fairly
common" ones over South India in the middle ages, 1000 to
1500 A.C . totals them to nine only: headman, accountant,
blacksmith, carpenter, potter, washerman, barber, watchman
and crops-guard. AppadoraF4 adds priest, astrologer, doctor
and goldsmith to his list as being "not so common". We may
eonclude that the usual number of hereditary servants in South
Indian villages of the middle ages varied between nine and
twelve.
Though our reference to Jniinesvari testifies to the use of
the term 'baluta' in Maharashtra almost at the beginning of
Appadorai's middle ages, yet there is no mention of them ,
much less of their number, in any document, judicial or administrative, before the 17th century. Among the documents
collected by Gune 7 ;; No. 46 dated 1639 A.C. is the earliest that
mentions 'balute' among those who along with the farmers of
the villages concemed were asked to decide a dispute. It is
interesting to note that the dispute relates to the 'pa~ilki', the
headmanship of the village Ravet, which lies to the north-west
of Poona Ciy almost as distant as Lonikand is to its north-east.
The saint-poet Tukaram iG mentions them as 'baluti biirii', twelve
balutis.
William in 1786-7 described a village geographically as "a
part of the country comprising some hundreds or thousands
of acres of arable and waste land" and politically as a unit
which "resembles a corporation or township". Its "proper
74. Op. cit., p. 266.
75. Op. cit., pp. 168-69.
76. Op. cit, 2583 (p. 552) .
xxxii
~stablishment of officers and servants" according to him consisted of nineteen whom he individually listed and added the
remark that "in some parts of the country, it is of less extent,
.some of the duties and functions described being united in
the same person; in others it exceeds the number of indivi-duals" listed above.
In Jambusar, a village in South Gujarat, too, Marshall 77
had listed thirty-two years before Goodine's observations about
villages in Ahmednagar district, 15 members as usual components of the village establishment. Says he: "In every com-plete village, there is at least one professor of each of a certain
number of the trades most necessary to agricultural life, and
-of other defined offices, to whose services each cultivating
member of the community has a right to a certain extent
gratis and for which services each of these officers has a portion
of free land." He adds that three regular members of the
village community, 'patel', 'talati' and 'soni' did not have tax
free land and were on a diiIerent footing.
In the Lony of Coats in 181978 there were two 'Patil's,
who were its "civil magistrates", the Chougula or Deputy
Patil, the Kulkarni or the secretary and accountant and thp
"Bara Baloota", the "twelve subordinate servants".
The "Baloota" were hereditary-their grants "wuttun
puttur" were in the name of the Patil and township and witnessed by several of the inhabitants. The grant "bound the
holder to devote his services to the common good, agreeably
to established usages, on the condition of being remunerated
with a fixed proportion of the produce of the soil from each
<cultivator." In addition there were also perquisites for services
on special traditional occasions.
The particular duties of the Baluta were as follows: The
carpenter (Sutar) made and kept in repair, all the implements
of agriculture that were of wood furnished by the cultivator;
got as wages 200 sheaves of corn and about 24 seers of grain
for every thirty "bigas" of land under cultivation, and "his
dinner, or a few seers of grain, while employed in putting the
77. Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society, Vol. ill (1823)

'pp. 390-95.
78. Ibid, pp. 197-203.
PERSPECTIVE
xxxiii
implements of husbandry in repair at the sowing and ploughing seasons". He furnished the "chowrung" or stool, on which
the bride and bridegroom were bathed at the marriage ceremony. He supplied travellers with pegs for their tents. The
Government, the Deshmukh and Deshpande were "entitled to
his services for his dinner two or three days in the year."
The Ironsmith (Lohar) made and kept in repair all the
ironwork of the implements of husbandry. He performed "the
operation of bugar" [ 'baga ~'] or sticking the hook through the
skin of the back of devotees who swing before the idols of
Byroo [Bhairav] and Hanuman." He also furnished a set of
horse-shoes and 24 nails annually to Government, which supplied him with iron. "His wages in produce were one-fourth
less than the first class of Baluta".
Washerman (Parit) washed the clothes of all male inhabitants, spread a cloth for the bride and bridegroom to walk on
at one of the marriage processions. He spread cloth also for
the parties to sit on at marriages and other festivals, which
entitled him to presents. He washed the clothes of travellers,
but expected a present for his trouble.
Barber (Nhavi) shaved the villagers, cut their nails etc.
He performed "the operation of kneading the muscles and
cracking the joints of the Patil and Kulkarni on holidays and
of all travellers of distinction who came to the village." He
was the village surgeon, and played on the pipe and tambur
at weddings etc. He did "not act as torch-bearer in the Poona
Praunt, as in some other parts of the country." When the
Patil went abroad, the barber accompanied him and carried
and cleaned his copper pots; and on festivals he acted in conjunction with the water-carrier and potter, as cook and before
and after eating, handed water to wash. When the bridegroom
arrived at the village to take away the bride, his horse was
led by the barber to her house and he received the present of
a turban. He trimmed the tails of the oxen at the sowing
season, which entitled him to a present of grain. "His fees
were the same as the other Baluta of his class".
Potter (Kumbhar) supplied the baked earthen vessels,
furnished also travellers with such as they wanted. He beat
the "daka" (dhak) a kind of drum, and repeated verses in
3
xxxiv
A FTE R A C E NTURY AND A QVARTER
honour of "Jami" (an incarnation of Bhowani) at marriages.

At the harvest homes ("dowra") he prepared the "burbut",
or stewed mutton"'. The potters near Poona were exempted
from paying the "Baloot Sara", baluta fees, by Balaji Vishwanath "in consequence, it is said, of having been active on some
occasions in tiling his house."
The Potedar or the treasurer, who was always a silversmith (Sonar) examined the coins paid as tax, stamped his
mark on them and after the whole amount was accumulated
sent it to the revenue collector through a Mahar. "His allowance of grain and grass was the same as those of his class".
Gurav or attendant on the village idols poured water
every morning over the idols of Hanuman, Bhairav and Mahadev and did other details of worship-swept the temples,
smeared them with cow-dung every eight days and lit a lamp
in each every night. Each family in the village gave him
daily a small quantity of flour. During the nine days "nowratra" preceding the "Dusrah" he gave each family a handful
of flowers for making garlands, which were ofier,ed to Bhawani.
He supplied the Kulkarni daily with platters "patraval" for
the use of his family and on festivals to all the inhabitants.
Water-carrier (Koli) kept vessels at the public building
of the village constantly filled with water for the use of all
Hindus. He supplied the water required by travellers, and for
marriages and festivals. "He brought the food for the persons
who were fed by the villa'ge, from the inhabitants whose turn
it was to supply it, pointed out to him by the beadle. He lit
the lamp every night at the Chawdi, swept it and every eight
days besmeared it with cow-dung. His wages, as well as of
ali the Baluta of the third class were one-fourth less than that
of the second."
Shoemaker (Chambhar) kept the shoes of the whole
community in repair, and supplied the Kulkarni, Patil, Chowgula, Desbmukh and Deshpande with a pair of new ones annually. The other inhabitants paid him "about a rupee for
making their shoes and supplying leather". He supplied
leather thongs for whips. He mended the shoes, bridles etc.
We have failed in our attempt to get an explanation of this statement.
PERSPECTIVE
xx:xv
of travellers, but expected a present. "The skins of all sh~ep

killed in the village were his perquisites". He did not eat
beef or carrion, and was allowed to live within the village.
" His wages were the same as the carpenter's".
Ropemaker (Mang) made ropes of the fibres of th~
"ambadee", Hibiscus cannabinus, and a kind of strong rope of
raw hides used for yoking the oxen and the muzzle put on the
mouths of the oxen. He castrated young bulls. On the Pol a
holiday, the Mangs put mango leaves hung on a rope made of
grass across the gate of the village, the chawdi and the doors
of the principal inhabitants, which was supposed to ensure
good luck to the village during the year. This holiday was
in honour of oxen, which were released from all labour;
J::rayers were offered up that they might be able to endure
the labour of the year. The Mangs acted as public executioners, "and it was said, might be hired as assassins." They
lived outside the village, and were "not permitted to enter
the house even of a Mahar." They got the customary fees of
the first class of Baluta.
Watchmen or the "Mhars", "Dhers", "Parwarees", "although considered outcasts, and not allowed to have houses
within the village or to enter the house of any of the inhabitants, had great weight and were of great importance as members of the community". "The number of families of this class
belonging to each township" was "from five to fifty, according
to its extent", who resided " in a hamlet situated on the east
side and within call, of the village." The duties of the Mhars
were various; the following were the most important: To pr~
vent all encroachments on the boundaries of the township or
its rules, of which they were supposed to have an accurate
knowledge handed down to them by tradition. In boundary
disputes their evidence was generally considered conclusive.
They were the bearers of all letters on the business of the
township, and generally all messages. They conveyed the
money taxes of the township to the Government collector, or
person authorised to receive them. They were present at all
Panchayats involving any of the hereditary rights of the community, and their evidence had great weight. They furnished
wood at marriage feasts, which entitled them to a present of
xxxvi
clothes from the bride. They supplied the Patil and his deputy
and the Kulkarni with firewood at the feasts of the Dusrah,
Holi and Diwali. They carried the fuel required for burning
the dead, and got the winding-sheet, in which some money
was always tied, as a perquisite. They had charge of the flag 79
and gates of the villages that were furnished with them and
opened and shut the latter morning and evening. "Besides, a
beadle "yesker" of this tribe" was "always in waiting at the
chowree and reported the arrival of aU strangers, and all remarkable occurrences during the day to the Patail". He was
the official medium of communication between the Patil and
inhabitants. He was responsible that none of the inhabitants
were called on to act as porters out of their turns. He kept
an account of the Kunbi families whose turn it was to supply
mendicants, servants of the Government billetted on the village, etc. with their dinners. He attended all travellers during
their stay at the village; and all their wants were supplied
and paid for through him. The beadle was relieved at stated
periods, generally every week. While on duty, he received
daily from the Patil half a cake at noon and every evening a
portion of porridge "ghata" from each family. "The Government and revenue officers" had "a claim on the services of a
Mhar, for his food, a certain number of days during the year;
the Government for three months; the Deshmukh for one
month; the Deshpande fifteen days; and the Sir-PatH eight
days." They were "employed during this period to bring wood,
grass, look after houses, etc." The service was termed
"Vapta", and was sometimes commuted to money. "The Mhars
in each township" had "a portion of freehold land assigned
them adjoining their hamlet, called Hadkee or the "place of
bones" where all dead cattle "were brought and cut up". They
also held "another portion of land (Haddola), which" paid
79. It is not quite clear as to which flag is meant; evidently the villlige . used to have a flag. Today this village and perhaps no other village has any flag. The only flag we have come across is the flag of
Mhasoba in this village which will be mentioned in its proper context.
In Qne verse of Manusmriti (IX, 285) village flag-staff is said to be
mentioned as simply 'yashti', 'stick'.
PJlRSPECTIVE
xxxvii
"a small quit-rent." Each of the hereditary families got forty

sheaves of corn in the straw, and four seers of winnowed grain
for every "suzgunnee"* of corn land. The skin and carcasses
of all dead animals, which it was their duty to remove, ' belonged to them. "Those bel<;mging to a village community were
generally well behaved, intelligent, and active; but those without this tie were often drunkards, debauched, and not infrequently robbers and murderers."
The Mahomedan sacrificer ('mulana') killed the sheep at
sacrifices and festivals; his wages were a portion of grain and
straw, and when there was a Mahomedan place of worship in
the village, a portion of land was usually attached to it, of
which he had the profits.
It was about such a village with its Patil and almost full
complement of other officers and practitioners of trades and
techniques having the status of hereditary servants of the
village that William80 in 1786 and Munr0 81 in 1806 wrote
in wondering praise. The former observed: "The inhabitants
give themselves no trouble about the breaking-up and division
of kingdoms; while the village remains entire, they care not
to what power it is transferred, or to what sovereign it devolves; its internal economy remains unchanged; the Patil is
still the head inhabitant, and still acts as the petty judge and
magistrate, and collector or renter of the village." The remarks
of the other are almost an echo of the above.
We know for a fact that in the second quarter of the 20th
century at least villagers did care to whom they owed
allegiance and to whom their village devolved. This shaking
of political indifference and lethargy was preceded by many
changes, purposive or fortuitous, in the life and living of
villages. Later, readers will come across a relevant quotation
from Goodine's remarks on the quality of village life that was
being fostered under the British regime. What we have
recorded about Lonikand in the sequel will give a fair idea
of the changes that came about as a result of the British policy
and economic transition. Here we shall estimate the changed
The exact equivalent measure of this cannot be ascertained.
80. Fifth Report, p. 158.
81. Wilks, op. cit., p. 139, i.n.
xxxviii
AFTER
A CENTURY AND A QUART ER
si.tuation as far only a.5 the hereditary services secured for the
village are concerned.
The changes in the hereditary servicing of the village must
be taken serious note of separately because recent legislation
about it is a purposive change. The Union Government and
the State Government as the Welfare State have embarked
on many schemes which aim at purposeful and rapid changes.
Of the 124 villages in Haveli taluka only 55 villages yielded
information about their 'baluta's, hereditary servants. Of
these, in ten villages the only information vouchsafed was in
general terms as either "all balutas" or "most of the balutas"
are current. In 29 others those 'balutas' that did not exist in
the village were specified and the existence of others was
generically asserted. In 15 villages the current 'balutas' were
'specifically mentioned. One village-rather an old market
town, though in numbers only a small village-has all the
'baluta' complement but the services of only four 'balutas',
'gurav' the idol-dresser, 'sutar' the carpenter, 'lohar' the ironsmith and 'kumbhar' the potter, are taken and given On the
'baluta' basis; others, not specifically mentioned, serve the
village on caste basis for specific service. In one other village
of the total 55, it is one of the above-mentioned group of 29,
only the carpenter and the barber work on the 'baluta' basis.
Two more villages of the group of 29 and four from the above
group of 15 get the service~ of the artisans and craftsmen only
on caste basis. Thus, of the fifty-five villages reporting on
'baluta' components, forty-seven get their technical and other
needs served on the traditional basis.
The total number of 'balutas' mentioned nwnbel' eighteen.
They are: Brahmin, 'Bhoi', 'Chambhar', 'Ghadshi', 'Gul'av',
'Kasal", 'Kumbhar', 'Koli', 'Lohar', 'Mang', 'Mulana', 'Mahar',
'Nhavi', 'Pal'ita', 'Ramoshi', 'Shimpi', 'Sonar' and 'Sutar'.
'Nhavi', barber is found in 11, 'Gurav', idol-dresser, 'Sutar',
carpenter, 'Mahar' and 'Mulana' Muslim sacrificer, in 7;
'Ramoshi' watchman and 'Koli', water-carrier in 6; 'Parita'
washerman, and 'Chambhar' shoemaker in 5; 'Teli' oil-presser
in 4; Brahmin and 'Mang' ropemakel' in 3; 'Kumbhar' potter
in 2.; and 'Lohar' ironsmith and 'Sonar' goldsmith in one
village.
PERSPECTIVE
xxxix
The absentee 'balutas' . named in 29 villages in the descending order of their local non-existence are: 'Parita' washerman (20); 'Lohar' ironsmith (19); 'Sonar' goldsmith, 'Ghadshi'
piper and 'Kumbhar' potter (17); 'Chambhar' shoemaker
(14); 'Teli' oil-presser (10); Brahmin and 'Koli' water-carrier
(9); 'Mang' rope-maker and 'Kasar' brazier (8); 'Gurav' idoldresser and 'Mulana' sacrificer (7) ; 'Sutar' carpenter and
'Bhoi' palanquin-bearer (5); 'Nhavi' barber (4); 'Ramoshi'
watchman (3); and 'Shimpi' tailor (1) . No village reported
its being without its 'Mahar', porter-guard. The above data
should not be interpreted to mean that the particular 'baluta'
whose absence is mentioned necessarily existed in all the other
villages but the one or many reporting his absence. The
mention of the absence of a particular 'baluta' is to be taken
to show that in the counting of the villagers of Haveli taluka,
he is commonly regarded as one comprehended among the
full complement of 'balutas'.
Among the 15 villages reporting the existence of 'balutas'
by specific mention of the names, eleven have 'Nhavi' barber;
seven have 'Gurav' idol-dresser, 'Sutar' carpenter, 'Mahar'
porter, 'Mulana' sacrificer; six have 'Ramoshi' watchman and
'Koli' water-carrier; five have 'Chambhar' shoemaker and
'Parita' washerman; four have 'Teli' oil-presser; three have
'Mang' ropemaker and Brahmin priest; two have 'Kumbhar'
potter; and one has 'Lohar' ironsmith and 'Sonar' goldsmith.
Thus it will be seen that the general notion of the full complement of 'balutas' and the actual existence of specific ones
do not harmonize. 'Lohar', ironsmith is mentioned as lacking
among their 'balutas' by as many as 19 villages out of 29
which reported in terms of absence, but he is actually reported
as existing by only one village. And 'Parita' washerman, who
is reported by five of the fifteen villages was stated to be
lacking by as many as twenty out of twenty-nine. The ideas
about the necessary complement of hereditary servants are
known to have been nebulous even in the beginning of the
19th century when the old system and scheme of village life
was more or less intact. Small wonder then that they are
found to be ' 50 in the sixth decade of the 20th century. The
wonder of wonder is that the 'baluta' system has continued
xl
AFTER A CENTURY A N D A QUARTE R
to exist even to the extent revealed by our investigation. This

is in some measure due to the caste system. To the extent
that the 'baluta' system fitted in with the old world technology
of production and system of communication, its support is
dwindling; and without being a prophet, one may conclude
that it will soon disappear, not without leaving a void. The
stresses and strains of the evolving situation wilJ be plainly
discerned in the sequel.
,
3
>
LONI KAND
KEY
If/~ AI4(A
_
OtCuPlfD 61' , iiI f'ItIAM'NoU
IIRtA OCCIlPIID IJr rHt """&. /J
::::: ARCA II'rlfH HOuJIl IN
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=CAR1 r~A('"
BII (HOWD I
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WALA.
R~IN
LONIKAND: A GENERAL VIEW

or the town of Lony, as its
LON1KAND
earliest student Surgeon CO<,'.Sl writ-
ing in 1819 called it, is situated on a dry

slope, overlooking its garden and arable lands, which extend
to the eastward, and "afford a pleasant prospect when the crop
~ on the ground". Coats' description of it runs: "Its latitude
is 1837' N. and 748' E. longitude, about 12 miles NE. of
Poona, and 70 miles in a direct line from the western seacoast, and about 1470 feet above its leve1. At a distance the
town has the appearance of a mass of crumbling clay walls
with a few stunted trees growing out among them, and here
and there a building like a bam or stable covered with red
tiles: the whole is surrounded by a mud wall of a circular
form that measures 5 furlongs, is from 10 to 14 feet in height,
and 4 or 5 feet thick at the bottom and increasing towards
the top; it has two rude gates, 10 or 12 feet high and as many
wide, made of two pieces of thick planks of teakwood, united
by cross-beams let into an eye cut in the frame above, and
resting on a hollowed stone below, on which it turns instead
of hinges.... What seemed crumbling clay walls are the
dwelling-houses ... made of sun-dried bricks of white calcareous earth... with terraced tops of the same material;
some ... are uninhabited ruins; and some have pieces of straw
thatch thrown up against them, to shelter some wretched
people and their cattle who have not the means of getting
better lodging." He found only two or three houses with
upper storeys.
The inhabited dwelling-houses amounted to 107; the publicbuildings were the 'Chowree', or town-hall, three temples of
1. TraJtsllCtions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol. 3, 1823.
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
Mahadeo, of Hanuman, and of Bhairav; and a Mahommedan

piace of worship "in ruins". The buildings appeared to Coats
as if put down by chance, without any attention to regularity:
"Narrow, dirty, crooked lanes wind through amongst some of
them; some are in clusters of three or four, and others entirely
detached. The houses are generally constructed as if for
defence, and have an impression of gloom and unsociableness;
the best are surrounded by a square dead wall, which is
t>utered by a low door; two or three sides are occupied by
sheds for cattle, husbandry implements, etc. and one only by
the dwelling-house; if a wall does not enclose the whole, there
is a walled court in front, or in the rear, or both."
The lands of the township embraced a circumference of
nearly rune miles, comprising 3,669 acres, or about 5l square
miles. Of this, 1,955 acres were arable, and the rest was
common and appropriated as pasturage. The boundary was
marked merely by heaps of stones, unploughed ridges, etc.
'Though it was not apparent to an indifferent person it was
well known to the community and was watched with the
utmost jealousy. The common land was situated to the WNW
and SW; generally elevated, rising in some places into hillocks
showing the bare rock, in others undulating, with hollows opening to the east. It yielded a scanty covering of grass in the
hot and cold season, and was interspersed with stunted shrubs
of the M imosa and Cassia all-ricuZata, also some wild vines.
The arable land lay chiefly to the eastward, the surface of
which is more level and slopes gently towards the river Bhima
which it approaches within a mile; and the soil is in some
places six or seven cubits deep and everywhere sufficiently so
for all the purposes of tillage, and was declared by Coats to
be rich and productive. A highway led through the grounds
from east to west which were besides intersected "by roads, or
rather footpaths". There were no regulations for making or
repairing roads which were seldom practicable for wheeled
carriages and were often only known by the uncertain track
cf cattle and travellers. Some small streams from the high
grounds united and formed a stream running east past the
town, and through the arable land, to the river Bhima. It
.generally ceased to run for a month or two before the com-
LONIKAND :
GE N ERAL
VI E W
mencement of the rains; but water was always got by digging

a foot or two in sandy bed.
This stream lies about half a furlong to the south of the
village. An attempt was recently made to put up a dam or
bund intended to increase the water supply and make it last
the w hole year and usable for agriculture too.
There were twenty-five wells, said to be three fathoms
deep, and the water was within a few feet of the surface. Only
ten of them were then in use and applied to purposes of
irrigation, the others being neglected owing to the poverty of
the owners. The water of the brook alone was used for
drinking; that from the wells was considered better and formerly preferred, but their water had been discontinued for
some years, as it was thought to occasion guinea-worm, "a
complaint formerly common, and now said not to be so".
A few hedges of Euphorbium, or evergreen, partially
enclosed some garden ground, a little to the right and left of
the town. It also contained some fin e trees of mango, tamarind, 'bor', mimosa, and Indian fig. The rest of the lands were
wholly without enclosures, and appeared from February to
the end of June barren and n eglected. In the beginning of
July the young corn appeared in a row and the successive
hot and cold weather crops and the necessary operations of
husbandry gave "an appearance of cheerfulness and industry,
until the approach of the hot season in March."
"The husbandmen divided the land into eight sorts: 1)
Kalee tLSsul zttmeen or true black soil. It was considered the
most valuable of the soils, and yielded any of the productions
of the Deccan in abundance; but was particularly favourable
for wheat, gram (cicer arietinum), and sugar cane; 2) Tambut
or copper-coloured soil-extremely productive under irrigation, or in the rainy season; 3) Mal zumeen which would not
yield wheat, peas, or any of the dry and cold weather crops;
but when the rains were sufficiently abundant, other crops
could grow well on it; 4) white soil, used for making the mud
walls of forts and dwelling houses; 5) Shikest or adhesive soil,
its great tenacity prevented the roots of plants striking freely
into it, but when well worked was very productive; 5) Karree
Or salt soil~almost barren; 7) Shadewut, black soil intermixed
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
with the nodules of the calcareous stone-not productive; 8)

Kewta, alluvial soil, very productive, light and rather sandy,
did not admit of being ploughed, from being full of deep
fissures, and was set apart for the growth of hay, which it
yielded in abundance.
The rainy season began about the middle or towards the
end of June, and closed about the end of October. It was
marked by showers from the west and southward of west,
with an almost constant breeze from the same quarter, and
cloudy sky. July was the wettest, January the coldest and
April the hottest month in a year. The then temperatures for
the different months at sunrise and at 3 P.M. are given below:
Temperature in F at
Month
July
August
October
January
March
April
May
(irregular)
June
Sunrise
73 _74
70
68
54
(lowest
38 -40)
55-65
68
73_74
3 P .M.
79-80
76
79
73
75
82
80 -90
108 (90 in the shade)
-do-
"
To compare with the above we shall briefly describe the

village as it appears today. Here is the general description.
The Poona-Ahmadnagar Road runs along the southern bounclary of the village from west to east. The main traffic or
place of meeting of the villagers is by the roadside or fields
in the southern part of the village. There are four lanes
running north to south leading into the village from the main
road. The principal lane-this is the only one which however
'kachha' is made up with stony material brought from elsewhere-is the one that is easternmost and runs between the
old and new school buildings and a residence-cum-shop on its
LONIKAND:
GENERAL
VIEW
west and the 'Savantababa mandir' on its east. For some

distance thereafter there are houses on its either side.
Thereafter by the side of a grocery shop it bifurcates, one
branch running west into the interior by the 'chawdi' and
the other again dividing itself. In front of the 'chawdi' on
its eastern side stands a big 'neem' tree round which is a
broad circular platform about three feet high. One of
the re-bifurcated lanes mentioned above running east goes
out through the 'ves' or the gate on this side past the temples
of Maruti and Mariai and joins the main road thus giving
access to the Maharwada. The other passes the Chawdi and
leads to the houses situated by the side of the north wall of
the town. Before it ends into a blind alley it throws two arms
into the interior on its west side. One arm passes on the
porth of the Shin de-ali and after leading to the Vithoba-Rukmini temple turns round south.
There is another lane (footpath) running out and into the
other extant eves' or gate of the wall which is in the western
end of the northern wall and passing the Vithoba-Rukmini
temple mentioned above runs south the whole way into the
Chambharwada situated in the south-west corner, not far from
the Poona-Ahmadnagar road.
The lane that sides the Shinde-ali from the north to the
south is joined almost midway by the first arm of the internal
lane that bifurcated at the eastern end near the Chawdi.
After it is joined by the central lane, this lane coming
from the Shinde-ali runs further south with Hole-ali houses
on the west and taking a tUrn to the east and again to the
south joins the Poona-Ahmadnagar road not far from the old
school building and near the residence-cum-shop, mentioned
above.
Another lane starting from about the middle of the
northernmost lane and meeting the central lane about half way
runs further south to the bend towards the east in the middle
and not very far from the efistern end of the new school
building, throws out two arms. The left arm slightly bent
joins the first lane that we described and the right arm passing
by the western end of the old school building joins the Po on aAhmadnagar road at the spot where the western lane joins.
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
It will be seen that the main part of the village is thus

divided into four sections enclosed within and intersected by
the system of lanes that we described above. three running
north and south and two fully east and west. A third one, the
southernmost, east and west in two sections, serves to pour
the traffic into the Poona-Ahmadnagar road. There is a fourth
lane running north and south leading the traffic on the north
outside the 'ves' and the village bound for Phulgaon, on its
southern end leads to Chambharwada and with a longish arm
as already pointed out into the Poona-Ahmadnagar road. It
will thus be seen that the four sectors of the village already
referred to, and all the others are oriented to the PoonaAhmadnagar road by four approaches at convenient distances.
To begin with the sector to the west of the principal lane,
it should be noted that one part of it, Mali-ali, abutting on the
principal lane is named after the Mali caste which is fairly
5trong in numbers and industrious and rather well-organised
at least in Haveli taluka. The northern side of the sector,
however. is named after the name of the families who are
Maratha by caste-it should be noted that Surgeon Coats
writing a century and a quarter ago described all of them as
Kunbis, making distinction among the families only on the
basis of land-tenure-and is known as Kand-ali or the lane of
Kands. The second sector which lies just opposite to this to
its north and begins with the Chawdi is also known as Kand~
ali. It contains the largest number of big houses in ruins.
Separated from it by a lane running east-west to the north
of these houses lie rather aside the temples of Bhairav and
Mahadev.
To the west of the second sector lies the part known as
Shinde-ali which though it is composed of about ten or twelve
houses and three or four 'wadas' and more than a dozen houses
in ruins, from the importance of the families stands out as
the principal locality of the village. Another sector, and a'
half rather, to the west of this sector is also known as Shinde~
ali. And there too are seen a 'wada' and a few houses in
Vide plan at the beginning.
LONIKAND:
GENERAL VIEW
ruins. To the northernmost end of this Shinde-ali opposite the

ruined 'wada' stands in solitary eminence the Vithoba-Rukmini
temple not far from the north-western eves'. This spired
temple, being the only temple of such architecture in this village, is naturally the greatest attraction. Significantly enough
it faces the sector which we have spoken of as the principal
one.
The fourth sector on its western side with two flanks of
houses on the two sides of the lane forms the Hole-ali, the
lane of the Holes, who are Malis by caste. Behind Hole-ali
and abutting on the south side just behind the new school
building the row of houses is called the Mehman-ali, the lane
of guests who are related by marriage, as the expression is
usually rendered. But we have our doubts about this usual
translation of the term Mehman. For, according to Surgeon
Coats, it would appear that Mehman is one of the two classes
of cultivators2. He states that one class of cultivators, namely
the Talkaris, the largest in his time, consisted of 50 families.
The Talkaris were also called Mirasdars and Watandars and
were members of the township. Even if they were not all of
them proprietors, all of them had "an acknowledged right in
the soil". Of these, 35 families were branches of the Patel
families of Shin de and Kand. It should be noted very particularly that these 35 families considered themselves "higher in
rank than the other Talkaris". Coats assures us that with
all their superior airs they had no special privileges. The
second class, consisting of 34 families who could not claim any
prescriptive rights in the soil and who were "considered only
as temporary residents or farmers", was called "Uparis, Sukhvast or Mehman."
Beyond the eastern eves' or gate lies the Maharwada
consisting of about 12 to 15 houses. Beyond the west-side
wall towards its southern end are one house of Mang and
two of Mangarudis side by side.
Of the four Brahmin families, three reside in Kand-ali
and one in Mali-ali. The Sonar (goldsmith) is in Hole-ali;
the two Sutars (carpenters) are in Kand-ali; of the two
2. Coats, op. cit., pp. 240-41.
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
Lohars (ironsmiths) one is amidst Mehmans and the other

in Mali-ali; of the three Nhavis (barbers) one is to the south
of the village and the Poona-Ahmadnagar road and two are
amidst Mehmans; one Muslim Tamboli (betel leaf seller) is
in Mali-ali. The Hole, the Kand and the Mali lanes run north
to south and the Shinde and the Mehman lanes run east to
west.
The number of occupied and dilapidated houses and the
houses in the hamlets are as shown below:
Houses in the village proper
Houses in the hamlets
Dongarbhag
Jirkhel
Mulsund
Bargal
179
Total number of occupied houses

Dilapidated houses (not occupied)
247
97
Total number of houses
13
31
21
344
The houses generally are built of stones and bricks h eld

together with mud. After erecting the walls, a layer of mud
is put both inside and outside and then a thin plastering with
cow dung water is done over them.
Houses of Lonikand noticed by Coats were most of them
flat-topped. Today such houses are known to the people as
'ma!avadi.' The word 'ma!avadi' is not traced in literature
before Ramadiisa, the ascetic organizer of Shivaji's time, who
in his Dasabodha (III, 7, 14) uses it to denote the flat top of a
house as against its walls. Jnanevara in the 13th century
drawing upon house, its parts and its grades for his telling
similies, has used the word 'dhava!iiren' at least five times in
Jnaneivari (III, 223; V, 114; VIII, 6; XIII, 231; XVII, 89).
'Dhava!iiren' as is clear from the context was a fine house
an.d denoted a flat-topped one. In the first reference it is
contrasted with an ordinary house which is called 't~aren',
meaning a thatched house. In the sense of a fine house the
1 he s p"cnc]in g n E'em Ire I' in fro nl of th e Ch ~lwdi w il h I.YlJica i hou s e~ in Ih (' ba c k g round
a lll! th e WH y lea din g Ollt to th e Poon fl- Ahllwrlll <lgH I' R o"d .
Thl' C h ::1wcli - th l' co mmunit y centrl'.
Storeyed hou ~ e~ of ~ome of the we ll-to-do people in th e Shinde-ali

Vithal-Rukmini temple of the RavirL'1o Shinde family.
Another gro up of typical houses.
lW ,ll'
the
LONIKAND:
GENERAL VIEW
word 'dhavataren' is used by Ekanath (MahdraslLtl"Q.ueda.,

Ekanatha, p. 311, VII, 43) and also by Tukaram (Gathci, p. 699,
Abhanga 3421) who contrasts it with a hut (thatched).
The roofs of almost all the houses of today slope on two
sides: in the front and the back. Only one house was noticed
Lo have a flat roof. Even in this house only the front part has
got flat roof and the inner room has got tiles with two slopes.
Another house built in 1956 has a single slope with
Mangalore tiles. The walls are built with stone and mortar.
This house as well as the one with flat roof are in Holeuli. The roofs when sloping are of four types, those with
Mangalore type tiles, those with old tiles made by the village
potter, those with corrugated sheets and those with leaves,
dry sticks and hay. The houses that are roofed with Mangalore tiles are about 12; and of these 8 are in the village propel'.
Those with the potter's tiles which are mere flat pieces bought
from the potter of Perne or Wagholi form the majority. Corrugated sheets are used mostly for the cattle sheds or for the
front portion of a house. The houses with roofs of hay and
dry sticks are mostly in the fields and only about 4 such houses
are seen along the Poona-Ahmadnagar road in the village
area.
The doors of the old houses are about 5 feet in height.
The thatched houses have doors even of 4 feet in h eight. The
new houses have doors about 6 feet high and 2 to 3 feet
wide. Most of the houses which are all old have only a single
small window in the wall on a high level above the hearth.
The size of this window is usually I' x I' and sometimes
1 ~.' x 1'. This window is meant for the kitchen smoke to get
out and not for air to come in. In some of the recent constructions or repairs, however, bigger windows are kept; but
even these are only one or two, and sometimes a wire-net
about 6 to 8 inches wide is fixed above the doors and the
windows. In place of the windows as an outlet for smoke
some houses have a hole with about 9 inches diameter and is
called 'zaroka'.
The houses with an upper storey are, to speak of those
that are in a good condition, nine, three of them being old,
and six being new constructions. The upper storey in all the
4
10
AFTEC A CENTURY
AN A QUARTElt
old houses has its ceiling lower than that of the ground Boor.
But of the new houses, the upper storey has a ceiling almost
as high as that of the ground Boor. In one of the two houses
of the local Chambhars, that is yet uncompleted, the upper
storey has a ceiling of the same height as that of the ground
Boor.
Usually a crude compound of stones arranged one upon
another to a height of about 3 to 4 feet, then either made to
look even by pasting mud or left at that, encloses the private
area of the house in its front. Within the compound in a
corner is a shed with thatched roof or that of the corrugated
iron sheets for cattle. If the family has no residential arrange-
ment in their fields they stock their hay and cattle-fodder
within this compound. This enclosed space in front of the
house is made to look clean by applying cow-dung, and is
used to keep the charpoy or used as open space to keep the
seasonal eatables to dry.
Thatched roofs are seen mostly in the fields and their
walls are constructed with mud and stones of uneven size and
shape. The roof is sloping from the centre on the front and
back side and the height of the ceiling from the ground at
the centre is from 5 to 8 feet. The wood used for these roofs
is from the trees of Babhul, Vad, tamarind or Neem; and
bamboos are also used. A long bamboo or wood is placed
lengthwise at the centre on he opposite walls of the breadth
and thick wood-sticks are fixed to it at a distance of two to
three feet, and these lie on either side of the bamboo to the
front and back of the house.
Every year before the onset of the rains the roof undergoes inspection and fresh patches are put on it. The floor is
made of a thick layer of mud and 'murum' thrown over it,
beaten to a level. Normally the floor is plastered with cowdung.
The most common type of house is divided into two parts
by a wall halfway across in a single room. The front space
facing the door is generally used by the men-folk as a sitting
room and the back part is the kitchen with a single small
outlet for smoke.
For keeping grain the most common practice is keeping
1.ONIKAND :
A GENERAL VIEW
11
it in the gunny bags on a wooden plank either slightly raised

from the floor by keeping stones under it or just kept on the
floor. Next to this in the houses of rather well-to-do families
are seen the 'kanangis' or cylinwical baskets 4 to 6 feet in
height. These are applied cowdung on both sides. In some
other well-to-do families bags are kept on wooden stands
about 1 to Ii feet above ground and measuring 1101mally
3 x 4 feet and supported by four legs at the four corners.
Stoves as substitutes for hearths are nowhere to be seen
except only with 3 families where they are kept along with
the hearth or separately to prepare tea etc. The hearths are
all bought from the potter, who makes them out of clay. The
hearths of some families have a side oven drawing the flames
from the main joined together. The Malis do not bring such
hearths. If they want to use such they borrow it from others
who have used it for some time. They take it as inauspicious
to have such a hearth.
The pots and other utensils are kept ready at hand near
the hearth or 'chul'. The common pots near the 'chul' are
the water-pots. The small vessels either for cooking or for
holding water are found kept on a wooden plank or two
placed on two iron bars or big nails fixed in the wall. Pegs
are rarely seen fixed in the walls. The earthen pots placed
one upon another are also found near the 'chul'. The clothes
are generally kept on a nail or on a rope hanging horizontally,
its both ends tied to two nails fixed in the opposite walls.
The 'tulas' plant is seen in front of all the houses in the
village; this plant is either placed in a broken bucket filled
with earth, or a tin-box. Some families have 'vrindavan',
erected in place of these.
The household gods in almost all houses are kept in a
niche; and only in a few houses they are placed on wooden
plank fixed to the wall at a height of about 1 to 4 feet. They
are not necessarily kept in the kitchen-apartment; in some
houses they are kept on a wooden plank or in a niche in an
inner dark apartment which is otherwise used for storing
grains and keeping boxes etc. The gods are usually represented by some figure such as of Khandoba, Janai, Naikji
Bahirji, Vir (Mhaskoba) and Daityavarchi Devi. Brass
12
AFTER A CENTURY AND
A QUARIEll
nh'anjans ,;, are found, one or two in every house, but they
are mostly used on holidays. Wooden boxes of different sizes
are used for keeping valuable articles such as ornaments,
costly clothes and silver pots, if any. Only in 5 houses out of
50 were found trunks.
'l'he cattle-yard is usually on the front side of the house
in a corner. The agricultural implements, the plough, the
bullock-ca:tts, the 'pabhar' and the 'kudal' are kept in another corner and the fodder is stocked near-about. In a number of houses is found an earthem big jar fixed by the wall;
and water is kept ready in it for the use of cattle or other
household purposes which do not require very clean and/or
fresh water.
The fuel is brought from the respective fields, and this
comprises of the dried 'babhul', grass, sugarcane-residue etc.
Dung-cakes were formerly, i.e., about 10 to 15 years ago used
to be taken to Poona sometimes on foot by women, for sale,
but now no dung-cakes are taken out of the village for sale
as they are used as household fuel.
In July 1819 an enumeration of the people of Loni was
tabulated as on page 13.
The township contained 565 inhabitants with an extent
of land equal to about 5f square miles, which gives rather
more than 981 persons to the square mile. The number of
houses was 107, in a few pf which were more than one
family; and the proportion of persons to each house was
rather more than five. There were 130 married men, 11 or
12 of whom had two wives. The total number of children
was 203, which gives only Ii each family, "which seems a
small proportion."
About names, Coats observes: " .... The names usually
given by the priest are, - Amrota, Dungerijee, Regojee,
Ankors~, Boobajee. Those in common use for males are, Ragoo, Bala, Luximon, Cundoo, Rama, Ettoo, Pandoo, Beema,
Nagoo. For females, - Gopee, Chimee, Radee, Simjee,
Cassee, Tukee, Baggee: to which J ee and Baee having nearly
Small receptacles on stands for holding ghee in which a standiRg cotton wick can be lighted, the lighted receptacle being waved
b,efore the idol as an accompaniment of worship.
to-
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AFT ER
A CE NT URY
AND
A QUAR'IE R
the same meaning as Mr. and Mrs. are occasionally affixed.

The common nursery names are Baba, Nanna, Bappoo, Appa ,
Nannee Bai, Tiee, Kackee, Abbie. And the surnames are
Jaddow, Gykwar, Powar, Cuddum, Kattee, Sandajee,
Seetolee, Muggur, &c. Some persons are named after their
place of residence; as, Ragoojee Lonykur, MT. Ro.goo of
Lony. In writings, the father's name of the person is subjOined; as, Luximon bin KU'.1doo Powar . . . . "
The total number of families residing'~ in the village at
present is 306, with 403 adult males, 389 adult females and
5~0 boys and girls below 12 years, those aged beyond 60 years
being 62. This gives about 1.8 children per family. The number of children per family at present, therefore, is larger
than that given by Coats who rightly considered it "a small
proportion." The total population is 1404.
There are 25 non-cultivating owners, 248 cultivators, 115
cultivating labourers and 45 landless agricultural labourers.
As for the non-agricultural occupations there are 1 postman ,
3 pump-drivers, 2: brick-layers, 15 persons doing casual labour
and bit work in Poona, 5 transport workers and 1 local person working as teacher in Lohogaon. t
The families who own houses in the village or the hamlets at present and listed in the files of the village Panchayat,
arranged in the decreasing order of their number on the
basis of their caste and surname are as on page 15.
There is neither Gurav~ Koli, Kumbhar, Pari~a nor Teli
residing in the village.
The village including the hutments or houses in the
fields according to the Panchayat records has in all 247
houses, and these are owned by 207 families , the two Muslims,
the four teachers, the three constables, one 'gramsevak' and
the Talii~hi are all staying in houses not owned by them.
The Marathas and the Malis are all mainly agriculturists,
except two Maratha grocers and one Mali tea-shop-keeper.
The four Brahmin families, which all belong to one
family, are formed by the old mother with her sixth une, The data are taken from the Talathi's files.
t The
number totals up to a lareer number than the adult population recorded!
Li ra
Caste
Maratha (Kunbi)
Mali
Mahar
Maratha (RaViI'80)
Mali
Maratha
Mali
"
Brahmin
Chambhar
Maratha
"
Nhavi
Maratha
Mali
Sutar
Lohar
Ramosbi
Mahar
Marath::t
"
Mali
Lohar"
Sonar
Pardesi
Mahar
Mang"
Mangarudi
,.
Surname
No. of families':'
Kand
Zurunge
Gaikwad
Shindc
Hole
Shinde
Magar
Pharate
Valunj
Birdavade
Jagtap
Dharane
Dalvi
Dhagc
Jagtap
Tapkir
Yadav
Magar
Garud
Kolate
Sabale
Phule
Tumkar
Yeshwanl
Lokhande
Bhandalkar
Gangavane
Bhondve
Babhade
Gaikwad
Ghavane
Mane
More
Sakore
Shilankal'
Timgire
Bhumkar
Kudale
Lokhande
Lohar
Dharmadhikal'i
Pardesi
Kamble
Vidhate
Dorake
Khalase
Londhe
Total
tThe data
67
21
14
11
7
6
4
4
4
4
4
:i
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
207
-r ecords.
16
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUABTER
married daughter of 20 years and her three sons, who are

all married living independently in separate houses. The
heads of three households are factory worker (Kirkee), postman (local) and a dismissed Talathi who is now earning his
livelihood by writing applications and appeals for illiterate
people who come in search of writers in the Taluka office.
The old mother depends upon ' bhikshuki' collected from
Lonikand and Katakewadi and Vithalwadi at a distance of
H miles.
The Balutas depend upon agriculture and 'baluti' and
whatever payment they receive from the people for any nonbaluti work. But the villagers do not entirely depend upon
them, nor do the balutas look to the villagers only for their
livelihood. They are free to do the work of outsiders if possible. None of the balutas including the Brahmin has given
up his caste-occupation as such. The youngest of the three
Dharane brothers is sometimes invited to read pot hi in the
chawdi. The Chambhars receive orders from the nearby
villages as they (the members of whose family had some time
been to Bombay) are supposed to be expert in preparing
good footwear. Of the three Nhavi families headed by thre!"
brothers, the head of one is actually working in a saloon in
Poona but once in a week comes to the village to perform his
baluta duties. The Sonar is very poor and is always on the
verge of starvation. He gets very little work from the villagers. His usual work is to lJrepare tin plates with impressions of gods, and some mending or re-moulding of the ornaments. During the marriage-season he gets a little more work.
Since the village has no Gurav, the Sonar has been asked to
sweep all the temples in the village within the wall and light
oil lamps at the altar every day. In return he has been permitted to collect grain from the villagers every day but the
old man does not collect any grain at all.
Regarding the agriculture, implements of husbandry,
stock, &c., Coats observes: "The cultivators divide their
arable lands into bagheet or gardens, which admit of irrigation; and jeriet where the crops depend upon rains and dews
. . .. The wells are about 12 to 15 feet deep and water is
drawn up in leathern bags, that contain 25 to 3() gallons, by
LON I }{ A
)I;
D:
AGE
N ERA
LVI
EW
]7
(Jne or two pair of bullocks. . . . The bullocks are commonly

yoked from six or seven o'clock in the morning till eleven or
twelve, and again from two or three in the afternoon till
night; during which the driver cheers his cattle, while they
pull up the bag, with a plaintive song that conveys the pleasing associations of peace and industry. The lands that depend
on the rain and dews for the produce are classed into good,
had and middling.
There are two harvests in the year; the sowing of one
takes place in June and July, after the ground has been sufficiently moistened by the rain, and is reaped in October and
November; the seed-time of the other is in October and beginning of November, and the harvest is in January and
February. The former, which is the principal crop here, is
termed the Khareef, and the latter the Rubbee harvest ....
The advantages of a rotation of crops, and of fallowing, are
well understood and generally practised. None but the finest
grains are ever sown twice in succession on me same ground,
clOd even this is avoided as much as possible. They have
none of the trefoils; and, as grasses where there is no demand
for animal food would not yield a profit sufficient to pay the
land-tax, they are never cultivated on arable lands. Two crops
are often raised on the best soils during the year; but for
wheat and some of the other valuable products of the Rubbee
crops, the usual custom is to let the ground lie fallow during
the Khareef season and to harrow it from time to time, and
keep it free of weeds till the seed time.
The great defect in their husbandry is the inadequacy
of their means to check the natural tendency of the soil being exhausted by being kept continually under the plough.
Their knowledge of the advantages of a rotation of crops and
their constant practice of this system, are important; but
they have no suitable substitute for green crops, or no market for such productions and they have no adequate sources
for the supply of manure. They, however, are well aware of
the importance of the material, and hoard the scanty supply
they have with great care; and when they can procure it,
purchase it for their garden cultivation. Each cultivator has
R hole in front of his door (ookurda) into which he throws
Ii
AFTER
C EN TURY
AND
QUARTER
the ashes and sweepings of his cattle. During the rest of the
year-that is, in the dry months-the exigencies of the inhabitants oblige them to dry and stack this material for fuel.
The fields near the village get a sprinkling of this manure
once in every two or three years while those at a distance
rarely, if ever, get any; so that in twelve or fourteen years
they cease to yield anything, or become what the cultivators
term nazoor (without strength), and are neglected for three
or four years, then broken up again. The material from his
ookurda is the only substance the cultivator uses for fertilizing his fields, except occasionally sheep-dung, which is
considered far more valuable ... .
In the dry season the shepherds drive their numerous
flocks. . .. A field well manured in this way is thought to
yield luxuriant crops for six or seven years afterwards.
The plough and cart are the most rude of their implements, and have no claims to ingenuity. The plough is made
of different sizes and consists of three parts---:-the beam, the
head and the handle.... The wood of the plough, and all
the implements of husbandry is of a species of mimosa
(babool) that grow spontaneously on the lands of the town~
s hip .. " The whole cost of a plough is about five rupees.
The wheels of the carts cost from 40 to 50 rupees, are
very durable, and are handed down from father to son for
two or three generations. The other part of the cart costs 10
()r 12 rupees. . .. The cart ~ used during the fair season, and
the rest of the year it is taken to pieces and laid up.
The other implements are: the drill-plough (pakbur); n
s ort of a harrow with wooden teeth (ohun); an instrument
for clearing and loosening the surface of the ground (kul:loo) ;
an instrument for weeding, drawn by oxen (koolpa); besides
pick axes, hooks and contrivances for winnowing; all of
which are extremely ingenious, simple, and well suited to
the purposes they are intended for.
The live-stock belonging to the township: oxen and bulls
220, cows 156, buffaloes 17, calves 37, horses and ponies 29,
asses 3, camels 1, goats and sheep 28 and hogs 50.
A good cow gives a quart of milk morning and evening.
Its price is 15 to 16 rupee::;. One-third of the oxen are bred
LONIKAND:
GENERAL VIEW
19
by the cultivators and the rest are bought of drovers from

the Carnatic or Candeish. Those from the Carnatic are the
hardiest and are considered the best suited for the plough
and those from the northward for pack. The best pair of oxen
costs 80 to 100 rupees and the middling ones from 40 to 60
rupees. A pen"n possessed of eight pairs of oxen, which are
sufficient to keep two ploughs going, is thought to be in very
good circumstances. Grain and straw are carried to market
on pack-bullocks. A good bullock carries 180 or 200 lbs.
eighteen or twenty miles a day.
As the riches of the cultivator - nay, his existence depend on his cattle, he always nurses them with great care.
They generally occupy a part of his house, and are always
as well sheltered as his family.
Buffaloes: three varieties: the mowree, desewul and
gooznee. The former is the best and its female costs 50 to 60
rupees, and will give six quarts of milk in the morning and
eight in the evening for six months together after calving,
besides feeding the calf. The second, desewul, does not give
more than two quarts of milk morning and evening and costs
20 or 25 rupees. The last is originally from Gujarat and is
superior to the second.
The horses and ponies are not used in husbandry. The
asses are the property of the potter, and are used by him
for carrying clay to make his pots with, and leaves, refuse
straw etc. and cost each about 12 rupees. It is looked upon
as a base animal, and only used and bred by particular
dasses,-as the potter, washerman, burners of charcoal,
stone-cutters and all sorts of strollers, tumblers etc.
The swine are the property of the village. They are not
used for food by any of the inhabitants, not even the outcastes, but are given in presents to strolling l'ope-dancers
and jugglers (Kalattees), by the Patail in the name of the
village, when they exhibit their feats for the general amusement; these people eat them. They are also used as food by
another wandering tribe termed Wundarrees, whose chief
employment is that of making embankments, wells, &c ....
it is thought lucky to' have them (the swine) in the village,
and they are useful as scavengers.
20
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
The wild hog, which is common in the neighbourhood,

is a cleanly animal, and its flesh is generally eaten, and
thought a great delicacy by the cultivators."
The particulars of the village regarding the agricultural
land, livestock, agricultural implements, the agricultural
produce and land tenure as obtaining at Present are as
below: :~
Total area -
6.6 sq. miles or 4,253 acres 7 gunthas

Gunthas
Acres
Pies
Total cultivable land
2,978
11
Jirayit
2,618
11
200
10
Bagayit
Under paddy
Grazing land
Total uncultivable land
150
1,275
18
39
12
Gavthan
Road
Brook etc.
17
36
Forest
169
Grazing lands
180
41
34
Fallow
Of the 2,978 acres, 3 gunthas and 11 pies of cultivable

land, .2,947 acres and 55 gunthas were actually under crops
in 1957 of which again 209 acres and 14 gunthas were under
double crops.
The average annual rainfall is 18 to 20 inches.
Water is available in the wells about 35 to 40 feet below
level. The total number of wells available for watering the
agricultural lands is 40 and about 90 acres are watered by
them. Of these 90 acres about 22 acres are watered more
than once in a year to reap double crop.
The agricultural implements are: Iron Ploughs 76, wooden
Data taken from the Talathi's files.
LONIKAND:
A GENERAL VIEW
2)
ploughs 9, kulav 210, pabhar 100, leather lift 50, iron lift 5,
hullock carts 51. Two oil engines are owned and used .
The livestock comprises of working oxen 353, cows 281 .
'kalavdi' and 'gorhe' 322, he-buffaloes 2, she-buffaloes 50,
"pardi' and 'tonage' 43, goats 2, sheep 336, milch cattle 125,
non-milch 210. Maximum milk available from a cow 2 seer.;;
l)E:r day, average 1 seer p.d. Maximum milk available from
a she-buffalo 8 seers per day, average 8 seers p.d. Maximum
milk available from a sheep 1 seer per day, average t seer p .d.
The common diseases of the cattle are LaL and Pharya and
the veterinary facilities are available only at Poona.
The agricultural produce of the land is as shown on
page 22.
There are no 'jamindars' in the village. Rayatwari holders
are 224 with a total area of 2,768 acres and 12 gunthas and
"inam' holders are 24 with a total area of 209 acres and 21
.gunthas.
The rate of Khand on an average is Fts. 5 per acre for
.Tirayit and Rs. 25 for Bagayit. In all 547 acres and 1 guntha
.are given in Khand.
The details of land tenure are shown on page 23.
The Tagai loan holders are 80 and their total amount of
loan is Rs. 2,400.
Lonikand as is evident was described simply as Loni by
Surgeon Coats, and we can take it that it was known at that
t ime by that designation. But there is an entry in Peshwa's
diary 3 in which it is spoken of as Sukloni and some villagers
informed Dr. L . N. Chapekar that it was called Sukloni. Why
it was called Sukloni we do not know but after the pattern
of naming of villages in this taluka we are led to think that
it was some important family of the village after whom it
must have been so named. Today it is called Lonikand and
as will be seen from the list of family names given above,
Kands, who share the Patilship with the Shindes, constitute
about one-third of the families of the village. 'They are so
many and so important in the village life-there is one Kand
who is a local merchant, 'savkar', and most respected non3. Vad: Diaries of the Peshwa, Thor(lZe Madhavrao, II, p. 215 (Entry
date 1764-65 A.C.)
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24
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND A
QUARTER
Qfficial citizen and another Kand is the Sarpanch Or the President of the Village Panchayat. The village therefore is the
village of Kands. There is another village named Loni in
Haveli taluka which lies a little to the south-west of Lonikand
about ten miles away, to the south of the Poona-Sholapur railway track. It is known as Lonikalbhor or Loni of Kalbhors.
III contrast, our Loni can well be designated Loni of Kand s
or simply Lonikand .
OlJ(' of thl' WO I'S(' type
llf
h OU5l'S
J11
Newel' type of hou ses.
lilt' M"h;1I'''':ld<1.
Mahal'wada--t.he quarte t's where the sched uled caste of Mah ars li ve .
View
or th e
Shind,,-ali with the Vithal-Rukmini templ e in the bnckgl'ountl nnd crurr

ling vi lla ge wllll- ves- furth el to the right.
TO
understand the organized social living

of a community like that of Lonikand,
whether we call it, after Coats, a township
or more properly a village, we should begin with the managerial institutions, if any.
We observe such an institution in villages like Lonikand
in the so-called Panchayat, or the council of the officials and
the village servants and the official quarters if any, and then
proceed to look for any semi-voluntary or voluntary institutions. Loni had its own Panchayat, its servants and office, so
much so that Coats observed that "the township had its own
offices, was governed by its own laws and usages, and was in
a great measur e independent of all without. Its almost only
intercourse with the Government was the payment of its taxes.
It was commonly left to protect itself from external enemies,
and held responsible for the police within its limits." The
officers of the township were two Patils, who were its civil
magistrates, the Chowgulla or deputy Patil, the Kulkarni or
secretary and accountant and the Bara Baluta [Balute] were
it~ twelve subordinate servants.
The Patil held his office directly of the Government, under
a written obligation which specified his duties, his rank and
the ceremonies of respect he was entitled to, and his perquisites, and the quantity of freehold land allotted to him as
wages. The Patils about Poona, reported to Coats that they
held their Patilships of the Emperor of Delhi, or one of the
Satara Rajas. Coats opines: " .. . but many of them must be
held of the Paishwas, which perhaps they do not wish to
acknowledge as the former are considered more sacred." The
Patilship was hereditary and saleable. But the office was
looked upon as so respectable, and the property attached to it
5
26
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QU ARIER
was considered so permanent that there were few or no instances of its being wholly sold, although, as a means of
averting misfortune, part of it had been often so transacted.
This, according to Coats, had given rise to there being two
Patils in n:tany villages, and in some three or four, in which
case the duties and rights of the office were divided, according
as it might be stipulated in the deed of sale. The original
Patil, however, always retained the right of precedence.
The duties of the Patil, besides collecting the dues from
the cultivators and sending the same to the Government, were
to encourage people to settle in his village; to let out waste
lands, and promote agriculture by every means in his power.
With magisterial powers, howevcr, he could not impose fines
but could punish the offender by stripes or reproofs. In serious
matters he summoned a Panchayat. He was punished by the
Government for the neglect of his duties, not affecting his
hereditary right to the Patilship. "The PatHs paid every
twelfth year a tax to Government (duhuck puttee) equal to
one year's salary".
Kulkarni kept the numerous records and accounts of the
village. These were: 1) The general measurement and description of all the village lands. 2) The list of fields, with the
n'.me, size, and quality of each; the terms by which it was
held; the name of the tenant; the rent for which he had agreed,
and the highest rent ever produced by the field. 3) The list
of all the inhabitants, whether cultivators or otherwise and
their dues and balance of account to the Government. 4) The
general statement of the instalments of revenue. 5) The detailed account, in which each branch of revenue was shown
under a separate head, with the receipts and balance on each.
The Bal100ta [Balute] were hereditary. Their grants
'wuttun puttur' were in the name of the Patil and township
and witnessed by several of the inhabitants; it bound the
holder to devote his services to the common good, agreeably to
established usages, on the condition of being remunerated with
a fixed proportion of the produce of the soil from each cultivator. The expenses to a Baluta on his appointment amounted to 50 or 60 rupees, in perquisites and presents.
The particular duties of the Balutas are already detailed _
ORCANIZED SOCIAL LIVING
?7
As for present Lonikand it is seen that it had an independent Panchayat since 1954 to 31-3-1956 when two more villages,
Bakori and Vadhu Khurd, at a distance of 1 and 2 miles from
Lonikand respectively were brought under the jurisdiction of
this Panchayat. The Panchayat is constituted and working as
per the Manual of Village Panchayat of 1952 which is the
same as the Bombay Act of Village Panchayat of 1933. The
body is to be constituted of the members elected by adult
franchise. But no election was necessary in this village, the
candidates who filed their nomination papers having been equal
to the number of seats. The Mamlatdar declared them elected.
The secretary of the Panchayat, however, says that the
Mamlatdar nominated these members. The village was not
divided into wards for the purposes of election. The village
of Lonikand is given, in a body of 11 members, 7 seats, Bakori
2 seats and Vadhu Khurd 2 seats. Of the seven members from
this village in this body one, Anandrao Namdeo Kand, the
cousin of the Vatani Patil of the Kand family, being nominated
for the Patilship, resigned his membership on 31-3-1958. Th e
Sarpanch and the deputy Sarpanch both belong to Lonikand.
The details of the six members are as under:1) Sarpanch: Abaji Rambhau Kand, a Maratha, agriculturist (tenant)
2) Deputy Sarpanch: Vidyadhar Baburao Kand, Maratha,
agriculturist and grocer (shop started by his father)
3) Namdeo Maruti Shinde, Maratha, agriculturist and
private allopathic practitioner.
4) Ramchandra Genu Bhumkar, Mali, agriculturist and
grocer.
5) Rajaram Bhimaji Gaikwad, Mahar, agriculturist and
Gaoki and Baluti.
6) J anakibai Laxman Dharane, Brahmin, widow of the
late village priest (Gramajoshi) .
At present Vadhu Khurd is not at all represented on the
Lody. The membership of Lahanu Krishna Chondhe was cancelled on 12-9-1957 because it is said he used to remain absent
in the monthly meetings. There is another vacancy of much
longer duration due to the death of Dattatray Ganpat Bhondvc
28
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUAR'rER
who expired on 31-3'-1956. The Secretary could not give

satisfactory or exact reasons as to why fresh elections were
not held to fill these vacancies.
The staff of the Panchayat consists of 1) a secretary (who
stays in Lonikand) on a salary of Rs. 47-12-0 a month, 2) a
peon at Rs. 25/ - a month and two temporary peons one each
at Bakori and at Vadhu Khurd at Rs. 5/ - each, and a Mahar
woman as sweeper to sweep the open space before the 'chawdi'
at Rs. 10/ - a month.
The sources of income and the items of expenditure can
be seen from the budget estimate and actual expenditure
during the financial year 1957-58 as shown on page 29.
It is seen that the actual expenditure exceeded the budget
estimate by Rs. 41.86. Radio and the lamp-posts evidently
elbowed out health, road-repairs and other useful work.
The house-tax levied from Lonikand amounted to
Rs. 522-8-0 at the rate of 8 annas per 100 rupees of the value
of the house. The value is estimated by the Panchayat. The
marriage-tax realized in the year 1955-56 was Rs. 45/ - in 195657 Rs. 35/ 4/ - and in 1957-58 Rs. 59/ -. The rate of Marriagetax is
Rs.
. Rs.
Re.
nP.
5 on expenditure of Rs. 1,000 and more

Rs . 500 - 1,000
2
"
Rs. 200 - 500
1 "
"
Rs. 100 - 200
50 "
"
"
The Panchayat having been constituted in the latter part of

the financial year 1954-55, the 30 % share of the land revenue
allotted to the Panchayat was only Rs. 3\l0-5-0 but in 1955-56
it was Rs. 638-3-0. In 1956-57 it was turned into a Group
Panchayat and therefore its share of the land revenue during
the year 1957-58 came to Rs. 2,097/-.
The meeting of the Panchayat takes place every month
usually in the first week. Written notices to attend the meeting are served personally to all the members. The agenda
for the meeting is generally fixed and written down by the
secretary in advance. The members are uninterested in the
proceedings either because they are not much educated or
they do not materially benefit from them. The secretary who
~I
."
...]
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....
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en
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;:3
III
<1>
e
0
CJ
.s
30
Af'TER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
has studied upto S.S.C. serves as an unofficial guide to the

members. At the meeting very little discussion takes place on
any item; and almost on all occasions the resolutions are passed
unanimously. In the minutes of the meeting care is taken by
the members to see that, and they are obliged by the secretary,
turn by turn the names of all the members appearing either
as the proposer or as the seconder of a resolution. Sometimes,
afo the secretary confided to Dr. M. G. Kulkarni, the text of
the resolution, and the names of the proposer and seconder are
written in advance. And at the time of meeting the members
have tea, hear the resolutions read out to them and nod their
:lcceptance.
The resolutions that were thus passed during the year
1957-58 were mostly about sanctioning amount to be spent on
some items, and about levying taxes of Kondvada (cattlepound) and marriage in Bakori and Vadhu Khurd.
The villagers in general do not bother much about the
transactions of the Panchayat. They are concerned with it only
in matters of paying taxes and requirements of copies of their
applications and the Panchayat's recognition of their rights
over certain lands in the village. In matters of dispute over
the ownership of any spaces in the village the Panchayat is
usually called in to depose as to who is paying the tax for the
same; for, the Panchayat levies tax even on dilapidated unoccupied houses and op;n spaces. For any improvement in
the village that they require they look to the aid of the Rotary
Club of Roona and Col. B. Hasu, the gentleman in charge.
The Panchayat secretary admitted this dependence when he
ejaculated that the Panchayat has not to bother much about
the school building and medical care etc.
The members of the Panchayat also are not very much
alive to their responsibilities as they do not attend all the
meetings. The only lady member of the Panchayat, a Brahmin
widow of 60 years, who otherwise appears well-informed, does
not take part in the proceedings of the body. The villagers
also seemed ignorant of the fact that there are two vacant
seats, one from 31-3-1956 and the other from 12-9-1957, yet to
be filled in.
The Panchayat has bought some articles for the local
ORGANIZED SOCIAL LIVINC
31
Mahila MandaI, which is not functioning, at a cost of Rs. 130/ -.

The articles, a floor carpet and knitting-work-box, are kept
in one of the two rooms of the school building, which are yet
to be declared open. Ladies on behalf of the Development
Project first came to the village in 1956. During Dr. Kulkarni's
stay of over a month he did not see any of these workers
there. The Panchayat claims to have repaired and levelled the
road leading from the Poona-Ahmadnagar Road to the
'chawdi'. The secretary also said that Potassium Permanganate is being periodically poured into the only well of potable
water the village has. Three or four well-informed villagers
were asked about these matters, but they had no knowledge
about the same.
There was no Panchayat as such prior to the establishment
ct the one established in 1954. But the father of the present
Patil, viz. Sakrojirao Shinde--Ravirao is their titular prefixu sed to condllct the public work of the village on his own in
consultation with some four or five other villagers. He was
a leading figure in the village and if he proposed to do anything, such as constructing a road or building a school, nobody
used to take objection. But this group of five or six p ersons
had no magisterial powers, nor any legal sanction behind them.
Till about thirty years ago the solidarity of the village was
more expressed in the elders of the Panchayat comprising of
Sakrojirao Shinde, the Patil, one person from the family of
Kands either Patil or someone else, one Mali, the Gramajoshi
(village priest) and a Mahar. It is said that the four elders
were unwilling to accept the Gramajoshi's right to worship
the Shami (prosopis .c.-picigera.) tree on the Dasara day. The
Gramajoshi sensed some obstruction to the performance of the
'puja' on that day and even danger to his person by some
miscreants instigated by the other four members. Therefore
he appealed to Poona for police protection. The police arrived
in the village on the Dasara day and detained the other four
elders till the 'puja' and other rituals outside the village were
over. The Patil, the Kand and the Mahar being otherwise on
intimate terms with the Gramajoshi took the whole matter
lightly. But the Mali elder and the whole Mali community
took it as an insult. Almost since then no Brahmin is invited
32
AFTER
CENTURY
ANI)
QUARTER
to officiate at religious ceremonies by the Malis in the village.

Malis in other villages however still depend upon the services
of the Brahmins.
There are no caste Panchayats or caste organizations existing in the village at present and no organized body was existing
prior to the establishment of the Village Panchayat. The
opinion of the elders in each caste, the Maratha and the Mali.
carried weight in matters pertaining to their caste. No instance, except that a Mandir dedicated to Savanta Mali, popularly called Savanta Baba, built by the local Malis about forty
years ago, of a particular caste working, either at present or
in the past, in an organized manner for its own interests is
noticed.
One of the visible marks of organised living is the building
or a place of meeting for the villagers to talk over their affairs
of daily life or matters connected with administration, Stateor Local. Coats has mentioned what he called the town-hall.
The existence of the 'chawdi' is noted by him as one of the
public buildings. But unfortunately he has not specified its
location. As our description of the general lay-out of Loniltand
and its population has made it clear, the 'chawdi', or the community centre as we should like to call it in modem terminology, is very prominently situated at the south-east entrance
of the village wall. It h_as also a spreading 'neem' tree with
a raised circular platform round it in front of it. Characteristically, now a temple of the monkey-god Hanuman stands almost
facing it. It should be noted that the temple of god Hanuman,
or Maruti as he is more usually called in Maharashtra, is a
persistent feature, though not exactly universal, of village life
in this area.
The 'chawdi' is a structure of about 24 x 12 feet with
two-sloped roof and with a small veranda in front. It is partitioned into two equal rooms, one of which serves as the
'chawdi' and the other as the office of the Panchayat. The
old 'chawdi' described by Coats was '30 feet square' and its
construction was paid out of the Government revenues of th~
village.
In addition to this community centre, 'chawdi', there has
come into existence another concrete unit of community life
33
which has a double intent and function. It is both a meeting

place and a place for religious worship. About forty years
ago the Mali caste of Lonikand, where it has more than forty
families and the biggest agriculturist and a thriving grocet
today, built a hall called the Savantababa Mandir or the temple
of Savantababa near the Poona-Alunednagar Road by the side
of the Mali-lane. The hall measures about 30' x 12' and has
a two-sloped roof without any veranda in the front or the
back. There is a picture of Savantababa hung up to the wall.
The hall is kept locked up and is used and is generally usable ,
by the members of the Mali caste. It has full equipment of
pots, utensils and such other things required on marriage
occasions. It is universally used for marriages by the members
of the Mali caste. The hall is thus a monument to the upsurge
of caste consciousness that began in the second decade of the
20th century as an aftermath of the great reformist movement
started forty years earlier in Poona by Jyotiba Phule, a member of the Mali caste. l Savantababa was a great devotee of
Vithoba of Pandharpur. He was a Mali by caste and lived
near Pandharpur. He formed a member of the inner devoteecircle of the great saint Jnaneshwar. He is believed to have
died in A.D. 1295.
The absence of the 'talim' or 'akhada', i.e., the place where
people take regular exercises and teach one another wrestling,
is a great surprise. Another sad feature is the ruined condition
in which another community centre that catered for the wayfarers, the Dharmashala as it is called, is found at present.
This is the more poignant, as just by the side of this institution
in ruins, the Rotary Club of Poona, with the help of the Government and the villagers has built a fairly large building to
accommodate the local school, without even so much as encouraging the rebuilding of the Dharmashala.
The absence of the Dharmashala, which in the topographical survey maps of the talukas is described as a fit place for
subordinate officers for their sojourn, is the more conspicuous
bf'cause of the existence of the Travellers' Bungalow, not very
far from it, which is meant only for gazetted officers.
1. See G. S . Ghwye, Caste and Ctass in India, pp. 200-201.
34
A. TER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
The mention of the school building leads us naturally to

a n account of whatever little co-operative constructive work
has been going on in this village. Coats has told us that there
was a sch ool where the three 'R's were taught, the learners
being the boys of Brahmins, shopkeepers and Patels. It
appears that none of the children of the agriculturists whether
farmers or not, attended the school. Though the village has
four 'wadis' or hamlets, none of them is more than a mile distant from the village proper. This physical integrity of the
village has made it possible for it to go on with one school.
The school established by the District Local Board in 1911 had
six standards till 1953 when the seventh was added . At that
time ten or twelve boys were studying in the seventh standard ,
the total number of children on the 1'011 having been estimated
to have been about 200 . At that time two boys from thi3
village were daily going to Poona to attend a High School anu
their mid-day meals were b eing taken daily by someone in the
Stat Transport bus. Now in 1958, the total number of pupils
is 293 of which 170 are boys and 123 are girls; and there are
.'lIX teachel's, of whom two ar
ladies. both Brahmin. One of
the ladies is married, living with her hU$band and C'hildren;
und the olh r, unmarried, is an immigrant from Chinchwad
nnd lives with her younger brother who goes to school. She
hus tak n a room on rent and manages her hous hold. Of the
four male t nch rs, two are Malis, one of whom is local one,
on(' a Maratha and the fourth n Brahmin. There are two men
In the village who are
ducated uplo the Matriculation. In
1958 one
y was att nding Coll ge in P oona .
The new school building of five rooms, nch measul'in~
lioout 24' x IS', as it appears today. was comoletcd in instalment
and when funds were available. Three of lh five
l' oms w eI'
comple ted by the end of 1955 at a co!>i of about
Rs. 11,000 of which Rs. 1,000 were donated b the Rotary Club
(If Poone. about Rs. 2,000 by some merchants in Bombay,
about R . 4.000 by the Government and the re t wa collected
by the villag
them elve . The foundation-stone for the
other two rooms wa laid a y ar after the compl tion of the
fIrSt thr , i.e., in De mber 1956, and were completed bv th('
nd of March 195 . The two rooms weI' to be declared
ORCANIZED SOCIAL LIVING
35
open formally in the month of August 1958 by the ChiC'f

Minister of the Bombay State. The cost of these came to
about Rs. 8,000 of which Rs. 1,000 were given by the Rotary
Club of Poona, Rs. 1,700 by some merchants in Bombay,
Rs. 4,000 by the Government and the rest was collected by
the villagers. A proposal for constructing another block of
three rooms on the south-west side of the new school building,
",... here the ruins of the Dharmashala stand, is presently b eing
considered.
The next important institution of organised living, in spite
of the marked diminution in matters of religious feeling and
practice, are the village temples and the fast, feast and festivals
centred round them. As Coats noted, without remarking on
the contrast, while describing the temple of Mahadev immediately after his description of 'chawdi' or the town-h all, it wa::
built of hewn aJld dressed stones and lime. The material of
tI,e temple was thus in marked contrast with th e material, th e
sun-dried bricks, then used for houses. The roof of the temple,
however, followed the pattern of the house roofs and was
terraced. The front part, the 'sabhiimanclap' or the assembly
hall as it is called now, was. in front support d on thr (.
pointed arches. According to Coats it was built by Yl'shwantrao Shinde "about 18 year ago", i.e. in about 1801.
The same temple is standing today and is illuslrat d -I ewhere in the book. A. shown in the map it is near th Bhair v
temple in the north-eastern quarter of the village beyond the
Kand-ali. Though that small sub-section of the north-cast nl
quarter is quite open and unoccupied excepting for th two
temples, yet it is not in close proximity of Shinde-Illi. Even
from the big 'wada' of Shindes which is in runis it ii> about
120 feet away. It is in connection with thi tempI that the
Brahmin households, the Dharane family, of this vULage came
' nd settled. down according to the account given by the old
widow of the family. Some ancestor of the Shindes-Coats
has mentioned that some land was 'inam' made to t.he Mahad v
temple-donat d a large piece of land to the temple and invited. the ancestor of the Dharane family to use it as 'valan'
for his services as the pri 5t of the temple. It is very painful
to record that in spite of this munificent gift the family does
36
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
not attend to the temple in the manner expected and to notl.;

the general apathy of the village people towards this particular
behaviour. As it will be seen from the account of the family
sample, the Dharane family came to Lonikand from Burkegaon,
a village today much more backward than Lonikand.
As will be seen from the picture, Mahadev's 'nandi' bull,
is at the very entrance in the verandah. At the backwall of
the verandah is a small door through which access is had to
the sanctum. Here it must be noted that though the roof
from above is flat-terraced, underneath just over the 'pindi',
the phallic idol, the ceiling is a corbelled vault. In the
verandah too in the centre of the ceiling there is a hollow of
about half a foot in height giving a sort of domed appearance
to it which has been effected by means of clever brick arrangement.
The second temple-and here it must be poin ted out tha I.
only three Hindu temples were found adequate to satisfy the
religious needs of 565 people-described by Coats is that of
Hanuman. It is to be noted that Coats records it as that of
IIanuman. Today people refer to it as that of Maruti and
hardly ever as t.hat of Hanuman. He describes it as a building
26 feet square "with a flat roof terraced with white earth, open
in front, supported on rows of wooden posts." He speaks of
the idol of the monkey-god as placed "against the back of the
wall in a little niche." The present temple, neither the structure, nor its deities nor again the placing of the principal idol,
conform to Coats' description. First of all, the back wall of
the temple is formed by the village-wall itself; second, the
loof is not terraced but two-sloped; third, it is not entirely
open in front now and fourth, there are two rows of pillars in
front. The front-most portion is partially screened off by
loeans of vertical iron bars, and the middle door too, of this
front, has such bars. Though there is a locking arrangement,
the door is hardly ever locked.
A few feet inside the door there are a few steps leading to a platform. On this platform there are four pillars
on which the principal cross beam is supported and the two
slopes of the roof run from there, the back-slope resting and
t'nding over the village wall. The front-slope ends and rests
37
over the cross beam supported by the front pillars. The

pillars are all wooden. Mangalore tiles cover the roof. These
tiies were put on only a year ago when a little renovation of
the building was taken up as an adjunct to the installation of
new idols of Vithoba and ~ukmini. On the platform, about
two feet in front of the village-wall just opposite the door and
confronting it, is a constructed stella about 5 feet high. It has
three walls, one at the back and two on the sides, with a flat
top. In it on a platform of about a foot higher than the
ground level of the stella stands about 3~ feet high the idol
(If Maruti which is smeared with red lead. Similar but smaller
stellas in line with it are situated in the two other open compartments. In the stella to the right of the Maruti idol there
<.lre the idols of Vithoba and Rukmini. It is not known when
this stella and the idols of the deity were put up. From Coats'
description we have to take it that they were not there in hi:;
time. But whenever first the idols were placed they got
broken-how one knows not-about two years back, and the
present idols of Vithoba and Rukmini were installed some
time late in 1957. The stella to the left of the Maruti idol
has the white marble statues of Ram, Lakshman and Sita.
We may draw the reader's attention to the fact that some
combined temples i.e., temples enshrining the idols of more
than one god are found in Haveli taluka and elsewhere.
In this village, the temple of Maruti may be considered to
be the hub of corporate life. We have already noted the existence of 'chawdi' in front of it. The temple itself is much
more used for all unofficial meetings than the 'chawdi'. Further, though the chief religio-social festival of the village is
in honour of another deity, Mhasoba, the arrangements for the
same are discussed and fixed up in Maruti's temple. Whenever Bhajans are held-they are not a marked feature of the
village, regular Bhajan MandaI being brought into existence
only recently by the N.E.S.-they are held here because the
Vithoba Rukmini idols of this temple make it the only public
temple of Vithoba-Rukmini in the village. On the New Year's
day Le. on the 'Gudhi Pad va' day, the reading of the year's
future by the local Brahmin takes place in this temple. All
the adult males including the Chambhar, Mahar and Mango
38
AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTI.
g"ther here to hear it. On the night of 'Gokulashtami', the

Krishna's eighth, a 'bhajan' takes place in this temple at which
men, women and children are present till after midnight.
When the bhajan ends 'sunthavda' i.e. grated dried ginger
mixed with sugar and small pieces of kopra from freshly
broken cocoanuts is distributed t~ the gathering. The next
day's function, raising and breaking of the curds-pot ceremoniously and playfully also takes place in front of this temple.
It should be noted that this is the standard type of the collective behaviour on Lord Krishna's birthday. The afternoon
play also to be described in its proper context takes place
here round the curds-pot.
The other collectively celebrated religio-social festival i.>
that of the HalL The lighting of the Holi Fire on the Holi
C\'e is the most common and religious part of its celebration.
It is invariably done in this village in front of the Maruti
temple. The next day's programme called 'dhulvad' naturally
takes place here and the women of the village also visit the
place pouring a little water over the 'holi' ashes, circumambulating it during this operation. The fifth day's programme
,',hich is solely patronised by males also starts here.
The only collective festival for the village women on thi,;
si de is the celebration of 'Naga panchami' or the Cobra's Fifth.
Its major social aspect is celebrated in front of this temple by
the women of the village. About 5 P.M. on that day the
women gather in front of this temple and clasping each other's
hands and forming a circle move round to the accompaniment
of their own singing. Thereafter they proceed in a body to
em ant-hill and return in the same formation to the Maruti's
temple and play their popular traditional dances of 'zimma'
and 'phugadi' till 8 P.M. and then disperse to their homes
for further programme.
The third temple described by Coats, and the last in his
list, is that of Bhairav, Byroo as Coats wrote the name. He
described it as meanly constructed and has mentioned as
associated with it two beliefs neither of which is current today.
Coats was informed that all cases of snake-bites came for
cure to the Bhairav's temple and were duly cured. The second
belief stated that owing to Bhairav's monopoly of curing
39
snake-bites he did not tolerate any 'neem' tree within the

wall at that time. Today as already pointed out, there is a
fme 'neem' tree in front of the 'chawdi' and there are two
others in other parts of the village, not fi guring elsewhere
in our account.
The description of the idols in the sanctum given by
Coats is equally at variance with the state of affairs prevailing
at present. There w,;\s according to him the idols of Bhairav
and Jogeshwari, the accompanying female, with three other
unidentified stones. Today, in the centre of a two-sloped very
badly preserved building, shown in the map near the Mahaclev's temple, there is a block 2' x 2' constructed of stones and
rising to a height of a foot 01' two below the beam of the
roof. In the front side of this block about two feet from the
floor there is a big niche about three feet high wherein are
placed three crude stone images. The central one which is a
bust is that of Bhairav and is placed on a lower pedestal than
t he side ones. There is one idol on the left and another on
the right sitting in cross-legged posture. Some of the \'illagers
identified them as of Parvati and Ganesh and oth ers pleaded
ignorance. The only function , if it may be so-called at all, at
which this temple is used is the annual visit of the Bharadis,
a caste who like the Gondhalis are a professional group performing 'gondhal' which is prescribed as a custom in some
castes and some families . The particular group of Bharadis
are those from Pathardi in Ahmednagar district. This village,
tllong with some others, perhaps, of Haveli taluka, is their
preserve as far as performance of 'gondhal' is concerned. No
other group of either Bharadis or Gondhalis is entitled to
offer its services to the people of this village. Before the
group can go on its round of performance of 'gondhal' for its
patrons it has to give a public performance in this temple for
nine nights preceding the Dasara.
There are four more temples today which along with the
three already described fulfil the needs of the community.
Whereas the addition of the two of the four can be understood,
two others, that of Mariai and of Mhasoba do not lend themselves to such an easy interpretation and present an intriguin g
problem.
40
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND A
QUARl'ER
The temple of Mariai is found to be present in most of thc

"mages in Haveli taluka. Her temple is situated generally in
the Maharwada of the village or at the entrance to it. In
Lonikand it is so situated. It is outside the village-wall and
at the entrance to the Maharwada. Quite often the Mariai
temple is a mean house-type structure. The temple in Lonikand however is one of those small structural ones constructed
with stone and mortar which quite often are met with in this
area by the roadside. It is a structure about three feet high
whose top is a small pyramidal cover. It is open on the front
with a two-panelled wooden door. The idol is a mere stone
b esmeared with red lead.
The non-mention of this temple by Coats presents an intriguing problem because the Mahar population in the enumeration of Coats formed one-tenth of the total number of
families. Therefore, there must have been a Maharwada at
tbat time and the Maharwada with that strength of the Mahar
population could not have afforded to be without a temple of
Mariai even if the population of the other section of the village
had temporised with the lack of it.
The Mhasoba's temple or 'sthan', spot, as it is more
p roperly known, is outside the village on the south-west
(~orner of the village between the Poona-Ahmednagar
l'oad and the south-western tip of the village, and is facing
east. The idol is a conic~l stone said to have grown out of
a small stone of the size of a grain which was discovered by
a Mali at the instance of the deity Mhasoba who repeatedly
'c ommanded him in his dreams to find him out in the form
of a grain-like stone. It is said that it was also mentioned in
the dreams that the deity in the form of the stone was brought
unawares by Lamanis, a wandering people, from Konkan. The
-date of this deity's installation cannot exactly be traced, but is
supposed to be four or five generations old. The three walls
and the enclosing compound in the front are of recent origin
and are built of stone and mortar. The inner square platform
about 2~ to 3 feet high around the idol was also built two year!;
ago, by the villagers contributing volllntarily towards the
expense. There are in all nine niches on the inner side of
the three walls. These as well as the two in the front, are
The l'es idcl1c(O-cum- , ho p "!Iti the Mali tto" s h op, 0 0 th e POOII:\

Ahm<1dnag<11' I'o(ld ,1ho ut I h " ~)Jot where a J<l ll e kaus illto tlH' v ill age,
Tko villag e-we ll ,
ChamiJh;,rw;lCli, - lh e qU<lrlers whe!'!' th e ~C h l'duJprl cas te of till' Chamhh<ll's li Vl'. o r

lh Poon;.-Ahm.ld""g"r road.
Til(' old dii llpidat<'d temple 01 M"h"dC'I' neHr th<'
vl'inci;wall' hy its
('I'
'l11 :1 tiOll groulld
~ id l'.
with (he- '(ubsi-
ORCANIZED SOCI-'L LIVlNG
used for keeping clay lamp-stands 'panatis'. The temple has

no roof; and only beams are placed on the two side walls and
bells are hung to them. Round bamboos and sticks are placed
over these beams lengthwise. The place is thus open to the
sky.
The villagers say that it is difficult to build a roof over
the temple. During the yearly festival of the temple which
falls on Saptami, the 7th day, of Chaitra, two days before
the Ramnavami, some devotee becomes possessed by the deity
and answers questions put to him or declares something of
of his own accord. On one of such occasions it is said that
the possessed man told the people that if at all they want to
build a roof over the temple, the bamboos or the ceiling wood
must be brought from Konkan and the water must be of the
river Ganga. This must be done between night-fall and daybreak. As this is an impossibility the place of worship has
remained in the roof-less condition.
Mhasoba's is the only temple of which an annual fair is
observed by the villagers. The 'utsav' celebration-in this
village it is never called 'urus' as in many other villages of
Haveli taluka as an alternative expression-is in honour of
this deity. It is very intriguing that the annual 'utsav' of the
village should be of Mhasoba, who apart from being the tutelary deity only of the Mali caste is of recent installation, only
about 75 years or so at the most having elapsed since that
event. Some historical or social fact lies at the root of this.
For, it should be noted that even today the Marathas and the
Kunbi Marathas who form about two-thirds of the population
not only do not look upon the deity, Mhasoba, as their tutelary
deity, their tutelary deity being Khandoba, but also say on
all private occasions that Mhasoba is the deity patronised by
the Malis, and even suggest that the real tutelary deity of th~
Malis too is Khandoba. Can it be that because of some
historical occurrence mysteriously connected with this deity,
Mhasoba, the pre-existing annual celebration in honour of
Bhairav came to be superseded by the celebration of this new
and more potent deity of the place?
On two other occasions of collective security and festivity,
the annual sprinkling of water round the village and the
6
42
A.' TEII
A CENTURY
AND A QUARTER
celebration of the Dasara, the deity Mhasoba again comes into

prominence.
Of the two other places of worship, which do not present
any intriguing situation, the temple of Mahadev is one. It is
situated outside the village by the roadside not very far from
the public well and by the cremation ground of the family
01 the Ravirao Shindes. In its architecture and general
plan this may be said to be the most peculiar and even more
primitive and crude than the temple of Mahadev at Katraj,
In the illustration of this temple, the front courtyard
which is floored with stone slabs is not visible, much
less therefore is the usual idol of 'nandi' bull in its centre.
In front is the built-up receptacle of 'tulsi' ('vrindavan') standing just outside the courtyard; in the receptacle at the time
of visit there was no plant. The paved courtyard which is
about 8' x 8' has a running bench-like verandah built-up as
a suHable bench to sit on. On the front side it is divided
into two sections by the central opening through which people
can get into the courtyard and the sanctum. One or two feet
inside the entrance is the 'nandi' idol. The sanctum which if;
also about 8' x 8' is built up of irregular-shaped stones held
together by mud mortar. The top is formed in the shape of
a slightly curved and low pyramid. Bricks are used for roofing; and the photograph elsewhere in the book will show
ridges which are a proof 'bf the corbelling of bricks used for
the purpose of making the pyramid.
The other temple of this category is an instructive com
mentary, so to say, on the religio-social history not only of
this village but of Maharashtra. The worship of VithobCl
popularised by the great saints of Maharashtra owes its extending popularity to the life and work of the saint-poet
'l'ukaram, whose activity was not confined to Dehu alone and
whose connection with Lohogaon, a village about 7 miles to
the west of Lonikand was deep and intimate. Between Coats'
time and now there has arisen in Lonikand a magnificent
temple of Vithoba. It is a temple with a spire which is reminiscent of those in Poona city.
The temple also highlights another factor of religio-social
history, namely that temples may be private places of worship
43
wned by families or individuals. This temple of Vithoba is ..

private temple owned by a Ra\rirao Shinde family, and as
stated elsewhere is situated close to their lane.
The idols are the standard ones of Vithoba and Rukmini
except for the head-dress of Vithoba, as that of the idol in
the Maruti temple, which is a truncated cone only its conicul
!-.hape being not sharp. This kind of head-dress, is peculiar
and is reminiscent of that of the Sun-god images of Northem
India.!! The small brass idols of Ganpati and Balakrishna in
standard poses are placed on the right side of Vithoba's idol.
At the entrance to the assembly hall on the raised platform
stand on two sides the idols in marble of Maruti and Garud ,
the eagle-god, with folded hands in obeisance and facing th e
idols of Vithoba and Rukmini. The temple has a 'nagarkhana'
attached to it in the front through which an opening allows
access to the temple. A side staircase to the first floor of this
appendage leads to the 'nagarkhana', the drum-house.
Within the temple walls, on the right side of the raised
l)latform from which the temple proper begins, there runs
from the very front to the end of the structure a long hall
having two doors giving access to the front court and only
one door on the opposite side giving access to t.he open space
outside the temple. This hall built within the last 20 years
forms the residence of one of the households of the Ravirao
Shindes. On the other side of the raised platform from the
front to the back again there is a passage open to the sky
enclosed by the outer walls on its three sides.
Unfortunately, the temple, either because it is private or
because of any other reason, has no social significance; no
'bhajans' take place there, nor do any processions visit the
temple.
In effect therefore only six temples stand in Lonikancl
today giving one temple on an average for about 225 people.
As against this, in the days of Coats, a century and a quartel'
ago, there was one temple on an average for about 188 inciividuals.
L
2. G. S. Ghul'ye, Indian Costume (1951), p . 114.
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
already referred to the temW Epleshavewhich
are strictly comparablp.
with those mentioned by Coats more than

a century and a quarter ago. Those are the standard centres
of religion as conceived by the elite and more or less in conformity with the religious texts. It is well known that such
centres do not exhaust the religious and semi-religious, or as
It better be called the magico-religious needs of our people.
To cater to these needs of the peoples of Lonikand there
are additional places for magico-religious worship; one of Bap
Dev near Mhasobasthan, and the other of Munjoba near
Bhairav temple. There are two Vetals and in addition there
i.e; a small cubjc}e-like place of worship of 'devi' or goddess,
generally referred to as Deviai. This goddess is distinct from
either Mariai of the generality of the population or even from
Luxmiai, a specific and special goddess of the Mahars, whose
temple is invariably located in the Maharwada. This Deviai
like both Mariai and Luxmiai is situated outside the 'gavthan'
and in the case of Lonikand outside the village wall, about two
furlongs on the road-side to the east.
There is also another centre called Satiasra, cornmonly
known in other villages as Satiai. She is represented near
the public well, which is outside the village wall, by seven
stones. It is clear from the number of stones representing the
Satiai gooddess that there is a representation of the Saptamatris or the seven mothers of standard texts. In addition
any 'pipaI' tree in one's field becomes a centre of magic(Jreligious worship with the installation thereat of stones to
represent Munjoba.
Mariai of this village is represented by three conical stones.
To both Mariai and Deviai worship is being offered. There is
RELICIO-SOCIAL
45
one more centre of worship situated within the village walls

which does not receive any tendance today. The object of
worship of that place is known as Kanhoba. He is believed
to be an ancestral representation, one of the manes, but as
1l0thing is being done one is not quite sure of his specificity.
Here we will only point out that in two or three other villages
of Haveli taluka Kanhoba as an object of worship is represented by a stone; but the usual representative of the manes
01 the village is known as Bapuji Bua in a large number of
villages of this taluka. And Bap Dev of Lonikand referred to
above appears to us to be an ancestral representation.
In Lonikand when there is an epidemic of plague or
cholera every householder pours water from a copper jar ovel'
Deviai. Vows are made to Satiai or Satiasra; and one of the
ways in which the vow is fulfilled is by preparing a curry of
a mixture of seven kinds of pulses and grains. It is there
also that a woman goes with her infant on tbe fifth day of its
b irth and after offering something to the Satiai or Satwai
pours water over these stones. Vowing for a child or a SOll
or for a marriage or to clear a calamity or a disease is generally done to goddess Kalubai, Yamai or Tukai as she is c.alled
by most people.
The goddess Tukai as a form of Kali h a ' been alread J
referred to and was mentioned by Coats as one of the principaJ
objects of worship by Lonikars. And we may take it that
Yamai of our list is the same as Yamai of Coats and therefore a form of Parwati or Kali. Coats' Jemnee cannot be
identified with Kalubai of our list.
Khandoba and Mhasoba are the two gods to whom similar
vows are made. According to Coats the gods to whom such
vows were made were Khandoba and Bhairav. The nonexistence of Mhasoba in Lonikand at least in Coats' time is
further corroborated.
The account of religious faith and practices of the Kunbis
of Poona District given in the first edition (1885) of the District
Gazetteer of Poona' mentions, Mhasoba or Maskoba as "perhaps the commonest and most widely feared of the local evil
1. Loc. cit., Part I, p . 290.
46
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
spirits." He is represented by an unhewn stone covered with

led lead. Both in his representation and in his nature he
resembles the special deity, Biroba, worshipped by Dhangar~
or shepherds. But more than Biroba there is another aspect
connected with Maskoba which makes his acceptance as an
object of worship in Lonikand-what is still more as the
(Jnly deity in whose honour a special annual fair is held there
--very significant. A rather disturbing feature of the moral
tone and social behaviour of the Kunbis of Lonikand, is that
according to the contributor of the Gazetteer, Mhasoba is also
worshipped for black magic. As the Gazetteer has it: "They
go to Mhasoba, name their enemy and promise, if he ruins
their enemy with sickness that they will give him a goat or
a fowl. So much is he feared that when a man knows that
someone whom he has ill-used has arranged to set Mhasoba
on him, he makes such amends that the god is not forced to
exert his powers."
Coats while describing the "superstitions" of the Kunbis
of Lonikand does not mention any practice of black magic.
Of the vows that were made in Coats' time some have faHcl
into disuse today. In view of this change we may note som~
that he has mentioned. Over and above the usual vow of
offering something, beginning with a cocoanut and ending with
" sheep, there is one which promises measuring one's length
from one's house tf) the place of worship of the deity or the
one which enjoins rolling oneself on the ground, is still current
today. But the old vow to swing oneself by a hook stuck
through the skin of one's back, or to be carried suspended in
that state on a cart to the place of worship of the deity, is not
known to be in practice today.
In the matter of other superstitious beliefs there is hardly
any, or only a limited, change. About 'Satiasra', the object
and place of worship already mentioned, there is a belief that
till about 20 years ago, on the night of the New Moon day
torches used to be seen moving from the north-east of the
\'illage towards the hill top to the north of Kesnand where
they used to disappear. The story of Pimpri Bua, who in
Coats' notes figures as "Peepree Bana", is current in a differ-
47
R E I.ICIO-SOCIAL
ent form. Coats calls it a ghost and notes in a footnote~ that

it was seen on the night of September 1819- when he was in
Lonikand-uin the shape of a dog, at first of the ordinary size,
which suddenly grew to an enormous bulk and then vanished
into air." He further notes that the ghost is so-called because
it has its abode in the 'pimpri' tree.
The story current today about Pimpri Bua makes him a
deified hero rather than a ghost, particularly connected with
a specific Pimpri tree which lies near the field of Abaji Rambhau Kand. According to this Kand, Pimpri Bua even now
appea rs on the New Moon and the Full Moon days at night.
People living near about his field worship that tree and on
all holidays make offerings of food as for Pimpri Bua.
The story about Pimpri Bua says that some years ago
there was a military camp near the Poona-Ahmednagar Road
a t Lonikand where some British soldiers slaughtered a cow
and hung it by its legs to the branch of a Pimpri tree nearby.
The patron saint or the abiding spirit of the tree, thereupon
appeared at night on the back of a white horse and frightened
the horses of the military cavalry stationed there. There was
much stampede according to the villagers who assert that there
a re still people who had witnessed the spectacle.
We have begun this chapter with some account of purely
religious matters in order to complete the account, a large
part of which had already to be dealt with in another connection. The proper procedure for this part of our study
is to begin with rites, fasts, feasts and festivals which are
centred round the individual and the family and then to proceed with others which have a much larger social imporl
covering the whole village. But it cannot be adhered to
throughout as some individual or family festivals are interwoven with group events.
We will begin with the purely religious rites which
though they are primarily of significance to the respective
families, yet offer a visible mark of the cultural homogeneity
and cunsequent community feeling of the village as a whole.
1'0 begin with th e celebration of the first day of the Hindu
1. Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol.
ru, p.
219.
48
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND A QUARTER
year-this day in a way is a national first day of the year

for the Maharashtrians as a whole and for a large section of India, south of the Narmada and is now adopted
by the Union Government as the first day of the national
year-the manner of its celebration is so peculiar to Maharashtra and so public that it befittingly leads the way of the
socially integrating annual events of village life. The head
of the family after he has taken a bath in the morning is
ceremonially welcomed by his mother or wife at the threshold .
Ceremonial welcome of the religious type is offered with the
help of a small lighted lamp placed in a shallow dish with a
letel-nut or some other thing placed along side. This light
is waved by the mother or the wife over the head and face
of the person who has bathed and red lead applied to his
forehead. Every household raises in front at the right side
ct the door what is called a 'gudhi' (banner) at about 8 in th e
morning. It consists of a longish bamboo, which is washed
with water, with a brass-pot put over its top with some piect
of 'choli' cloth or dhoti or sacred cloth dangling from undel'neath it, a sugar ornament necklace and a small twig of 'neclll
or limb' (azadirachta indica). The usual 'rangoli' patterns
are drawn at the base of the pole. A sort of worship is offered
by the head. The 'naivedya', the offering to the deified banner-pole, is special and common all over Maharashtra. It
consists of the tender leaves of 'limb' or 'neem' (a zadirachta
indica.) finely ground into a paste with cumin seeds and jaggery. This offering is then distributed to all the members
of the household who have to eat it. Needless to point ou1
that owing to its bitter taste the children of the household
try to avoid gulping it down and the elders see to it that
they do swallow. Tea or any other breakfast is taken only
after this worship.
At about ten o'clock, the heads of households repair to
the Maruti temple. There the 'pothi' or the book from which
the Brahmin will read out the 'panchang' or the calendar
of the whole year and the astrological prognostication of good
or bad events of the year ushered in, is worshipped by th<.>
'patil' of the village. Though the 'patilki' or the headmanship alternates between the two 'patH' families on a ten year
RELICIO-SOCIAL
49
basis, this honour of worshipping the book of annual prophes}

alternates every year between them. At the reading of thc
calendar or the prophesy, the Chambhar, the Mahar and the
Mang of the village are also present. The 'prasad' or the
acred offering distributed to all is the bitterish mixturealready referred to. The standard meal of the family on this
clay consists of the sweet dish, which is again the national
dish of Maharashtra, known as 'puran poli', stuffed bread.
It should be noted that the stuffing of this favourite sweet of
the Maharashtrians is commonly formed by gram pulse sweetened with jaggery and flavoured with cardamoms. In other
parts of India, particularly Gujarat and North India, the
stuffing preferred and commonly used is that of 'tur' pulse.
It is on this day that the villagers assembling in the Maruti
temple for listening to prophesied events of the New Year
turn themselves into a meeting to decide about the Mhasoba
Utsav, the annual festival of Mhasoba which is the festival of
the village par excellence. For the last three or four years
the same committee consisting of two members of the Mali
caste and four of the Maratha caste has worked very efficiently. No Mahar, much less a Mang, is a member of that committee. In effective practice a sub-committee, so to say, of
only three people out of the six has worked. They are two
Marathas, a Tapkir and a Dabhade and one Mali, a Zurunge.
This festival coming as it does just two days previous tothe religious festival of Rama's birth, celebrated on the ninth
day of the bright half of Chaitra, has to be treated as a prelude
to it. The contribution of each family is tried to be fixed in
relation to its financial condition, the maximum being Rs. 4/ and the minimum Re. 1/ -. In the year 1958 the committee
collected as usual over Rs. 700/ - and succeeded in keeping a
surplus balance of Rs. 150/ - which is deposited with the local
hanker Kand.
The festival starting on the seventh day of the bright half
of Chaitra-if the day should happen to be either Monday or
Saturday it starts on the sixth, as no sheep can be slaughtered
on either Monday or Saturday-begins in the morning with
the rite called 'm1ijane'. It consists in smearing the idol of
Mhasoba with red lead and then in offering the usual worship
50
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
to it and garlanding it. This is done by a member of the

Mali caste. Soon after, the sacred bamboo pole about 35 feet
long which has been kept apart from year to year is taken ou~
and fixed in front of a well~known devotee's house. The top
of the bamboo is clothed in a red cloth in the form of a long
old fashioned coat and a saffron coloured flag set flying at the
top.
At about 12 noon a flower~crown is placed over the idol
of Mhasoba and householders come forward and offer the idol
the sacrifice of a goat beginning with that offered by the
devotee in front of whose house the bamboo is erected. The
roadside sheep market is quite full by then, and heads of
households buy goats for sacrificing to Mhasoba. The devotee
iu front of whose house the flag is raised has the privilege
of offering sacrifice first, other householders following him .
A large number of goats are thus sacrificed, a practice which
seems to have continued unabated over a century and il
cjuarter.
Again in the evening worship is offered and vows are
fulfilled by those concerned. But whether there is a vow 01'
no at about 8 p.m. the 'dandavats' or bows by the Mali mem~
hers of the community begin, starting from the flag staff and
ending at the temple. This form of devotional procedure
is a wel1~known vow and perhaps a speciality of Ma~
harashtrian religious repertory. As everywhere in com
munity festivals, there is a fixed order of social precedence
of families even in the offering of these 'dandavats'. Zurunges
come first and are followed by Holes and Birdawdes. There~
after only Kands, the Marathas, start and are followed by
.Jagtaps, Pharates, Valunjas, Garuds etc. Only one person
from each family, either man, woman or child or a man and
his wife, is entitled to take part. This is the standard form
of devotional homage to Mhasoba. And it is to be noted that
as Mhasoba is the deity almost exclusively venerated by thE
Mali caste, it is the members of the Mali caste who start
tile devotional performance.
After a rich dinner, the people decorate the deity's palanquin and dress the deity with its mask and place it in it. The
palanquin then is carried in a procession from the flagstaff led
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
51
by the village people playing on their 'dhol', 01' drum, and

performing the vigorous 'lezim' dance. Wooden sword and
staves players, 'dandapata', line up their troupe after the
lezim dancers and are followed in the rear by the stick-players,
tiprya'. The procession thus formed is headed by the huge
flag-staff of Mhasoba, installed in the morning, along with such
s taffs of Yadavs, Holes and also of the Mahars of Lonikand.
The flagstaff-bearers and their companions dance all the way
to the beat of the 'tash~'-drums. This mass of humanity, staffs
and din winds its way by the new school building through
the Hole-'ali' (see map), the Shinde-'ali', and through the
Kand-'ali' it arrives at the 'chawdi'. There it goes outside the
village gate.
Outside the village gate the procession follows the route
of the main road and reaches the Mhasoba temple, the 'sthan',
after about thre~ hours from the start. By this time it is
2 or 3 in the morning. A roll-call of the accompanying items is
taken and everyone of them is singly performed. Toward~;
the end of this single performance of items the chief devotee
gets possessed. A number of songs purporting to give the
history and stress the importance of Mhasoba in and to Lonikand are then sung. The singers receive some cash gifts.
After this item the 'tamasha' troupe begins its performance
which lasts almost till day-break. The procession is then
re-formed and winds its way to the house of the chief devotee.
The palanquin, and the flagstaff are deposited in their place.
The palanquin all through has to be carried only by members
of the Mali caste.
Immediately after, a 'tamasha' performance starts before
the 'chawdi,' ending at about noon.
At about 4 p.m. the 'hagama' or wrestling bouts start on
the open ground near the dak bungalow. The participants
are paid some cash present ranging from as. 2 to Rs. 25, thp.
winner, the first prizeman being given the latter sum. A
'tamasha' performance before the Chawdi from 9 p.m. to
::)bout 4 a.m. ends the festival or the 'utsav'.
Ordinarily, the next day is the Rama's ninth, the birthday of Rama. On that day, the 'Ramnavami' as it is known,
about 9 a.m. 'bhajan' or devotional meet takes place at the
52
AFTER
A CENTUIIY
AND
A QUAR'IEB
local temple of Maruti, in which all those who had arrived

for the Mhasoba festival join. At about 12 the birth of Rama
is duly celebrated. The congregation then turns into a general
meeting of the people and the accounts of the festival are
read and ratified.
This procedure, as anyone interested in the advance o{
democracy and social participation will be glad to know, is
a practice of the last four or five years only. At the festival
of 1958 the managing committee was able to collect Rs. 85()
of which Rs. 150 were the balance saved and carried forward
with the local respected banker Kondiba Kand. The 'prasada'
or sanctified offering distributed to the people at Ramnavami
celebration is a special concoction known as 'sut:lthavda' in
Marathi. It is so called because its main constituent is the
powder of dry ginger which in Marathi is .'su!)~a'. Grated
dried cocoanut kernel, sugar and few poppy seeds are added
to make up the concoction.
It is noteworthy that at the singing of 'abhangs' celebrating Rama's birth the local Brahmin priest offers to the idols
in the temple the rich dish of the Maharashtrian standard
sweet 'puranpoli'. The people too, those who can afford it.
partake of the same sweet at their homes for the mid-day
meal.
Such is still the attitude to Mhasoba and his festivaJ
among some of the local Marathas and Brahmins that the
Ravirao Shinde families, who consider themselves to be the
highest among the local Marathas, do not offer sheep to the
deity but only cocoanut and some special sweet. The Brahmins
do not even show this much reverence. They frankly say
"Mhasoba is the deity of the Malis" and the Malis do not
want to take the services of Brahmins; "we therefore shall
not participate in their festival".
Before passing to the description of another festival we
~hould like our readers to note that the particular anthill,
which receives worshipful attention on the 'Nagapanchami'
day as the abode of the cobra, lies behind the place of worship
of Mhasoba. The two deities, however, have in no particular
been mixed up.
The next festival, in marked contrast with the previous
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
53
three, is a purely family affair. And its social significance

hes in its familial function. It is the well-known 'Akshayya
tritiya' or the inexhaustible third, one of the most auspicioul>
days according to Hindu astrologers and in the popular estimation. It is generally known that it has some significance in
the total complex of Hindu ancestor-worship. In Maharashtra
in the upper Brahmanic strata some fruit and new earthenware are donated to a Brahmin in the name of the manes
collectively. But here in Lonikand, and as it appears to us
not only in Haveli taluka and in Poona district but even in
many of the Deccan districts, a much more elaborate rite for
the propitiation of the manes is practised. We have noted
the currency of such a practice among the Mahadev Kolis who
are resident in Ahmednagar and Nasik districts. a We have
drawn attention to another practice more or less current in
the Haveli taluka showing some remarkable features of ten
<lance of the manes:' It is therefore with the feeling of intellectual satisfaction that we note and describe the celebration of the 'Akshayya tritiya' as a 'shraddha' or funeral worship of the manes collectively. A male related by marriage
to the head's father and a female similarly related to his
mother are invited to dine as representatives of the family
manes. Two earthen pots, one called 'karha', for the father
cmd the other called 'keli' for the mother, are bought, washeu
and filled with water and placed on some wheat spread out as
seat. The usual 'gandh' or the paste that is applied on their
foreheads by males, is applied to the 'karha' but turmeric and
red lead powder to the 'keli'. The pots are worshipped by
t.~e head.
The 'karha' has a small clay ball fixed on the
mouth and the 'keli' has two small protuberances on its side
to represent feminity.
The invited pair is fed on a rich meal, consisting of the
standard 'puranpoli' and the savouries of 'kurdya', 'papdya'
and 'bhajya' along with the usual items. In some families
'ladus', 'karanjyas' and 'anarsas' are also served. Some of
this food is offered not only to a cow but is also thrown in
water for fish. This last feature of the complex is noteworthy.
3. G. S. Ghurye, The Mahadev Kalis.
4. G. S. Ghurye, Family and Kin in Indo-European Culture.
54
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QIJARTER
Before the actual meal begins, some live coals are placed in
front of the male representing the male manes and on them
some curds, milk, ghee and some bits of all the preparation~
served as meal to the participants are placed, whereafter the
assembled people partake of their meal. If there is a milch
cow in the house, in the evening its calf is allowed to suck
the whole of the milk.
The cobra's fifth on 'Nagpanchami', the next festival,
occurs only after the agriculturist is comparatively free from
from his labours in the field which began in earnest after
the previous festival of the inexhaustible third. It falls on
the 5th day of the bright half of the lunar month of Shravana.
We have already alluded to some features of its celebration
in another connection which must have given the reader fi
fair idea of the social significance of the event, its value for
community solidarity, its routine of cooperation in pleasureable activity of dance and above all its uniqueness as the most
outstanding feminine public performance.
Here we shall relate its other features in which some of
the practices current in Northern India as part of this festival
and of the beginning of the rather sacred month of Shravana
figure. First, as in Northern India, on this occasion the
married daughters of the family, daughters or sisters of the
head, are invited. Second, as in the 'dolajatra' or the swin~
festival of the North, swings are put up on which children
and even adult males indulge themselves, but not the females
who form the main participants in the North.
The purely religious part of the festival consists: first,
in the village barber inserting early in the morning, a stick
shaped like a cobra in the hole of the particular anthill and
sitting by it to receive all the offerings of puffed corn and
milk, the special diet of cobras, brought by the youngsters
of the village for the cobra; second, in drawing in the home
a picture of a cobra on the wall near the receptacle of the
household deities and worshipping it. As usual the household mid-day meal consists of the standard 'puranpoli'. In
the evening the barber returns home with his stick and the
collected offerings.
The next Hindu religious' festival is the cocoanut-fifteenth,
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
55
celebrated on the fifteenth of the bright half of Shravana 01'

the pacification of sea-spirits with the offering of a wholE'
cocoanut. The villagers know the holiday and its significance
but themselves do nothing.
There are two other features associated with this festival.
one purely religious and the other magico-social. The religious
item is known to the Brahminized groups as the 'Shravani'
or the day of Shravana when the sacred thread worn during
the year has to be changed for a new one to the accompaniment of appropriate rites or even without them. This item
is gone through in Lonikand by Brahmins, Sutars (carpenter) ,
Sonars (goldsmith), Lohars (ironsmith) and among the agriculturists proper only by the Ravirao Shinde families. The
other item is known as 'rakshabandhan', fastening of the
protective charm. Among the families mentioned, and by
imitation among some others too, sisters tie a particular variety
of prepared thread round their brothers' wrists. The Rashtriya
Swayamsevak Sangh has been attempting to make this a
festival of mass appeal by sending its volunteers to tie the
'rakhi', the protective charm, on to the villagers' wrists.
The birth of Lord Krishna, 'Shrikrishna jayanti' or
'Janmashtami' as it is called, is on its first day a strictly
l'eligious observance. Most adults observe it as a fast day ,
the fast bein~ broken generally on the next morning, though
there is no objection to its being broken at midnight after the
eyent of Krishna's birth is celebrated.
The birth celebration is done on the 8th day of the dark
half of the lunar month of Shravana, i.e., about 17 to 18 days
after the cobra's fifth. The next day from the afternoon starts
the social part, featuring what is believed to have happened on
the next day after Krishna's birth in the colony of the cowherds where he had been safely deposited. It is known as the
'kala-dahihandi', scramble curds-pot, its essence being the
breaking of curds-pot and getting drenched by the spilled
curds for which privilege everyone scrambles.
A wooden post is fixed in the ground in front of the
temple of Maruti at the upper end of which is tied a pot of
c:urds with puffed grain in it. The people assemble at about
4 p.m. in the temple and engage themselves in devotional
56
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND A
QUARTER
songs in unison. After about an hour of the devotional exerdse they come out to the wooden post. They pair off, one
person carrying another on his shoulders, and play what are
commonly regarded as games for females, like 'phugadi',
'kombada', etc., both being a kind of dance. Towards the end
of these games one of the party starts singing what is known
<15 'bharuda'. 'Bharuda'in ordinary parlance means loquacious
.and slightly meaningless or unconnected talk. But the
'bharuda' of the communal function is a kind of rhyming song
containing ,s ome comments on the evils of the age, some observations on the life incidents of the particular deity and also
some moral exhortation. One of the assembly then climbs
up the wooden post and breaks the curds-pot. This serves
.as the sign for the general melee for one and all to try to get
some of the spillings from the pot in his own hands or cloth
and to secure a piece of the potsherd.
The current belief about the contents of the pot and the
potsherds is that a piece of the sherd inserted in the grainstorage basket guarantees good crops or rather fullness of the
storage-basket. The puffed grain droppings are generally
preserved as an antidote against the evil consequences of the
breach of a particular tabu. That tabu pertains to the celebration of the Ganesha's fourth, the fourth day of the bright
half of the lunar month of Bhadrapad. On that day a person
must not see the moon. The breach of this tabu is sure to
bring upon the person breaking the tabu some serious allegation. In case a person has inadvertently seen the moon on
the Ganesha's fourth he is enjoined to eat some of the puffed
corn preserved from out of the amount of the spillings collected
at the time of the 'kala' or the observance on the next day
after Krishna's eighth.
'Ganesh chaturthi' or the Ganesha's fourth, in the manner
of its celebration and as regards the sentiments attached to it,
is thought to be a peculiarly Maharashtrian festival. But in
reality it is not so; nor is it universal either as a family institution or as a group event even in Maharashtra. It is the latter
r.haracter of its observance in cities like Bombay and Poona
iliat Cl'eates the impression of its peculiarly Maharashtrian
spread of observance. This fact explains the absence of any
Th, lane' kilrling 0\11 of I.h,' rn:lin g"I, ~ D j llclj DII,,"'aja.
A spect of th e vi 11<1>(' lookin g: imv" rd , from thL' Chnwtii ,
Side view of the Bha ira v temp l(' near th e temple ('I f Nl ahadev.
The templ e of M,,jlaciev in
t Iw
1l01'th-('hst
Cj\l<ll'tl'1'
of the' \'i ll ;'g'e.
I .. ELI C I 0 - SOC 1 A L
57
reference to it in Coats' century-and-a-quarter-old account

of the festivals and holidays of Lonikand. Coats' observation
was keen enough to note that the Gouri festival which generally falls on the fourth day of 'Ganesh Chaturthi' was almost
universally celebrated by the women of the village. He has
counted it as one of the two specifically female festivals, the
other being the 'Nagapanchami ' or the cobra's fifth, which is
already described. This does not mean that 'Ganesh chaturthi'
was not observed by any family of Lonikand in Coal'" days.
Even today it is known to be ob erved by the families of
Brahmins, Sutars, Sonar s Lohars and Ravirao Shindes, as a
family festival. These families buy clay images of Ganesh or
Ganapati from Poona. The group festival is an affair of the
local school and mostly the teachers manage it. only some
village-folk going in for group prayers and some entertaining
(:vents.
The whole of the dark fortnight of the lunar month of
Bhadrapad is known as the 'pitri paksha' or the manes' fort night. A 'shradha' or funeral repast is offered, during the
fortnight, to one's ancestor on t.he particular 'tithi' day on
which he or she died. Only the Mahars do not observe this
rule; instead they offer their funeral worship on one day only
and that is the 'all manes' fifteenth. The procedure is the
same as described for the observance of 'Akshayya tritiya'.
'Ihe only difference is in the particular items of food, 'kashiphala bhopala' among the vegetables and 'gharge' and 'khira'
among the sweets being essential. So also are paste of poppy
seeds, a piece of fresh ginger and of lime indispensable on this
occasion.
The fifteenth of the daTk half of the lunar month of
'Bhadrapada', famous among all sections of the Hindus as
the 'all-manes' dark fifteenth ', is particularly significant for
the Deccan agriculturists. It is the 'Baila Pola' or simply the
'Pola' festival day, the great cattle festival, demonstrating thC'
agriculturists' recognition and appreciation of the services of
bullocks and other cattle in the onerous and all-important
operation of husbandry, the source of the agriculturists' and
villagers' livelihood. The day is an off day for cattle, no
service being taken from them.
7
58
At" l 'E R
II
C ENT UR Y
A N D A
QUART E R
On the day of the festival the 'baluta' potter, who is the

same as that of the village Perne about two and a half miles
to the north-east, presents to every agriculturist householder
a pair of clay bulls, The head of the household who keeps
a fast till the evening meal, worships them on an altar near
the usual place of household worship, All the cattle of the
family are taken either to Tulapur situated about four miles
to the north-west at the confluence of the Indrayani and the
Bhima or further still to K()regav on the Bhima and they are
given a bath and led back to the outskirts of Lonikand. At
about 4 in the afternoon the cattle are very tastefully adorned
with the complete paraphernalia of bovine beautification, including the covering red cloth with frill at the ends and the
c:oronet over the forehead. A procession of all the village
cattle is formed with the usual order of social precedence
heing observed. It wends its entrance through the southeastern gate of the village and proceeds through the village
keeping all the temples to its left. Everyone then drives his
cattle to his home where on arrival the h ead worships his
cattle. First h e pours water on their hoofs, then puts turmeri c
and red lead powder on their heads and ties five fried wheat
fluur doughnuts, ("shenguli" ) at the root of the horns. H e
burns a little frankincense and camphor before them and
holds in a metal dish or in a winnowing basket some corn
1,efore them to be smelt. The principal dish of the main meal
(If the day which is taken after the worship is the standard
'puranpoli' and is also served to the cattle. The head, and
in not a few cases, all the members of his household bow
down to the cattle. Thereafter the members sit down to meal.
'Navaratra', the nine nights, and 'Dasara', the tenth par
excellence, beginning from the first day of the bright half of
the lunar month of Ashwin and ending on the tenth day with
a public and community observance of display of mutual goodwill and deference, is perhaps the most common festival and
fast current over the whole of India in a more or less identical
form and procedure. Among the higher castes of Maharashtra
the practices and rites of the first nine days or 'nights' as they
are called tend to vary with families according to their traditions. Among not a few of them the principal item of obser-
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
59
vance, the daily putting up of a flower garland over thE:

'ghata' or the pot ceremonially placed on the first day i:.;
conspicuous by its absence. Among agriculturists and other
village folks, particularly of the Deccan, the observance is
very much more uniform and universal.
It is to be noted that the whole festival is a complex
centred round the goddess Durga with the addition of martial
and wish-fulfillng items on the 10th day. Corn sprouts
f-ymbolic of young growth and remotely of the goddesses
sported by all and only more so by females, and the worship
of 'shami' tree or 'apta' bauhinia tomentosa, tree on the last
day are elements incorporating tree and corn spirits' worship.
Buffalo sacrifice was a feature accompanying this festival in
the long past but even in Coats' time it had become infrequent
and today is completely absent.
On the first day some earth from an anthill or black soil
is sifted and pJaced on a platter in one corner of the house'
""here generally idols are worshipped. Seven kinds of corn
and pulses are mixed in it. Having washed the household
idols with the standard mixture for ritual wash, each one i"
rubbed dry and placed on a betel leaf, thirteen of them having
been placed on a piece of unwashed new cloth. The deities
thus placed stand undisturbed for nine days. In front of the
deities is placed the platter with the corn and earth mixtUl'E:
spread on it, Over this mixture is placed a new earthen pot
filled with water. One copper pice is put in the water, Fivt.!
bet tel leaves each with its stem-end turned into the pot are
arranged over the inside of the neck of the pot. Eleven more
betel leaves are hung outside round the same 'neck, the
eleventh having its outside end tucked on to the wall against
which the pot is standing. The 'samai' lamp-a brass or mixed
metal-standing-lamp generally with arrangement for burning
five or more wicks simultaneously-\yith a wick of one and
a quarter hand-about 2 feet-in length is placed in it and
bghted, the oil burning in it being sesamum. The wick must
last all the ten days and the lamp must be burning all the
time from its lighting.
The vessel thus placed is said to have been put up or
'established'. From the next day every morning some male
60
A F TER
CENTURY
AND A
QUARlER
member of the family after taking his bath pours fresh water
in the pot and puts on one garland of black sesamum flowers
round the neck of the pot and another hanging over its mouth
till the 10th day or the 'victory-tenth' as it is called. On the
'dasara', the tenth day, the 'victory-tenth', the head after doing
the usual worship to the pot lifts it from its place of rest to
the accompaniment of the name of everyone of the deities
<comprised in the family pantheon and standing for nine nights
on the betel leaves behind the full pot, and replaces it. This
enumeration or rather a kind of prayer begins with the
enigmatic formula about the famous deity Khandoba whose
principal shrine is at Jejuri some miles to the south outside
Haveli taluka. It runs: "Khandoba. Khandoba ye!aku~be or
ye!ako~a, ye!ako~a , ye!aku~be."
Thereafter the idols are
washed with the standard purifying mixture and ashes and
~1fter bein g washed with water are rubbed dry and placed on
fresh betel leaves.
After this the items to be observed differ according to the
occupation of the family, each one placing by the side of the
idols the tools, weapons or implements or other materials that
is the stock-in-trade of its occupation after washing them
dean and drying.
By way of worship some of the young shoots germinating
(Jut of the corn put under the pot-the 'gha\a', are placed on
them. The mid-day meal- consists of the 'puranpoli' sweet.
At about 5 p.m. the palanquin of Mhasoba with his mask in
it is carried in a procession to the accompaniment of the music
c-f 'dhor, the two-sided drum, and the 'lezim' stave--jingles, out
of the village-gate to a place about two furlongs to the east
of the village where the privileged Mahar has already planted
a large branch of 'apta', batthinia tomentosa, tree. In strict
practice the tree that is prescribed is 'shami' (Prosopis spicigera.) ; but where and when it is not available, the 'apta' tree
does duty for it. All males join the procession with a few
of the tender sanctified shoots of corn sported in their turbans
or elsewhere on the body. This going out of the village
gate is known as the 'seemollanghan', the crossing of the boundary. Gathered at the branch of the 'apta', people wait till
the 'patil' the hereditary headman, worships the tree as
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
61
minutely instructed by the Brahmin priest. The 'patH' after

worshipping the branch plucks a few leaves off it and then
all the others do the same. This procedure is known as 'looting
the gold', the leaves representing gold. In the return procession, the palanquin has to pass by all the temples of the
village. At every temple everyone of those accompanying'
the procession goes inside and places a corn of 'bajri' and a
few leaves of the 'apta' before the idol as an offering of gold.
Everyone then returns home where his mother, sister or wife
waves a lighted lamp before him. He on his part gives a few
leaves of 'apta' to the person waving the lamp. After the
elderly people of the family are thus treated, most males go
out to their distant relatives, friends and neighbours to distribute what is called gold-the 'apta' leaves. This distributioll
done, the festival comes to an end.
The preceding nine nights are marked by a group entertainment of a more or less religious nature called 'bh1iru~a '.
In rural Maharashtra religious and social events of importance
have their completion marked and celebrated by the performance of some semi-religious entertainment. Such performance is of two varieties: one is 'gondha!a' and the other
'hharutla'. Two different castes have specialized in the two
performances as their hereditary occupation and generally
the extent of the domain of families of each caste for the performance of their speciality is traditionally fixed so that only
specific family or families of either Gondhalis or Bhariitlis, as
the case may be, are entitled to give performanc in certain
villages.
The Bhariidis of Pathardi have the sole privilege of performing 'bharuda' in Lonikand. They c!ome and live in Lonikand from the first day of the 'nine nights' upto the 'Diwali'
testival. For the nine nights of the Navaratra festival every
night they perform in the village temple of Bhairav where
men and women watch and listen to their performance till
about 12 mid-night or 1 A.M. when it ends. The Bharadis
receive in cash eight annas per house and are fed during thes~
nights by turns, by the village folk. After the nine nights.
private performances in the people's houses go on, generally
every alternate day providing one in the village. Such a pri-
62
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND A
QU A RTER
vate performance costs Rs. 2.50 to the householder as the

wages of the Bharadis.
The Bhairav temple is thus again the centre of the group
activities of the people. The Navaratra too like the Dasara
has besides its household religious import also socio-religious
role in group life, providing common religious participation
and group enjoyment.
The next festival is one of lights, the 'divali', which
l~sts for almost five days, beginning on the thirteenth of the
oark half of the lunar month of 'Asvin' and ending with the
Lrother's going for his meal to his sister's house on the second
.day of the bright half of the month of 'K5rtik'.
This festival is a complex one and we shall confine our~e lves here to notiCing two or three outstanding features
which are socially significant. Generally on the second day
neighbours , friends and relatives are invited to partake of
'phar51a', Le., eatables, which do not form a regular meal
but which in European terms may be said to comprise high
tea. On the third day, the dark fifteenth, the local cowherd
(~arrying a lighted pottery lamp placed on a grass-stand" goe::;
round visiting every house and demanding a piece of 'kopra'
::Ind pronouncing a benediction on the cattle of the householder. On the first of 'Kiirtik' the barber, the washerman,
the Mahar and the Mang who are the 'balutas' of the village
visit their patrons' houses carrying a lighted lamp in the usual
plate, and waving it in front of the house say aloud: "Mayall
evil disappear and may the rule of Bali return". Each one
of them receives some cash and a piece of 'kopra' as a present
in return.
The fourteenth of January when the Sun enters the sign
of Capricorn has been observed as a festival with practices
which overtly demonstrate group solidarity and sociability but
in inward content have a bearing on the propitiation of the
manes and particularly of ladies of the family who died while
their husbands were living. The females whose husbands are
living offer to the village deities and distribute to other women
whose husbands are living new earthenware pots of special
5. See G. S . Ghurye, The Mahadev Kolis.
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
63
shape with some specified things put in them. These things

together are known as 'vavasa' and to present a new earthenware pot with this mixture in it is to 'vavasane', offer the
'vavasa'.
The first thing in connection with this festival is for the
women to get from the potter 'khans', 'pairs of fresh earthenware pots' of a particular shape. The number of the 'kha~s
to be bought depends on the number of the ladies of the household whose husbands are living and on the number of the
ladies who died while their husbands were living and entitled
to this consideration. One additional set of five pots is also
hought to be offered to the sacred basil plant. The 'vavasa' to
be put inside the pot consists of small pieces of carrots, peanuts, 'paw~a' (dolichos labl.ab) , 'ghew(Ia' (dolichos), sesamum.
fresh tender wheat grains, fresh tender grains of 'j waree'
(holcus saccharatus) and if possible 'bor' (berries) . On the
previous evening the family meal must consh:t of curry made
out of the 'vavasli' mixture described above and bread of
' oajree' (holcus sp'icatus) and white sesamum. On the
'Sankriint' day, after bath at the prescribed time of the day
ladies whose husbands are living go to the various village
temples, including that of Mariai and offer a 'khan', a pair of
pots in which the 'vavasa' is put and to which red lead and
turmeric are already applied. They offer the five pots 'khan'
to the sacred basil plant and then gOillg to their friends' and
relatives' houses fill the laps of the ladies, whose husbands
are living, with the 'vavas5'.
In the afternoon all persons distribute to one another a
mixture of sesamum and jaggery with the request: "accept
this mixture of sesamum and jaggery and talk sweetly". In
effect this is a request for cordiality in social intercourse.
The fifteenth of the bright half of the lunar month 'Pousha'
is a sort of festival with the agriculturists and is known as
the 'u~~ pour~ima' 'rice-ball fifteenth'. In the evening of the
day the housewife prepares small balls of cooked rice and
pu ts on each some jaggery, curds and fresh tender gram
grains. Some male member of the family then takes them
and presents one as 'naivedya', offering, to everyone of the
idols in the temples of the village, The housewife generally
64
ArTER
A CENTURY
AND A
QUART Er
ciistributes some among her neighbours. The r mainder are

taken as the meal of that evening.
'Holi', 'Shimga' as it is more generally known in Mahal"ashtra, is really a prolonged occasion for merriment, most of
which used to be, and some of which still is, very coarse and
even obscene. Even the magico-religious features of the festival are such that they tend more to be enacted as items of
mirth rather than as those of worship or prayer. In some
areas of Maharashtra the bonfire continues to be made for
1'.ot only ten but even fifteen days. And almost everywhere
there is lighted a fire on the bright fifteenth of the lunar month
'Pousha' which is exactly two lunar months before the celebrated 'holi' fire has to be lighted. So current is the practice
of the preliminary fire-lighting that the day, the bright fifteenth
of 'Pousha', is known to the people as 'chudichi pournima', the
'torch-light fifteenth'. The lighted 'chliJa', an improvised
lorch, is universally meant to scorch the flower-plant of
'mogra', which then is believed to blossom out in plenty. If
it were merely this all over Maharashtra we would not have
be.en justified in looking upon it as the prelude to 'holi' bonfu'~
and to suggest that 'holi' star ted in reality from that day. But
in some areas of Maharashtra the 'Pousha' fifteenth is known
as 'thorla shimga', the big 'shimga' or the bigger 'hoIi'. And
in Lonikand, where the day is called by that name, all householders ligh t small fires in l ront of their houses on that evening, offer 'pural.lpoli' effering to the household deities and to
the bonfire and strike their mouths with the backs of their
palms as at 'holi'. The collection of cowdung cakes for the
'boli' in 'Phalgun' st81'ts on this day.
The well-known fast of 'Mahashivratri' falling on the dark
fourteenth of the lunar month of 'Miigh' has also a group-event
appearance and reality in the practice of the people of many
villages in Haveli taluka . And in Lonikand the people proceed
with their families in their bullock-carts for bath in the morning to Tulapur, a village about four miles to the north-west
on the confluence of the Indrayani and Bhima l'ivers. Retunling from the bath they bring some water from the confluence
and pour it on the village idols beginning with that of Mahadev
and place some tender mango blossom and 'bel' leaves on them
Th t' t elll}Jic' of Vith"l-Rukminl huill Iw Ih" R :I\,iJ:lo Shinrk lalnih wi th It> JI:.tg;lr"h;1I1
thl"
drumhou ,('.
;I t
th, '
IlIthl'I"(' lld .
ALoh a I'
hli1l'blllith - a t wor k in hi s wo rk s hop attuclwd to hi

A Ch<1mbhar I( <1 th l' r wo rkl' l'- a t work in his house'.
hou se.
RELIGIO-SOCIAL
65
by way of worship. At home many prepare an earthen representation of Mahadev i.e., the 'pindi', cylindrical object, and
offer it the same worship. At night 'bhajans', ecstatic groupprayers, are conducted alternatively in the two temples of
Mahadev till day break.
'Shimaga' or 'Holl' is the festival in which the chief item
t!verywhere is the lighting of a huge bonfire by cooperative
effort at a traditionally appointed place on the evening of the
fiteenth of the bright half of the lunar month of 'Phalgun',
which roughly coincides with the third week of February
to about the 3rd week of March. The time is such that the
farmer must begin his operations to cultivate his land and may
be considered as the beginning of the new year of agricultural operations. It is thus possible that the lighting of the
bonfire, which may be commemorating the burning of the gOr]
of Love by Shiva and in Northern India is actually the presentation and enactment of the burning of Raval,a, the demon
d Lanka opposed to Rama, is also the scorching of the lanel
to make it effective for agriculture.
Cowdung cakes which boys have been collecting by hook
or crook through more than a month's period before the 'Holi'day are brought to the spot in front of the Maruti temple. In
the afternoon both village boys of all castes and the villag/~
Mahars go round the houses and collect what may be called
the customary contribution of cowdung cakes from one and
all of them without restriction and take them to the Maruti
temple spot. TAere in a small pit all the resident 'balutas',
the Mang, the Mahar, the Chambhar and the Brahmin arrange
the cakes around two upright insertions, one a whole sugar
cane and the other a branch of castor-seed plant. Immediately
before this, someone from every household of the village takes
ten cowdung cakes to the spot, places five of them on the heap
for the projected 'Holi'-fire, and takes home the other five,
after touching the heap with them. They are to be used for
the bonfire which is generally lighted by every householder in
front of his house.
The Mahars of the village as almost everywhere in Maharashtra have a separate 'HoIi' of their own and the 'Holi' fire
of the village 'Holi' in front of the Maruti temple can be lighted
66
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
by the 'patil'-it is the patil's privilege to light the bonfire and

<lffe:t: first worship to it-only with the fire brought from th~
'Holi' bonfire of the Mahars. The bringing of the fire from the
Mahars' 'Holi' provides a sort of a melodrama of what was
perhaps a serious incident in the past, the Mahars resisting the
theft or loot of their fire and the village-folk carrying it away
notwithstanding their being pelted with live coal and other
missiles, muddy or stony. In the lighting of the 'Holi' bonfire
oS also in the case of other fires for sacred or ritual purposes,
kerosene oil must not be used.
Worship offered, the 'patil' circumambulates the 'Holi' fire
sprinkling or rather streaming water from a jug or cup by his
side on this round and beats his open mouth with the back ot
his palm. Other householders then go home and light their
'Holis' and come to the village 'Holi-fire and circumambulate
it dropping water as did the 'patil'. Everyone of them after
his round drops a pice in the 'Holi' fire and scorching a piece
.of copra on it takes it home to eat as the sanctified gift, 'prasad',
oi the deity. Stealing of all kinds of combustible material and
putting it into the 'Holi' fire is still done in the night by the
village boys.
The next day of the 'Holi' is known in Maharashtra as
the 'dhulwad', 'dusting' because on that day dust and ash-mud
are thrown on all and sundry who come near the embers of
the 'Holi'-fire. On the m1>rning of this day, that is the first
.(Jay of the dark half, one lady whose husband is living from
.very household brings a large vessel filled with water and
after putting on the 'Holi'-fire embers a pinch of turmeric and
red lead powder, goes round it pouring out the water as she
circumambulates. This activity of so many ladies of the village
creates a veritable mine of mud on the spot of the 'Holi'-fire.
Boys, youths and even adult males then indulge in physical
mud-slinging with great eclat. Boys go round the shops and
-demand the sweet of sesamum known as 'revadi' and generally
get from each about a quarter of a seer. Bullock-carts anti
cycles driven by that way are taxed for some cash-tip. All
these earnings of cash and 'revadi' are distributed among boys
who join in a wrestling tournament in the evening.
Formerly the day of 'dhulwad' was used to perpetrate
RELICIO-SOCIAL
li7
even more wanton and cruel mirth. It was reported that only
fifteen years ago, the new son-in-law of one Jagtap, both living
in Lonikand, was taken on the back of a donkey t o his fatherin-law's house to the accompaniment of the 'Holi'-music provided by beating the backs of palms against one's open moutl ..
The revellers let him down only after receiving some cash for
themselves and a full dress for the son-in-law from his fntherin-law.
Boys manage to keep the 'Holi'-fire embers continuing till
the day of 'rangapanchami', the colouring fifth, on which day
all sorts of colour throwing is very freely indulged in. In the
morning of the 'ran gapanchami'-day a pit measuring about
2 feet long, equally broad and as deep is dug out in front 01
the Maruti temple where the 'Holi'-fire was lighted on the
'Holi'-day. Ladies whose husband s are living pour water in
it and boys and girls play with the mud formed as on thc
'dhulwad' day. Soon the colour, powders and water begin
to make their quota of the mirth. During the last tcn years
there has been a steady decline in the practice of throwing
colour at passers by without their acquiesence. With the mid day meal, mirth and holiday both end.
We must note here for its social significance one feature
of the celebration of the 'rangapanchami' which Coats found
current in his day. He observes: "On this day the women
take a part in a body, with a branch of the castor-oil plant
in their hands, and lay hold of the Patail ['patil'] and richest
inhabitants, and if necessary are assisted by their gallants,
and plague them till they consent to give them a post, or Holi
present." The account of the festival given in the first edition
of the Poona District Gazetteer of 1885, though purporting to
be based on this old account given by Coats about sixty years
before, makes only a nondescript and guarded mention of
women's part in the celebration of 'Holi'. The revised edition
of the Gazetteer published in 1954 repeats the same observation more or less unmodified in the form , "Women also share
in the fun".
Some customs and practices of magico-religious complexion
hut not considered as either fasts or festivals and having great
social significance are specific to the two lunar months of
68
AFT!:R
A CENTURY AND A QUARTER
Ashadha and Shravan, both very important from the point of

view of agriculture and the latter also from the magico-religious side. Thus in the fonner month on a Tuesday ODe
must not plough, and the same tabu holds for Monday in the
next month, Shravan.
An annual observance which is both collective and cooperative for the whole village and which resembles th~
modern practice of group picnic and hiking has some very
significant bearing on settlement in villages though not clearly
ascertainable at this stage. On some day previously fixed by
arrangement, in these two months the whole village has to
go out of it and take the meal outside of it on the eastern
~ide.
On the fixed day the villagers take out the idol of
Mhasoba in its palanquin, borne as usual by Malis only, to the
village of Koregav on the Bhima. After bathing the deity
the people return with the palanquin to Lonikand about 12
noon and rest it at a convenient spot on the eastern side of
the village. The people go to their houses and all the folk
come out with them carrying their meals with them. Usually
{our to six households form one group and behave like it in
their movement and the later religio-social performance.
Everyone of such groups offers 'naivedya' or special food to
Mhasoba whose idol has been resting in the palanquin and
breaks a cocoanut in front of him. After this, each group
partakes of its own meals in the open. After finishing their
meals all rest there till about 4 to 5 p.m. Thereafter the
palanquin with Mhasoba in it and the assembled people start
fur the village. At the gate of the village the people stop
but the palanquin is carried to the temple of Mhasoba. There
one or the other of Mhasoba's devotees gets possessed. Some
of the persons along with the possessed individual proceed out
of the gate and go round the whole village dropping on the way
cooked rice, water and cows' urine. At four corners-the four
quarters-four limes are cut, one at each. This rite or performance is technically known as 'dhar phiravir}e', 'move the
flow round'. The rite is evidently intended to protect the
village. This done the people who have been waiting at the
gate enter the village and return to their homes.
The last observance we wish to notice here is even more
RtLICIO-SOCIAL
69
indicative of the integration of village-life within and also

without among the adjacent villages. It falls in the month
of 'Asha<;lha' i.e. at the beginning of the monsoon and the intensive agricultural operations. On a certain day in that
month 'mother's cart' ("aichagada") arrives from the western
direction. The famous village of Wagholi, the western n eighbour of Lonikand, sends word that the 'mothel's cart', which
is a cart dedicated to Mariai, has arrived and that it may b e
taken. On receiving the message the Mahars of Lonikand
proceed to Wagholi and drawing the cart to Lonikand station
it at the village temple of Mariai for a day and send word
to the Mahars of Peme, the eastem neighbour of Lonikand.
The Mahars of Perne duly take charge of it and carry it to
their village. Thus village to village the protection of Marial
is carried by the village Mahars keeping mutually in communication.
With this inter-communication of Mahars and the carriage
,of Mariai's protection among neighbouring villages we may
take leave of religio-social aspect of life and living in Lonikand ,
cppreciating inter alia its role of moralizing and socializin!,(
the individual to fit into the local community as an integrated
whole.
DOMESTIC LIFE: BlO-SOCIAL

have already noted the number of
W Ehouseholds
and the constitution of
the family as given by Coats and compared

in gen ral outline the households of today. Here we shall
present a more detailed survey of the domestic group as as~essed through the study of a sample of the families. On a
prepared plan, Dr. Kulkarni sorted out the number of the
present families according to their caste, and out of them he
took at random a 20 per cent sample, that is, one in five. The
:-.ample thu s composed contains the following number of households of different castes:
- -Caste
-...c:
....""
.....
:a
.S
---...
...ell
::l
:a
.~
...
;aIII
0
...'"
C;
::?1
::?1
iii
::?1
'"
U)
U)
...c:
""
""
::?1
10
'"
No. of
households 26
in the
sample
...c:
"00
c:
~
.l:l
...c:
- - --
These households number 48. All these are families. Two

households, one formed by a Brahmin widow living with hel"
unmarried daughter, and another of a Pardesi living with his
mother-in-law, wife and children, are also included in the
sample which thus contains 50 households. These two have
been specifically mentioned separately as being rather aberrant
types, one being an immigrant and the other a Brahmin widov.
whose three sons living in the same village run three separat~
households.
D O]lf EST I
e L I FE:
BI0
'n
soc I A L
Leaving out the Pardesi household and that of the Muslim

'mulana' who resides at Perne, of the remaining 48, 27 claim
that their families have all through been residents of the village. Of the 21 families that know that their ancestors came
from somewhere else, those that came from nearby villa g ~
like Vadhu Khurd, Perne, Burkegav, Pimpri Sandas and
Wadebolai, came between 90 years to 25 years ago. Two of
tr.em, that from Wadebolai and Pimpri Sandas, came 25 years
ago. Two familie!; came from two other villages of Haveli
taluka, one from Charholi Bk, and one from R avet, the former
:::.bout 40 years before and the latter about four generations
ago. Of the others, three each came from Sirur and Purand ar
talukas, two each from Ambegav and Khed talukas and onc
each from Bhor, Shrigonda and Satara talukas.
Of the immigrant families, five of the heads say that their
ancestors came five generations ago; four say four generation:
ago and one each three and two generations ago. One says
that his ancestor came 90 years ago, one says 60 years, tWtl
50 years, two 40 years, one 30 years, two 25 years ago, and
(ne says that his ancestors came long ago. This is the way
twentyone heads of as many immigrant families record their
view of the length of their stay in Lonikand.
The total number of persons in the 50 households is 47:,
r,iving an average of 9.52 persons per household. Their distribution by age and civil condition is presented in the statement on page 72.
It is seen that of the married people, i.e., 196 persons ,
only 19 are aged 51 years and over. Of the 97 married males,
48 individuals are heads of families. Their average age is
44.23 years. Widows in the sample number more than four
times the widowed males, and it is a happy feature that only
one of them is less than 46 years old. Of course this doe..;
not mean that all got widowed so late in life.
There are 25 brothers of the heads distributed in the 13
of the 48 families. Their average age is 32.92 years. Of these
25 brothers, 23 are married. Only one brother is below 26
while 16 are between 26 and 35 years of age. Only one
The Muslim, mull1na. though not
here.
II
resident of Lonikand. is included
<II
<1/
'iii
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co
co
.........
.....
<1/
r.:.
III
<1/
'iii
'"
::s
-g
a:0
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e
0
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Po
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<1/
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...
"C
s:: <1/ <:>
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'~
<1/
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'iii
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41
Po
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...<II
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41
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41
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D0
M EST I e L I F E:
BI0
73
- soc I A L
brother is above 45 and below 50 years.

There are 22 married sons of the heads and/ or of their
brothers, in 17 of the 48 households. The average age of
these works out at 25.23 years i.e. about 19 years less than
that of the heads. 10 of these are between 21 and 25 years,
End one between 36 and 40 years.
One married man is the son's son of the head and three
are the fathers of the heads. The average age of the last three
is 69.7 years.
The average age of heads' wives is 3602 years, that of the
sons' wives is 18 05 years and that of the brothers' wives is
26.35 years. The average age of the three mothers of the
heads whose fat.hers are alive is 56.0.
The average difference of age between the husbands and
the wives in this sample is as follows:
Between
A verage Difference
(in years)
Heads and Heads' wives

Brothers and Brothers' wives
Sons and Sons' wives
8.21
8.08
7.18
It is seen that the average difference of age between the

heads' and their brothers' sons and their wives is much
smaller than that between the heads and their wives and the
heads' brothers and their wives. The difference in the latter
two categories, i.e. to say the heads and their wives on the
one hand and the heads' brothers and their wives on the other,
is very small. The data thus seem to substantiate the reality
of generational difference.
Scanning the age distribution of the wives, we find that
two wives of heads are 19 years and under. Only one wife
of heads' brother but 17 of the sons' wives are in that category.
Whereas 13 of the heads' wives are aged 41 years and above,
none of the brothers' wives is above 40 and eight of them
are between the years 31 and 40. Of the sons' wives none
is above 30 years and five are between 21 and 30 years.
An attempt was made to study the age at marriage with 0
8
74
AFTER
A CENTVRY AND A QVARTER
view to ascertaining generational differences in this respect

and also to assess the advance in age at marriage, if any.
Three of the sons' wives' ages at marriage could not be ascertained. Of the brothers' wives the age at marriage of only
17 could be had. Of the 42 wives of the heads, in every case
the age at the first marriage of the husband was stated. This
difference in the awareness and knowledge of the age at marr iage on the part of the heads is socially significant. Whereas
knowledge about one's own wife's age at marriage is preserved
in memory, that of the sons' wives is sometimes forgotten ,
and that of the brothers' wives more often.
Average age at
marriage
Heads' wives
Heads' brothers' wives
Heads' and their brothers' sons'
wives
11.9
11.3
13.2
years
"
"
The average age at marriage of the corresponding categories of males, i.e., the husbands of wives of these three
categories is as under:
__ - -
A verage age at
marriage
-_------------ -
Heads
Heads' brothers
Heads' and their b rothers' sons
16.8 years
18.7
19.6
II
II
We thus see that there is an advance in the average age

at marriage between the first and the second generation. The
difference between the average age at first marriage of the
heads and that of their brothers is 1.9 years, the heads' age
being the lower. In the case of their wives, however, it is the
other way about. The brothers' wives married on an average
clbout .6 years earlier than the heads' wives. The difference
Do M EST I e L I F E: B I 0 - soc I A L
'i5
between the average age at marriage of the heads and their

sons is much larger, being 2.8 years, that of the younger
generation being the higher age. And though the sons' wive~'
average age at marriage does not maintain the same difference
from that of the heads' wives' average age at marriage, yet it
is an advance, being 1.3 years higher. It is gratifying to
note that with this difference the average age at marriage in
the sons' generation has come to the age of puberty in thz
case of females.
It is further gratifying to note that the average age at
marriage of the daughters of the heads and the daughters of
the heads' brothers is even higher than that of the heads'
daughters-in-law.
The sample shows that the heads and their brothers had
56 married daughters. Unfortunately, it has not been possible
to get the ages at marriage of all of them. The average age
at marriage for 33 daughters for whom we have the data works
out at 14.1 years. Their average age at present is 27.7.
Of the 48 heads 34 had married only once and their wives
were still living. They formed 70.83 per cent of the married
heads. Of the heads' brothers, 23 in number, 19 or 82.61 pel'
cent had married once and their wives were living. Of the
22 sons 21 or 94.45 per cent wel'e married once and their
first wives were living at the time of enquiry.
The number of males who married for a second time.
evidently on the demise of their first wife, are 8 among the
heads and 4 among their brothers. There are 4 heads of
families in whose case third marriage had taken place and
they are living with their third wives: One of these is a
Mahar and another a Muslim. There are two who had marriefl
nlore than thrice. The fourth wife of one of these is alive.
Among the sons of the heads there is one bigamous,
living with two wives. He is a Mang by caste. Neither
amongst the heads nor among the heads' brothers we have
discovered anyone living at present with two wives.
The marriages of the heads and their brothers fo r which
data regarding their place of origin are available number 97.
Of the 97 wives it is noted that 56.70 per cent were from one
or the other village in Haveli taluka. Of these, Lonikand
76
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
itself claims 12. Perne and WaghoU* account for 5 and 3

wives respectively. Contributing 15.46 per cent of the wives
Sirur taluka ranks next; contributing 7 wives, Khed taluka
lanks third and Poona City occupies the fourth place, having
contributed only 5 wives. Of the 23 wives of heads' sons the
places of origin of 22 are kr own. It is notewor thy that Sirur
taluka contributing 31.82 per cent of them as against 36.36
per cent of Haveli taluka comes very much closer to the latter
than in its conribution in the earlier generation. Khed taluka,
as in the other case, comes third in more or less the same
proportion. Poona city which was fourth in its contribution
in the earlier generation, having contributed only one wife for
the sons' generation is surpassed by Junnar taluka with its
contribution of two wives. Ignoring the minor relative changes
one may observe that as against the practice of the older
generation of confining the field of choice for their wives to
Haveli taluka, in selecting brides for their sons the older
people tended to look to the contiguous Sirur taluka with
aImost equal favour.
An explanation of this phenomenon is provided by the
fact that of the 23 wives of the sons of the heads and of the
sons of heads' brothers none excepting that of a Mang's son
is reported to be a close relative, like mother's brother',>
daughter of the husband. Once the choice of a mate in
marriage is loosened from- its moorings to the tie of kinship
the search for a bride becomes free and therefore less confined
to certain localities.
That this is a correct explanation is borne out by the
fairly large number of the wives of the heads and their brothers
having been their husbands' close relatives. Of the 95 wives
of the heads and their brothers excluding the two Muslim
families and one bigamous marriage, 27 were such close
relatives. 18 of them were their husbands' mothers' brothers'
daughters, one her husband's father's sister's daughter, and 8
wives were related in a way other than this.
Peme lies about 2.5 miles to the north-east of Lonikand, and Wagholi 4 miles to the south-west. The situation of Sirur taluka is specified by the fact of the Poona..Ahmednagar road entering it almost due
east from Lonikand over the Bhima river.
Do 14 EST Ie L I F E: B I
0 -
soc I
AL
77
This should not be taken to mean that there is no inclina

tion to seek for marital alliance among close relatives like the
mother's brother's or father's sister's families. There are four
daughters of the heads who are married to their father's sisters
sons, only one of them a cousin-sister, the three others being
own sisters of the fathers. The total number of marriages
of the heads' and their brothers' daughters in the sample arc
56. Marriages with close relatives in the second generation
form about 8 per cent. The percentage of such marriages
in the heads' generation is about 22 at least and may be more
than 25.
Our sample includes 62 marriages of heads' sisters.
Among them again, only in 4 marriages the husbands were
their wives' fathers' sisters' sons. The percentage of marriages
with close relatives among the heads' sisters is thus slightly
lower.
On the whole, we may conclude that marriage with a
dose relative like mother's brothers' daughter or father's
sister's son is rarer in the later generation than in the earlier.
The general conclusion is further borne out, indirectly
though, by the area of origin of the mothers of the heads. Of
the 35 mothers about whom information about the village from
which they came was available, 21 or 60 per cent were from
Sirur taluka. Lonikand, the village itself which contributed
21.82 per cent of the wives of the heads and their brothers,
hAd contributed about 39 per cent of the mothers of the
heads.
We have seen above that in the case of sisters' marriages,
marriage with her maternal uncle's son or such relative was
slightly lower in percentage than in the later generation of
daughters. Looking to the villages in which the sisters and
daughters of the heads were married, we see that a concentration in the case of sisters follows the pattern of the mothers
of the heads much more than is the case with daughters. The
daughters' pattern approximates more closely the pattern of
concentration discovered in the case of sons' marriages.
Of the 62 married sisters, about whom villages into which
they were married are known, 26 or 41.94 per cent were
married in the villages of Haveli taluka. Those married in
78
AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUART ER
the villages of Sirur taluka form 21.81 per cent. In th~ case
of daughters of the heads, Haveli taluka provided husbands for
38 per cent of them, Sirur taluka vying with it with the same
percentage. In both groups of marriages Lonikand out of all
villages provided the largest number of husbands. But
whereas in the case of sisters 30.8 per cent of the husbands
came from Lonikand, in the case of daughters only 21 per
cent were from Lonikand. We may conclude this section of
domestic life, that of the ramification of kin through marriage,
and its area of social solidarity on kinship basis, with the
observation that on the whole there is a tendency in the later
generations to seek mates for marriages in diversified nearby
areas, with less accent on close relationship.
The achievements of the stability of the marriage-relation
are indicated by the fact that among so many marriages there
is none which proved sterile and only one which was broken
by divorce. It was the fixst marriage of a brother of a Mali
joint-family and the wife was her husband's mother's brother'E'.
daughter. The marriage took place in 1948. The husband
was then 25 years old . When it was broken is not knowll,
but it is stated that the man contracted his second marriage
in 1956.
Leaving out the Rajput-Pardesi household we see that
one is headed by a widow. She has three sons who live in
separate households of their own. The widow lives with her
grown-up unmarried daughter. The widow who is a Brahmin,
being the wife of the priest of the village, is respected to this
extent that she is elected a member of the Panchayat. How",ver, there are people who privately criticize her for her
general conduct and the conduct of her household. She has
been a widow for over twenty years. In one household, the
head, who is a widower had tried his luck with marriage
four times. Unfortunately even his fourth wife died. Both
his father and mother live with him. One head of a household is living with his fourth wife and four with their third
wives. Eleven households are run by heads with their second
wives.
Of the sons, one Mang lad has two wives and a Chambhar
lad has one wife and another woman living with him.
Do M EST I e L I FE:
B I 0 - SOC I A L
Of the twenty three heads' brothers who are married four

are living with their second wives.
Leaving out the fifteen families of 'balutas', of Muslims,
of Brahmins, of the Pardeshi, Rajput and the Mahars, the
remaining thirty five families are distributed among seventeen
family names. Kand claims nine families, Zurunge six, Shinde
four, Jagtap and Valunj two each and Bandal, Bhondwe,
Birdawde, Dabhade, Garud, Gawde, Hole, Magar, Pharate,
Raut, Tapkir and Yadav one each.
Three Maratha and three Mali families are vegetarians,
while twentytwo Maratha and six Mali families are nonvegetarians, one not reporting.
Of the forty-eight Hindu families, thirty four report that
their family deity is Khandoba, three both Khandoba and
Mhasoba, Rama and Mhasoba two each. Khandoba with some
other deity is the family god of four families. A rather unknown goddess by name Akhadi Honjai is the patron deity
done fanlily. And strange to say, P~ ~urang, the god Vithobo,
whose most famous devotees lived and worked in Haveli
taluka and the nearby region, is the family deity of only one
family; and the new-fangled idea of centring Mali socioreligious life on Savantamali has as yet secured only one family
to treat Savantabiibii as its family god.
Of the thirtyfive families, there are only eleven families including the one Brahmin family which report daily worship of
the family idols, six say that they worship them occasionally and
eighteen state that they worship them only on religious days.
To facilitate the understanding of the type of family
current in Lonikand we give on page 80 an analytical statement.
It is seen from the statement that there are twentyseven
families out of 48 in the sample in which neither of the heads'
parents is living. The head in these 27 families is not only
the virtual head but is also the head for the totality of sentiments and activity of the members of the family. Of the 27
families without the head's father or mother, 12 are nuclear,
the members composing them being the head and his wife and
In all cases, unless otherwise stated, plurality of wives is successive and has resulted from the death of the previous wife or wives.
80
ArTER
CENTURY
AND
Qt1AR'rER
Composition
Head, wife, unmarried children, father and mother, without a
married or unmarried brother of the head
Head,wife, unmarried children, father and mother, and a married
brother and the latter's children
Head, wife, unmarried children, married sons and widower father
Head, wife, unmarried children, widower father and married
brothers and their children
The same as above but with the addition of a married son of one
of the brothers.
Head, wife, unmarried children and widowed mother
Head, wife, unmarried children, widowed mother and married
brothers.
Head, wife, unmarried children, widowed mother, married brothers
and married sons.
Head, wife, unmarried children, widowed mother and a married
son.
..
Head, wife, unmarried children, and married brothers
Head, wife, unmarried children, married brothers and married sons
Head, wife and unmarried children
Head, wife, unmarried children and married son or sons ..
Total
No.
2
1
1
.1
1
9
2
".)
1
3
12
10
48
his unmarried children. Of these, in four families the mother

or the father was living till 1952, and in some of them they
died that year and in others before 1958.
Among the twentyone families with one Or the other of
the parents of the head Jiving, there are 9 in which the
widowed mother of the head is the parent. The group otherwise is the standard nuclear family, the head's wife and their
unmarried children being the other members.
Among the twentyseven families in which none of the
parents of the head is living in five married son or sons of the
head and/ or head's married brothers in addition to head's unmarried children are the other members. There are three
families among the other twentyone where the widowed
mother is the other addition to the membership. And there
are two others in which the same membership with the absence
of married son or sons constitutes the group. These ten
families thus may be described as joint households. To these
ten must be added three other more complex joint households
from the group of families in which either both the parents
D 0 III EST I e L I F E: B I 0 - soc I A L
81
are alive or only the widower father of the head is the surviving parent. In all of them a married brother or brothers and
his or their children are comprised in the group in addition
to the head, his wife and their unmarried children. Of these
in one both the parents are alive and in the remaining two
only the widower father survives. One of these two is more
complex than others as among its members there is a married
son of one of the brothers. In two other families both the
parents of the head are alive and form members of the household along with a married or unmarried brother of the head
and the head's unmarried children. The number of joint
households in the sample is thus fifteen.
The ten households which have head, his wife, their unmarried children and married son or sons may be classed as
extended families. To them is to be added one family in
which the widowed mother of the head is the additional
member. One more family which is even more extended than
these belongs to this class and increases the number of extended families in our sample, to twelve. It comprises head,
his wife, unmarried children, married sons and widower father
of the head.
If our sample is representative, among the families, of
Lonikand, a little over 31 per cent are joint households and
another 25 per cent extended families.
We may close this section on domestic life in contemporary
Lonikand by drawing attention to the three households contained in the sample which have as their components collateral
relatives in the female line. They are XIII, XXIII and XXVI.
In the household XIII two brothers form the joint household.
Their wives are their mothers' brothers' daughters. One
daughter of their sister, who is 15 years old and unmarried
lives with them. In family XXIII the parents of the head
are alive and the head's widowed sister with her two sons and
one daughter lives as a member of the household. In the last
faxnily of this group, three generations collaterals are represented. The head's father is a member and his widowed sister
too lives with them. The head is a widower and his sister's
sons, one with his wife and another unmarried are members
of the household.
DOMESTIC LIFE: SOCIO-ECONOMIC

provide the domestic scene of conT otemporary
Lonikand with flesh and
blood we shall now briefly pass the fami]ies under review both on their social and economic sides.
To begin with the nuclear families, as already noted, there
are four among them in which one or the other of the two
parents was alive till recently. In one of them (1)* till the
death of the father of the head, the families of the father and
the father's brother, though legally separated, were living together as a joint household. After his father's death the present
head of the family, aged 30 years and educated upto Verna-cular Final, and his father's brother divided the household.
The head has four children, all sons, the eldest 9 years old
and the youngest 1t years. He is a Maratha by caste. The
family owns 40 acres of dry and 5 acres of wet land but has
only one cow and one hen and neither any oxen nor any
bullock-cart, plough or cycle. Another family (II), Mali by
caste, has a head who is 50 years old, and his second wife is
43 years old. He has at present seven children, 3 sons and
4 daughters. Of the sons, the eldest aged 20 years is the head's
first wife's child. He is educated upto the sixth standard and
is employed in the P .W.D. for the last 8 years. One daughter
from the head's first wife is at present 18 years old and is
married. There was another daughter from the first wife who
had married but died later. Two of the head's daughters, 13
and 12 years respectively, are studying, the elder in the second
standard and the younger in the third standard. The three
'{)ther children are 7, 6, and 5 years old respectively, the middle
<me being a daughter. The family owns 30 acres of dry land,
Rom an numbers in brackets ale only identification marks.
Do M EST I eLI F E: Soc I
83
0 - E CON 0 M I C
two oxen, two cows and twelve hens and has one iron plough,
a bullock-cart and a bicycle. The third nuclear family (III) is
that of Balko Dabhade, a Maratha by caste, whose mother
died only in 1957. He has been thrice married, his third wife,
married for 16 years, being 29 years old in 1958. He has four
children, the two sons being 18 and 12 years old respectively
and the daughters 8 and 6 years. The eldest son is studying
in the sixth standard. Balko owns 35 acres of dry land, 3 oxen,
one cow and 6 hens. The plough that he owns is a wooden
one. His one cycle has been giving service for about 12 years.
The fourth family (IV) of this category is that of Rambhau,
a Ramoshi, who is 40 years old. His mother died in 1956. He
has four sons, the eldest of them 18 years old, is studying in
the fourth standard. Two others are also schooling, but the
exact standard was not known to their father.
In the case of the other eight families, head's father or
mother died long ago; and they have been nuclear units for
some years. To begin with Kisanrao Shinde's family (V)
which has the titular prefix of 'Ravirao', the head who is 38
years old has studied only upto Marathi IV standard. He
married rather late at 22 years of age. His wife at her marriage was of the age of puberty, she being 30 years old in
1958. The couple has four children, two daughters of 11 and
3 years and two sons of 8 and 6 years respectivel~ . Kisanrao's
daughter is not schooling but his sons are in the II and I
Marathi standard respectively. His brother keeps a separate
household and has a nuclear family of his own. Kisanrao
himself represents rather a poor branch of the great Ravirao
Shinde family. He owns only 8 acres of dry land, 2 oxen,
1 cow, 5 hens and a wooden plough. There are two other
nuclear families (VI and VII) of Maratha caste. The head of
one (VI), 48 years old, has been married for 30 years, his
wife coming from the local Ravirao Shin de family. His son,
20 years old, has studied upto seventh Marathi standard. He
owns only 3 acres of dry land and is rather in poor circumstances. The head of the other family (VII) , Kand by name,
is 42 years old, twice married and has six children by the
second wife who has been married for 15 years. None of his
children is schooling. The three daughters are 9,
and 6
7,
84
years old and the three sons 4i, 3 and 1 year old respectively.
The family owns dry land measuring 34! acres. If it has only
two oxen, it has four cows, four sheep and 10 hens.
There is one Sonar family (VIII) which is included in
the nuclear category though the head's wife is not living. His
son who is 20 years old left school after sixth standard. He
too follows his caste occupation of goldsmithy. As will be
seen from another part of the work, it is the marriage of this
boy that evoked an arrangement of cooperative effort on the
part of the villagers.
Yeshwant Sutar (IX) was separated from his brother in
1940 about a year before their father's death. His step-brother
has been living separately at Tulapur for a much longer time.
Yeshwant's wife is 35 years old and has borne him four children. The eldest, a son, is 17 years old and is studying in the
fifth standard. Yeshwant's only daughter 13 years old is unmarried and is studying in the third standard. His third child
a son of 10 years is studying in the Marathi second standard
and the youngest son 6 years old is not schooling.
Anand Gangavane (X) of over 50 years and educated
upto the 3rd Marathi standard, is a Mahar by caste, living
with his wife who is 40 years old. The couple has only two
surviving children, a daughter 9 years old studying in the
Marathi second standard and a son 7 years old, not schooling.
The tragedy of the life of this couple is that they lost eleven
children, ten daughters ~d one son in all, one of the daughters
having died after her marriage. Neither of the above two
families possesses any land.
The Sonar, the Sutar, the Ramoshi and the Mahar figure
among the standard 'balutas' in a village. In Lonikand this
particular Mahar is a supernumerary and not a 'baluta'. The
Sonar and the Sutar are the usual 'balutas' but have no land
in the village. The Ramoshi however has 5 acres of dry land
in the village and 16 acres outside this village in Perne limits.
The two remaining nuclear families (XLVII and XLVIII)
are Muslim, one of whom is a 'baluta' being a Mulana or the
butcher-sacrmcer of 'Lonikand and the other Tamboli by surname, follows the 'tamboli's' occupation of dealing in betel
leaves and things of that kind. The former who lives with
D OlliE S TIC L I
F E:
SOC I 0 - E CON 0 111 Ie
85
his third wife, the two previous ones having died, has two
married daughters and four unmarried sons, ranging from
9 years to 2 months, the nine year old boy studying in the
second Marathi standard. The 'tamboli', though married for
12 years, has so far no children. The former has 4 acres of
land, two acres of which are wet in the limits of Perne; and
the latter owns no land at all.
The last family (XLIV), that of a Nhavi, of this category,
although composed of the head, his wife and his unmarried
child is unlike the others in that the head's mother is still
living but stays with her grandson, the son of her deceased
eldest son. The head 25 years old, who has studied upto the
Marathi fourth, has been married for 5 years, his wife being
19 years old. They have only one son of 2! years. The head
owns neither land nor implements nor any livestock except
two sheep. This man has a brother who works in a saloon at
Poona. The 'baluta'-right belongs to both the brothers. The
Poona man visits the village once a week, in fulfilment of his
'baluta' obligations.
Of the remaining fifteen families in which neither of the
head's parents is living, there are 5 which must be described
as joint families, because married brothers along with the unmarried children of the head with or without his married son
are living as one group. Out of these 5, in two (XI and XII)
the sons are married. In neither of them the married sons
have yet any children and so the families are composed of
only two generations.
One of these two families is that of a Chambhar (XI),
shoe-maker by caste. The head is about 40 years old. Till
recently, i.e., till 1955 it was a joint family comprising three
generations. It consisted of the head's father who was then
about 65 years old and his two wives who were 60 and 55 years
old respectively. All these three members of the earlier generation died within the year 1955. Since then the household
has not been broken up. The head has been married for well
nigh over 30 years. For the last twenty years or so another
woman whom he calls his second wife, also lives with him.
His son who is 20 years old was married 4 years ago. The
head has two brothers, one aged 35 and the other 30 years.
86
The elder of the two has been married for about 20 years and
has at present two sons 15 and 2i years, and one daughter
7 years old. The other brother married twice, second time in
1949 after the death of his first wife. He has three sons, one
8 years old being the child of his first wife. The other two
are 3 years and 6 months old respectively. The head is educated upto the fifth standard Marathi, the youngest brother is
educated upto the seventh standard Marathi and the middle
brother's eldest son is studying in the seventh standard Marathi at present.
It is a well-to-do family and gets orders for footwear and
other goods from a number of nearby villages. It owns 35
acres of land in the village and in addition cultivates 14 acres
on annual rent basis. It owns 6 oxen, 5 cows, 4 sheep and
10 hens. It has 3 houses, two of them being old lie rather
uncared for near the new house which the family occupies.
The house under occupation was built in 1946 at a cost of
Rs. 3,00(}. According to the statement of the head of the family
he spends annually about Rs. 500 for clothes and an equal
amount on grocery and provisions.
The other family (XII) in whieh married sons are members of the joint family is Maratha by caste and is rather
peculiar in that it is the third of the five brothers who is at
present the de facto head of the family. Of the five, the eldest
died in 1954 at the age of about 50 years. The head who is
42 years old has studied upto the Matrie. The second brother
who is 45 years of age has had no education whatever. The
fourth who is 39 years old studied only upto the fourth Marathi. The head's wife is not the oldest among the wives of the
brothers. She has been married for the last 17 years only.
The wives of both the other brothers have been married and
have been members of the family longer than her. The elder
brother's wife has been married for 23 years and that of the
youngest for 20 years. The last lady has no child. The head
has three sons and two daughters. The eldest son, 19 years
old, has passed the Vernacular Final examination and is yet
not married. He was born of the head's first wife. From the
second wife, there are two sons and two daughters. One
daughter 14 years old and unmarried, and one son, 11 years
Do M EST I e L I F E: Soc I
0 - E CON 0 M Ie
87
old, are studying in the fifth standard, and the other daughter,
7 years old, is studying in the first standard. The five years
old son does not go to school. The head's elder brother has
one son who, though 9 years old, is studying only in the first
standard. The youngest brother, the fourth among the living
ones, is employed as a peon in some mill in Bombay for the
last 8 years. He continues to be a member of the joint family.
and has no children. The deceased brother of the head has
one married son and another unmarried as members of the
family. The married son 24 years old, is employed in the Training School at Islampur and the unmarried one of 18 years is
apprenticed to the local revenue officer. This completes the
composition of the joint family which consists of only two
generations at present but has members who among themselves are related as first cousins.
This joint family and household has a junior branch born
of the step-mother of the head of this household which though
living separately is joint with this in landed estate. It consists
of the three step-brothers of the head of this household, their
wives and their nine unmarried children. The two families
between them own 14 acres of land, two oxen and two cow::;
and would thus appear to be not well off.
In the remaining three families, all of them Maratha by
caste, the head has one or two married brothers as members
of the family and the household without married sons of any.
The first family (XIII) is at present a childless unit of two
married brothers who are aged respectively 40 and 30 years.
Their wives are aged 30 and 24 years respectively, the wile
of the elder being his second wife. The younger brother had
D son who died in infancy; the elder seems to have had no
issue at all. The wives of the two brothers are themselves
sisters and they are the maternal uncle's daughters of their
husbands. A fifteen-year-old unmarried girl who is the daughter of the head's sister forms a member of the family. The
brothers own 16 acres of dry land, have one ox, foul' cows
and 15 hens and an iron plough. They have their own house
which is rather old. According to the head's account he has
to spend about Rs. 10(} every year on clothes and Rs. 20 on
grocery every month.
88
AF'l'ER A CENTURY AND A QU.AR'fER
The other two joint families (XIV and XV) each with
three married brothers as members have unmarried children.
The ages of the eldest, the middle and the youngest in both
cases more or less are similar, ranging in one case (XIV) from
41 to 28 years and in the other (XV) from 45 to 30 years,
the middle brother being 9 and 10 years respectively younger
than the eldest. In family No. XIV the wives' present ages
are not known. The eldest brother has three children, two
sons and one daughter, the middle brother one son and four
daughters and the youngest one son. One daughter of the
middle brother is the eldest child, being 13 years old. She
and her 9 years-old brother are the only children in the family
that are schooling, the girl in the fifth and the boy in the
fourth standard. One son of the eldest is six years old and
another five years, the same in age as the youngest brother's
son. One daughter of the middle brother is six years old and
another of his daughter and the daughter of the eldest are
three years old. The youngest child in the family is the
youngest daughter of the middle brother and she is only
6 months old.
The wives of the three brothers in the other family (XV)
are aged 34, 24 and 2'0 years respectively. Only two of the
brothers have children, the eldest two sons and a daughter,
and the middle one, a son. The daughter is 15 years old, yet
unmarried and not schooling. One son of the eldest is 12 years
'Old and is schooling in t he fourth Marathi. His other son is
7 years old and that of his brother 5 years, neither of them
schooling. One interesting fact about this family is that the
three brothers had three sisters who were married all at one
time along with the first two of these three brothers i.e. five
marriages took place under one 'mandap' at "one" expense.
The differences in the ages of the sisters are not known, the
eldest brother at the time of his marriage was 25 years old
and his wife 14 years, the middle brother, who was married
at the same time, was only 15 years and his wife only 5 years
old.
The family owns 14 acres of dry and 4 acres of wet land.
lts other wealth is also considerable and is the second richest
family for poultry. It owns 50 hens, and also has four oxen,
D0
III EST I e L I J' E:
two
Soc I
0 - E CON 0 III I C
89
COWS and three sheep. It has an iron plough.

Of the ten other (XVI-XXV) joint families, one (XVI)
is the fourth richest family in our sample in respect of agricultural possessions. Another family (XVII) in thls category
comes a fairly hlgh second, the first owning 46 acres dry and
2 acres wet land and the second 25 acres of dry land. The
third hlghest (XVIII) in thls category has only 18 acres of
dry land. They are Maratha by caste. There are five other
Maratha families (XIX-XXIII) in thls group of ten joint families and the remaining two (XXIV and XXV) are Malis.
The poorest owner of these ten is a Maratha family (XIX)
whlch has only one acre of dry land but cultivates 12 acres
on annual rent. There are only two other families (XX and
XXI) in thi.s group of ten, both Marathas, whlch cultivate
land on annual rent in addition to their own land, the former
having 6 acres and 22' acres and the latter 7 and 5 respectively of the two kinds. The fifth Maratha family of thls group
(XXIII) OVl'TIS 12 acres of dry land. Another Maratha family
(XXII) whlch in point of cultivable land at its disposal is the
poorest of this lot, owns 5 acres of dry and 1 acre of wet land
only. Of the two Mali families, one (XXV) is fairly well off
with 13 acres of dry and 2 of wet land, whlie the other
(XXIV) is only slightly better off than the last Maratha family,
having 7 acres of dry and 1 of wet land.
Family XX, is one of the two richest in cattle wealth in
the whole village. It owns not only a hlgher number of oxen
viz. 6, and 5 cows, a number surpassed only by 3 families in
our sample of 50, but is also rich in she-buffaloes owning as
it does 8 of them. Only 8 other families in our sample own
she-buffaloes, the second largest number being 4. This family
also owns 2 sheep and 6 hens. It has a bullock-cart and a
cycle for the last 10 years. Only one of these ten families has
o wooden plough, four have an iron one and five none at all.
Five (XVII, XX, XXU, XXIV and XXV) of the ten families
own a bullock-cart each. All these and three other families
(XVIII, XXI and XXIII) own one cycle each, family XXIII
having acquired it recently, six months before, and the Mali
family (XXV) 15 years before.
All the ten families have both oxen and cows, the fanner
90
AFTER
CENTURY
AN
QUAR :tER
numbering 34 and the latter 29. Two of the families, one

Maratha (XVIII), and one Mali (XXV) have only one cow
each and everyone of the families has two oxen. All but one,
the Mali family (XXV), owns hens, the largest number being
15 of family XVI. A Maratha family XXIII which owns
12 acres of dry land has the largest number of sheep, namely
10. Five other families (XVI, XVIII, XX, XXI and XXIV)
out of these ten own sheep, two of them one each and three
of them two each.
Studying the composition of these ten families, the family
of Tukaram Shinde, Ravirao (XVI), is found to stand out.
The head is the second oldest person in the whole village,
being 80 years old. His present wife, whom he married when
he was 47 years old, is his third. He has one daughter by his
first wife who is married to his sister's son. All his other
children, eight in number are from his third wife. The eldest,
a daughter, is already married. His second child, a son of 25,
has been married for 5 years but has no child so far, his wife
being 17 years old. Of the three sons, 22, 19 and 14 years
respectively, two are studying in the VII and the last in the
II standard Marathi. Of the three unmarried daughters, two
13 years old are twins; and the youngest is 12 years old. The
latter is schooling but the former are not.
There are four other families (XVII, XVIII, XX and
XXV) in this group of ten which like the family of the old
gentleman described above are households without the third
generation m~mbers. One of them, No. XVIII, Maratha by
caste, with a head who is 60 years old, has a son 30 years old
and educated upto the seventh Marathi. He has been married
for 7 years and yet is without a child. A daughter of the
family 13 years old is unmarried; but the family is the most
interesting because of the 22 year old unmarried son. He
failed twice at the S.T.C. and has now kept a sewing machine
and has set up as a kind of a tailor. The family has 18 acres
of dry land and has recently engaged a servant for agricultural purposes, who is paid Rs. 200 annually.
The next family XVII, a Maratha, has also one married
son, 25 years old, who married four years before. He has
studied upto the Marathi seventh standard. There are three
Do M EST I e L l F E: Soc I
0 - E CON 0 M Ie
III
other children in the family, two sons of 16 and 12 years respectively studying in the Marathi fifth and second and one
daughter 9 years old, not schooling. This family, owning a
much larger piece of land, 25 acres, than the previous one,
has been carrying on its agriculture with a larger stock of
cattle without a regular servant for agricultural purposes. The
fourth family (XXV) that of a Mali without the members of
the third generation has the distinction of being the largest.
single family, the head having 10 children. Three daughters
who were married at the ages of 15, 15 and 12 respectively,
three unmarried daughters who are aged 8, 6 and 3 years,
and four sons make up the number of children. The 8 year
old daughter and the 12 year old boy are schooling in t.he
Marathi third standard. The other unmarried son who is 14
years is not schooling. There are two married sons 22 and
18 years respectively educated upto the Maratlu second and
fourth. The last family (XX) of this group is singular in this
that of the six children all the four daughters, 25, 20, 15 and
12 years old, have been already married. Of the two sons,
the elder, married three years before, has no child and is
22 yeal'S old. He has studied upto the fourth Marathi. His
younger brother, only 11 years old, is studying in the fifth
standard.
Of the remaining five families (XIX, XXI, XXII, XXIII
and XXIV) of the group of ten, all have the heads' and/ or
their brothers' sons children in the household. In one, No.
XIX, there are three married sons; in two, Nos. XXI and
XXIV, there are two married sons each; and in the remaining
two, XXII and XXIII, there is only one married son each. As
l'egards children of the head, Nos. XIX and XXII pair off
with nine each. No. XXIV has six children, XXIII has five
and XXI has four children. Four of these families are Maratha
and the fifth is Mali by caste.
The Mali family, No. XXIV, with two married sons, one
for 15 years and the other for 7 years, is extraordinary because
the married daughter who is 33 years old was married only
six years ago. She is the second child. Sitaram, the head,
who is 60 years old, was separated from his brother only
about 10 years ago. One of his sons has three children, two
92
sons, 10 and 7 years old, and a daughter 3 years old. The

10 years-old son of the head's son is schooling in the second
~tandard, while Sitaram's own son and daughter 15 and 10
years old respectively have had no schooling. Sitaram's other
son, 20 years old, has studied upto the sixth standard, though,
lleither of his two married brothers had any schooling. The
other family (XXI) with two married sons in it has a 55-yearold head with his wife 50 years old. One daughter who is
30, has been married for some years. None of the members
in this family seems to have had schooling. The unmarried
component of the family is formed by a 13'-years-old daughter
of the head and two sons, 5 and 2! years respectively, of the
head's eldest married son. The father of these boys, who is
25 years of age, has been married for about 7 years and has
a wife who is 20 years old. The other married son, married
a year ago, is only 20 years old and his wife 14 years.
The two families XXII and XXIII with only one married
son have yet very different claims on our special notice. No.
XXII claims our attention first and primarily because it is a
family whose head, 62 years old, who studied upto the fourth
standard Marathi, has 9 children. Secondly, because all the
6 unmarried children of the head are sons and though the
20-years-old son has studied only upto the Marathi third, yet
the 15-years-old one has studied upto the fourth and the 11
and 9 years old have even studied upto the fifth. The married son, too, had studied upto the fifth. The sixth son,
14 years old, studying in the ninth standard is living at Poona
with somebody as his paying guest. The head's married son,
28 years old who has been married for about 9 years, has two
children, one daughter and one son of 5 and 2 years respectively. Two daughters of the head are married, the elder
30 years, at the age of 14, and the younger, 16 years, at the
age of 12.
Kondiba, the head of family XXIII is 60 years old and
his wife 53. Kondiba's widowed daughter has two sons and
one daughter, 5, 4 and 3 respectively and her married brother
who is 28 years old with his 19 years old wife, has two sons
of 4 and 2 years. The unmarried children of Kondiba are
three sons 14, 13 and 9. None of the children in this family
D 0 M E SrI e L I r E: Soc I 0 - E CON 0
)I
Ie
is schooling.
The last household No. XIX of this group of ten is that
fo Maruti Kand, aged over 60 years whose wife is believed to
be between 55 and 60 years. Of the 9 children that Maruti
had, two elderly married daughters died one or two years
before the date of inquiry. His unmarried children are 2 boys
and one girl. The seventeen years old boy is studying in the
third standard. The other boy is 6 years old and the girl
8 years. Of Maruti's three married sons who are members of
his household, the youngest, who is 25 years old, married a
year ago and has no child, his wife being 15 years old. The
eldest married son is 35 years old and is one of the cases of
very late marriage. He married about 5 years ago and his
wife then was 20. He has two children, a three-years-old
daughter and one year old son. He had no schooling. His
brother, who is 30 and educated upto the fourth Marathi, similarly married late when he was 25 and his wife was 15. He
has a son, 3 years old.
This is one of the large families of our sample, having
8 adult members, 1 adolescent and 5 children. This family
owns the least amount of land. It lives in a fairly old house
in the village and according to the information supplied by
the head spends about Rs. 300 a year on clothes and about
Rs. 40 per month on grocery. The house is smallish, which
in the local terminology is 3 'khans', i.e., less than 200 sq. feet.
The 12 acres of land cultivated on half-share basis are taken
from six different owners. The relieving feature, to some
extent at least, is that half an acre of land is bagayati where
vegetables and other things can be grown. Till recently before
the cows had gone dry the family used to send about 8 seers
of milk to Poona.
Of the other families of the group of ten, Nos. XVI, XVII,
XX and XXIII send respectively 20, 15, 15 and 8 seers of
milk per day to Poona.
Only in one family, No. XXII, there is a member, in this
case a son, working for salary or wages outside, in Khadki
factory, getting Rs. 75 per month.
Of the twenty remaining families of the non-nuclear
group, there are only three (XXVI, XXVII and XXVITI) in
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUAR'tER
which both the father and mother of the head are living. In
families XXVI and XXVII there is no married brother as a
member of the household. In family XXVI there are collateral relatives in the female line, the head's father being
85 years old, the oldest person in the whole village. The
head's mother is 60 years old. There are three daughters of
his son aged 11, 9 and 4 years and none of them is schooling.
One daughter of the head has already been married. Abaji,
the head, who is 45 years old has the distinction of being one
of the two men of Lonikand who married more than three
times. Unfortunately even his fourth wife died leaving him
a widower. It is because Abaji has only daughters that two
of his sister's sons are living with him, Both of them are
adults, one of them being married. The family owns 10 acres
of dry and 2 acres of wet land and in addition cultivates on
annual rental basis 36 acres. It is this piece of land which is
the bone of contention disturbing the smoothness of social life
of Lonikand.
This family , XXVI, is the richest in animal wealth of the
whole sample of 50. In possessing 60 hens, it takes up the
first rank among them, in having 10 sheep it is one of the
first three families, and in possessing 6 oxen and 6 cows it
stands second in cattle wealth and is bracketted with two
other families. In owning 4 she-buffaloes it stands second in
the eleven families of the sample which have she-buffaloes.
In possessing two cyc1es it is one of the five families of the
sample, nineteen others possessing only one each. Its possession of two ploughs brackets it with another very rich family.
Abaji, the head of the family, is evidently a highly respected man as he is the Sarpanch or the President of the
Village Panchayat. The expense of the family, according to
Abaji, for clothes is about Rs. 300 per year and for groceries
too it is about the same.
The other family, XXVII, is also Kand by surname. The
head is 32 years old, his father 65 and his mother 60 years.
He has been married for 15 years and has two daughters,
7 and 3 years, the elder one studying in the first standard
Marathl. He has a brother, who having been given in adoption to his father's brother, lives with his adopted father as a
DOllI EST I e L I F E:
Soc I
0 - E CON 0 M I C
9S
member of his household. Of the two married sisters of the

head one lives in the nearby village of Wagholi. This is one
of the poorer families owning only 5 acres of dry and 2 acres
of wet land and is one of the two families which do not possess any cattle or have any animal wealth. It has neither a
plough nor a bullock-cart.
The third family, XXVIn, in which both the father and
mother of the head are living, is Mali by caste and is a joint
family in the full sense of the term. The elder brother 34 years
old has studied upto the Marathi seventh and has a wife who
is 26 years old. He has been married for 17 years. His
younger brother 31 years old has had no schooling. He has
been married for 11 years and his wife is 25 years old. Each
one of the brothers has a 10-year-old daughter, both of them
studying in the Marathi third. Both brothers have two sons
each. Those of the younger are elder to the others. His 7 yearold boy goes to school and studies in the first standard, the
other 6-yeal's-0Id one, not schooling. The elder brother's sons
are aged 4 years and 4 months respectively. It is a fairly
well-off family with 19 acres of dry and 2 acres of wet land.
It owns four oxen and one cow, one iron plough and one
bullock-cart. The cycle it possesses has been with it for 15
years. Ramchandra Zurunge, the head, is a teacher in the
local primary school. The expenditure of this family on
clothes is about Rs. 350 a year and on groceries about Rs. 250.
It should be remembered that this is a family of six adults,
3 males and 3 females, and six children, two female and four
male. It should further be noted, as will be gathered from
observations made by us from time to time, that this is generally the level of expenditure of a family group even smaller
than this by 2 adults and one child. As Zurunge is an educated person and a teacher, the general expenditure level
given by the families in our sample may thus be taken as
more or less correct.
The reforming zeal evinced by this family in not giving
bride-price is perhaps one more demonstration of the forward-marching tendency of the Mali caste, an aspect of
which we have already commented upon in reference to the
SavanUbaba 'mandir'. The modern tendencies of Ramchandra
96
AFrl!:R
CENrURY AND
QUARrER
are further evinced by the fact of his having bought and

been using a Primus stove since 1951. And what is still more
surprisingly modern is the fact that he has a head-phone
radio working on batteries, which, he informs us, was made
by himself. In spite of his radical tendency and modern technical skill, Ramchandra visits the 'Sthan' or temple of
Mhasoba in the village every night before going to bedMhasoba is the caste-deity of the Malis. With his faith in
Mhasoba, Ramchandra combines as a cultural piece of heritage of the locality and as the consequence of his education,
love for reading Jnaneshwari, the great philosophical text in
Marathi. He reads some portion of it every day.
'There are only two families which are joint without the
mother living but with a widower father. 'The family No.
XXIX, Mali by caste, is the second biggest joint family and the
third largest household in our sample and perhaps also in
the whole village. Five married brothers with their old
father aged 65 years, the five wives of the five brothers and
ten unmarried children among them live as one household.
Two daughters of the eldest brother of 40 years have already
been married; and they are 18 and 13 years old respectively.
'There are two sisters of his also who are already married.
Of the unmarried children, the eldest is the son of the eldest
brother. He is 19 years old and has studied upto the fourth.
'There are three one-year-old daughters in the family and
(ine six-months-old boy. -As far as land possession is concerned, owning as the family does only 5 acres of dry and 4 acres
of wet land, it does not appear to have enough. 'The fact of
the wet land being 4 acres, however, helps it, especially as it
possesses so many adult members. It has also managed to
have 25 acres of land on annual rental basis. Its effort at
keeping itself up is reflected in the possession of 5 oxen, 4
cows and 25 hens. It owns not only an iron plough but also a bullock-cart. In possessing two cycles it again reflects its
adult male composition in a way, and in the fact of possessing
one of it for 25 years puts itself in point of mobility in the
forefront of the families in our sample. 'The second of the
five brothers is a wage-earner being employed in a Poona
mill where he goes daily. Among the children, four, two sons
D 0 M EST I e L I r~:
SOC I 0 - E CON 0 M I C
97
and two daughters, are his.

The other family XXX where the widower father is still
alive is also of Mali caste, and is the largest single household
in Lonikand, consisting as it does of 30 members, adults and
children, males and females. The widower father being 80
years old is the second oldest gentleman of Lonikand and
lives with his four married sons. Two peculiarities of this
family are: first, that one of the sons of the brothers being
married, not only is it a family of three generations but that
a member of the third generation is an adult and a married
one. The rarity of a household of four generations is brought
to one's notice in a family like this where, the male of the
third generation though 25 years old and married for 7 years
has no child. All the daughters-and they are eleven-of the
four brothers, are too young, the eldest among them being
7 years old. The other peculiarity of the family is that Sadu,
who is 8 years younger than one of his brothers, is considered to be the head of the family. The wives of the four
brothers beginning with the head are 38, 40, 28 and 26 years
old respectively. They have been married for 32, 30, 17 and
12 years respectively. Everyone of the brothers has children.
The married male of the third generation is the son of the
head. The head has three other sons and his elder brother
too has four sons. The third brother has a young son of 2
years and the fourth has no son. One unmarried son of the
head and one son of the eldest brother, are both 18 years old
the former studying in the ninth standard and the latter in
the seventh. The other three sons of the elder brother are
16, 14 and 8 years, the first studying in the sixth and the last
in the second. The fourteen-year-old boy is unlettered. The
two unmarried sons of the head are 4 and 2 years old and
the one son of the third brother too is only 2 years old. Three
daughters of the family, of the head, and of the third and the
fourth brothers, are 7 years old. One, that of the head, is 5
years old, two, one of the eldest and one of the third brother,
are 4 years old. The third daughter of the head and the
second daughter of the youngest brother are 3 years old and
the youngest daughter of the eldest and of the youngest are
one-year-olds. None of the daughters is schooling.
98
AFTER
A.
CENTURY AND
A QUARTER
This family is the second largest proprietor in our sample.

It owns 123 acres of dry and 2 acres of wet land. It is the
richest in cattle wealth, possessing 10 oxen, 7 cows and 2
she-buffaloes. In its possession of sheep it is the third, with
5 to its credit; and in respect of hens also it is the third with
40 of them. In respect of bullock-cart and iron-plough it
stands first, having two of each. In its possession of two cycles
it is one of the five families but its cycles are .,f recent possession, the earliest being five years old. It is one of the two
families in our sample-and they are the only two in the
whole village of Lonikand-that owns an oil engine using it
for irrigation purposes.
There are four other families (XXXI-XXXIV) out of
these twenty non-nuclear units, in which three or more generations are living together as one household, with the males
of the third married. In all these four households the widowed mother represents the oldest generation. In three of them,
XXXI, XXXII and XXXIII, the married head has one married brother living and forming the joint household. In one,
No. XXXII, there are four generations, the married son of
the son having a two-year-old daughter. This family composed of 23 members is Maratha by caste. The mother is over
70 years old, the head 52 years and his brother 45 years. The
wife of the head , though his second wife, is of the same age
as the wife of the younger brother and has been married for
2 years longer, than her. The head's married son is 26 years
old, while the eldest of the 8 sons of the second brother is 23
years old. The other 7 sons are aged 20, 17, 15, 12, 10, 8 and
G years respectively. The head has 7 unmarried children. The
eldest of them is a 15-year-old daughter. Three other unmarried daughters are 9 years, 4 years and 7 months old
respectively. His three unmarried sons are 12 years, 7 years
and 2 years respectively. Excepting the youngest two
daughters of the head and one son of the head and one son
of the brother, of the twelve children all except one have taken
<n" are taking schooling. The one exception is the 12-year-old
son of the younger brother who is so far unlettered.. Three
of the children, one daughter and two sons, are in the seventh
standard. Two sons are in the sixth standard. One son and
DOlliE S TIC
L 1 F E: SOC I 0 - E CON 0
)of
1C
99
one daughter in the fourth standard and two sons left after
fourth standard; one son is in the second and one in the
~st .
.There is a third brother of Tukaram, the head, who, the
eldest of the line, having separated 20 years ago, lives in a
separate household.
This (XXXII) is a family almost on the subsistence
level. It does not own a plough but has a bullock-cart and a
cycle. It owns 4 oxen, 1 cow and 10 hens. Its own land is only
3 acres dry and 2 acres wet and it cultivates 11 acres on annual rental basis.
In the remaining three families (XXXI, XXXIII and
XXXIV) the component members comprise three generations, but only in the first two are married brothers members of the household. One of them, XXXI, is Maratha and
the other XXXIII is Mahar by caste. In both the families
besides the old mother only two married brothers with a
married SOll of a brother form a joint household. In the case
of the Mahar family this married son, who is 23 years old,
is the son of a brother who was the eldest of the brothers
and died as a member of the joint family in 1956. That deceased brother has two other sons of 16 and 5 years, who
form members of the household. Another peculiarity of this
family is that the brother who is only 25 years old is looked
upon as the head of the. family. He has a 2-year-old daughter.
The head's elder brother is about 7 years older than him and
the difference in the ages of their wives is about 6 years in
favour of the wife of the elder brother. This latter lady has
3 children, 2 daughters of 10 and 2 years and one son of 5
years. In this family, leaving out the old mother of 60 years,
of six adults and six children, only one person, the 16-yearold son, is educated; he has completed his sixth standard.
The other family (XXXI), Maratha by caste, offers some
similarity with a marked contrast. Leaving out the mother,
again in this family of seven adults and nine children, only
one person is educated. The head's married son, 19 years old,
married 2 years ago, had appeared for Matric in 1958 at the
time of enquiry and used to go to Poona to learn typing.
There are three other sons in the family, who are 18, 5 and
100
AFTER
]6 years old respectively, the first being that of the head.

N either the 18-year-old boy of the head, nor the 16-year-old
boy of his brother had any schooling. None of the 7 daughters
of the family, 3 of the head and 4 of the younger brother,
is schooling. The eldest is 12 years old and two 10 years old
(one of each brother), the former being that of the head.
One fact about this family, XXXI, that must be mentioned before going further, is that though treated as a joint
family, strictly speaking, it is a joint household only. Just
before enquiry the partition had been effected on paper.
The Mahar family, XXXIII, is fairly-ill-off having only 6
acres of dry land. It owns 2 oxen and 1 cow. The family
lives on customary dues and casual labour. Though it lives
in a house that is not very much below the standard of an
ordinary village house, yet judged by clothing it made a
sorry picture. In contrast, to this, the head declared that he
spends about Rs. 100 on clothes annually and about Rs. 15
per month on grocery.
The Maratha family, XXXI, is one of the better ones. In
possessing 30 acres of dry land it stands bracketted eighth
among the families of our sample. With 11 acres of land taken
on annual rent it appreciably improves its financial status.
In keeping with this, stands its cattle and other wealth. It
owns 4 oxen and 2 cows and 4 hens. It has an iron plough
and a bullock-cMt.
The fourth family 1 n this category of joint families,
XXXIV, is that of a Mang. It holds the distinction of having
a bigamous marriage and that too in the son's generation.
The head is more than 50 years old and his mother more than
70. The head married twice, his present marriage haVing
taken place some 14 years back. His son by his first wife, the
bigamous male, is 23 years old and has two wives 19 and 13
years old respectively. By his second wife the head has three
children, one daughter and two sons. The daughter is 6
years old and the sons 8 and 4. The only redeeming feature
is that the 8-years-old son is schooling in the Marathi first
standard. From the economic point of view its possession of
two she-baffaloes is the saving grace. It is perhaps the milkproduction that has enabled and required the family to own
D0
M EST I e L I P E:
Soc I
0 - E CON 0 M I C
101
a cycle. Its house outside the village near the Mang-garudi's

house is even of a lower standard than that of the Mahar
family described above.
There are two other joint families with the mother of
the head living with him. One, XXXVI, is a Ravirao Shinde
and the other XXXV is a Kand. To deal with the smaller
group first, the family of Kondiba Kand consists of 5 adults,
two adolescents, a boy and a girl, the boy being the eldest
son of Kondiba and the girl the eldest daughter of his
brother. There are six other boys, three sons of Kondiba
and three of his brother, and three girls. It is thus a group
of 16, the oldest, the mother of Kondiba, being over 60 years,
the youngest, the son of Kondiba's brother, being 2 months
old. One daughter of Kondiba who is 22 years old has been
married for about eight years. Kondiba's eldest son 16 years,
the adolescent buy, has stopped education after the fourth
Marathi. The adolescent girl, the 15-year-old daughter of
Kondiba's brother has had no schooling. It is surprising to
note that whereas not only the adolescent boy of Kondiba
but also the 13-y(,ar-old son and the 7-year-old daughter are
schooling, the boy in the fifth and the girl in the second
Marathi, neither the 15-year-old daughter nor the 13-year-old
daughter nor even the 9-year-old son of the brother of Kondiba
is schooling. Kondiba is 45 years old and his brother is 35, and
both of them had completed their fourth standard Marathi.
Their wives have been married for 21 and 15 years respectively, that of the elder brother being 35 years old and of
the younger about 30 years. The brothers have continued to
live together for 28 years after the death of their father.
Kondiba is a respectable citizen of the village. He is the
'savkar', banker, of the place, runs a grocery shop, which is
one of the two fairly biggish ones, lends money to the people
and generally takes part in the social life of the village. He
is respected and his advice sought. This family owns 40 acres
of land out of which only one is wet. It has 6 oxen, 6 cows,
1 she-baffalo, 2 sheep and 12 hens. Though it owns 2 bullockcarts, it has no plough, nor an engine for irrigation.
Kondiba owns three plots in the village out of which he
has a small house at one place. At present another house is
102
AFTER
being constructed in 'ran' that is, in the agricultural estate.

Kondiba says that the total cost of the same will be about
Rs. 2000. His shop is near the 'chawdi' and is taken on rent
of Rs. 4 per month. According to Kondiba the daily turnover of the shop is about Rs. 30.
The other family, XXXVI, is a Ravirao Shinde. The
head of the family, Anandrao, is the present 'pa~il' of the
village. In 1959, the current term of a decade of his 'pa~il
ship' will end and that of the Kand Patil family-not the one
we dealt with just now but another we shall deal with later
-will begin to end in 1969. The family owns 60 acres of dry
and 8 acres of wet land. With 5 oxen, 1 cow, 2 she-buffaloes,
one bullock-cart and one iron plough the family has enough
cattle and other wealth for agricultural purposes. In addition, it runs an oil engine for irrigation. Its possession of 2
cycles reflects not only the mobility of its male members but
the higher educational standard.
Speaking of the educational standard, one feels sorry
not to find definite signs of generationally upward trend.
Anandrao himself, who is 30 years old, was educated upto
the Matric, his brother, who is 27 years old, married fOt: 2
years, is a Matriculate. Anandrao's wife 23 years old has
studied upto the Marathi fourth. His brother's wife 20 years
old is, however, untutored. Of the two younger brothers of
Anandrao, one 19-year-old who has passed the Vernacular
Final examination has already taken up employment in the
Police Department. The youngest, 12 years old, is studying
in the fourth. Anandrao has four children, his eldest boy 9
years old being in the fourth standard, shows signs of doing
petter in education. Of his three daughters, the youngest is
6 months old and the oldest is 6 years. The youngest child of
the brother is 6 months old. The brothers have six sisters all
of whom are married. Their mother is 55 years old and their
father died in 1954. Anandrao's father added some rooms to
his house in 1948 at the cost of Rs. 500. Anandrao says that
grocery costs Rs. 60 per month. The higher educational
standard referred to above is reflected in the daily consumption of milk and also tea. The family buys a seer of milk,
which sells here at annas eight, a day and the total annual
Do M E srI e L I F E: Soc I 0
- E CON 0 101 t C
103
expense on milk and tea is Rs. 400! We may note with special
emphasis the fact that in spite of such addiction to tea, the
tea the family takes and evidently likes is prepared with the
usual rural sweetening of jaggery and not of sugar.
Now remain the nine families (XXXVII-XLilI and
XLV and XLVI) which are classed as non-nuclear only because the widowed mother of the head is a member. Of these
nine families, four are Mali, three are Maratha, one Lohar
and one Mahar. It is noticed that in the three Maratha
families, XXXVII, XXXVIII and XLV there are five
daughters and seven sons, being the children of the head,
who is 50 years old in two of the families and 35 in the third.
In one family, XXXVII a twenty-year-old son has left off
school at fourth Marathi and the fifteen-year-old daughter is
studying in the third, the eight-year-old daughter is in the
first Marathi, while the six-year-old son is not schooling. The
fifth child, a girl, is only 6 months old. The head of this
family has the distinction of having married four times. His
three previous wives having died, he married for the fourth
time when he was 28 years old. All his children are by his
present wife.
In the other family, XXXVIII, where there are five boys
and one girl, the second son, 15 years old, is unlettered. The
third boy, twelve years old, is in the third Marathi. The only
daughter of the family, an eight-year-old girl, is not schooling. This family is specially noteworthy for having given in
adoption the eldest son of the family to his mother's father.
That boy on adoption gave away as a gift to his natural
brothers half of his newly-acquired estate. The second son
of the family who is now the eldest son of the family is a
promising boy. Though only below 18, he has already been
5tudying at a Training College for the last 2 years. Altogether,
the family has eight children, of whom one daughter of 20
years has been married for six years.
The third Maratha family of this group, No. XLV, is
Kand by surname and is a junior branch of the family which
is entitled to hold the Patilship for the next decade. The old
mother of 70 years lives with this son who is 35 years old
and is educated upto Marathi fourth. He has been married
104
AFTER A
CENTURY
AND A QUARTER
for 12 years and his wife is 27 years. They have a daughter

2 years old. The circumstances under which the elder brother
of the head of the family began to live separately in 1941,
four or five years before his father's death are not clear. At
preSlent that brother has a fairly large family. He is known
to be afflicted with leprosy; and in society he behaves sensibly, keeping himself as far away from contact as possible. It
is to be noted that more than a hundred and twentyfive
years ago, Coats noticed or was made aware of cases of
leprosy in Lonikand.
To turn to the four Mali families (XXXIX, XL, XLI
and XLVI) there are 14 children, the largest number 7 (2
boys and 5 girls) being the contribution of family XXXIX.
Another family XLI contributes 4, 2 sons and 2 daughters.
In the other two families there are 3 daughters, two in one
(XLVI) and one in the other (XL). Of the seven children
of family XXXIX, two daughters 8 years old are a pair of
twins.
This is the second pair of twins in our sample, and like
the first, it is of girls.
This family with twin daughters is joint in estate with
the head's younger brother who lives in Poona having been
employed in a mill there for the last 20 years.
Of the ten daughters in these four families, the two in
one family (XLVI) alone are schooling, the 10-year-old in
the third and the 7-yearrold in the first Marathi standard. Of
the non-schooling daughters, the two twins are aged 8 years
and the other three are 13, 12 and 11. Of the four boys (2
in XXXIX and 2 in XLI) all the three of school-going age
are schooling or have had schooling. The 18-year-old son of
family XXXIX left school after fourth Marathi. The 10-yearold boy of that family studying in the fourth is a credit under the circumstances. The one boy of school-age of family
XLI is 7 years old and studies in the first standard.
The head of family XLI has two brothers both younger
than him who are employed in Poona and live there but
their oroperty is joint. Of these four Mali families, two
(XXXIX and XLI) though nuclear of a sort in residence, are
yet joint in estate.
DOli E S l' 1 e L l r E:
Soc 1 0 - E CON 0 II I C
105
The mothers of the heads living in all these seven families, Maratha and Mali, are fairly old women, one is 80,
another 75, two 70 and the remaining 60 or 65.
Of the four Mali families only three, except XLI, and all
the three Maratha ones are landholders in the village. The
land-holdings of these families are small except that of the
Maratha family XLV. One Mali family , XLVI has 15 acres
of land on half share, plus 2 acres of its own. Next in holding comes the Maratha family XXXVII which has about
,1-1 acres of dry and more than an acre of wet land. One
Maratha family XXXVIII has 13 acres and the two Mali
families XXXIX and XL have 10 acres each out of which
that of the XXXIX family includes 3 acres of wet land. The
Kand family XLV has Patilship vatani land as the estate,
which is 57 acres. The other land belonging to the two
brothers in common is 77 acres of dry and 6 acres of wet
land. The common cattle and other wealth consists of 6
oxen, 6 cows, 10 sheep and 20 hens. The family has one
bullock-cart and has kept one cycle for the last 5 years but
Eurprisingly enough owns no plough. As a matter of fact,
none of these seven families owns a plough, and only two
others both Malis (XXXIX and XLVI) own a bullock-cart
each. All the families however own cows, the Mali family
XXXIX with 3 oxen and 5 cows, 4 sheep and 9 hens stands
next to the Maratha family of Kand referred to above and is
generally fairly high in cattle-wealth. The two other Maratha
families, XXXVII and XXXVIII do not own any oxen but
the former owns 1 cow, 3 sheep and 12 hens and the latter 3
cows and 6 hens. The Mali family XLVI which owns 2 oxen
has 1 cow and 2 hens and the Mali family XL without any
oxen has 2 cows and 15 hens. Excepting the Kand family,
XLV, which is well-off and the Mali family, XXXIX, which
is not poorly-off, the others must be pronounced to be rather
poor.
The Mali family No. XLI whose composition is described has its land in Khed taluka from whence it migrated to
Lonikand some 50 years ago. Its head is employed in P.W.D.
for the usual work of repairs etc. on their account on daily
wages. He gets now Rs. 1.37 per day.
10
106
AFTER A
CENTURY AND
A QUARTER
The composition of the two remaining families has not

been described. They are of the two standard 'balutas', the
Lohar and the Mahar. The former (XLII) is an iron-smith,
holds 2 acres of dry land and is paid for his work for the
village, proprietors and others, through 'baluta' i.e. in kind
as customarily prescribed. Bhau, the head of the family is
35 years old and has studied upto the third Marathi. He lives
with his mother and his second wife who is 25 years old,
married for the last 7 years. From his first wife, Bhau has
two sons, 16 and 13, both studying in the second standard.
From his second wife he has 3 children, 2 daughters and 1
son, of 5 years, 3 years and 7 months respectively. He has a
tonga drawn by an ox, and 1 cow and 1 sheep and runs a
cycle of his own. He owns a house which is not bad. Somehow his condition economically does not seem to be good.
The other 'baluta', Mahar, XLIII, owns more land, 5 acres,
has 1 cow, 1 sheep and 2 hens. Rajaram, the head is 45 years.
old and lives with his third wife whom he married 13 years
ago when she was 22 years old. Of the children of schoolage from among his six children, two sons and four daughters,
his sons are schooling, the twelve-year-old in the third and
the nine-year-old in the second. The four daughters of 7, 5,
3 and 2 respectively appear to be too young for schooling.
His house of course is in the Maharwada and he being a
'baluta', though not economically well-off, does not show any
depression.
APPRAISAL
AITER
a century and a quarter, a

period which has been so eventful
for the region in which Lonikand is situated, the aspect of even a small village should show some
changes. And Loni, as Surgeon Coats called it, which was big
enough to be considered a town in 1819 when the rule of the
Marathas and the Peshwas had just ended, should show them
in an even marked degree.
The physical lay-out of Lonikand as it was in 1819 cannot be precisely ascertained. That it was a walled place is
made abundantly clear by Coats. The present village of Loni
with a population of a little less than two and a half times
that of the Loni of Surgeon Coats is still mostly contained
within the confines of its old walls. This does not mean that
the same confined space has accommodated all the additional
houses that have been rendered necessary owing to the
increase of population. According to Surgeon Coats' statistics in 1819, which we have presented elsewhere, 107
houses gave shelter, adequate or inadequate, to 130 families
which comprised a total population of 565 individuals. The
present investigation reveals that there are 179 houses in
good condition standing within the wans of the village, all
of them being occupied. This does not mean that all the 306
families which are registered in the records of the Talathi,
the local revenue officer, are accommodated in these 179
houses. In addition to these, there are 97 houses mostly within the walls of the village which are more or less in a ruined
condition and therefore abandoned. The present village of
Lonikand within its old wans has accommodated more than
double the number of houses which it harboured in 1819. We
may conclude therefore that the passage of a century and a
108
quarter has brought about congestion within the walls of

Lonikand.
The local congestion would have been even worse but
for the rise of the new phenomenon in the economic and
social life of the villages, of a large number of villages in this
region, the Haveli taluka. It is mostly during the last half a
century-rarely extending to about 75 years back-that
families have tended to move to their own fields which they
commonly term as 'ran' which strictly means jungle. More
often than not when a family moves its residence to its fields
it generally builds a hut or a thatched house. Only excep~
tionally do some families build regular houses on their
landed estates-we have already recorded a case or two. In
Lonikand, our investigation has revealed that there are 68
hutments and houses in the 'ran' or in the respective owners'
fields. Some of the families that own houses in the 'ran' have
not only dilapidated houses but sometimes sound houses in
the village.
We have no statistics for the total number of families.
In our sample of 50 families we have found that out of 34
agriculturists 31 own and live in their own houses and 3 live
in other's houses either because their house is in ruins or not
built at all. Of these 34 houses only 9 are new, 25 being old.
Fourteen families out of the 31 who own houses have houses
only in the village, and one family a house only in the field.
Five families have a house both in the village and in the fields.
While 4 families have a house in the village and a hut in the
fields each, there are two which have only a hut in the fields.
There are 5 families whose houses in the ,village are in ruins
and have standing houses in the fields.
Of the twelve families of 'baluta' castes, it is to be noted
that none has anything to do with either a hut or a house in
the field. The three Mahars and the Mang have all their
houses outside the village wall. The eight remaining families
own among them 7 houses. The Mulana who hails from Perne
and the Sutar and the Tamboli who are local do not own
houses. They live in other's houses without paying any rent.
Of the five remaining families the Chambhar family owns
!hree houses, others owning one each. Of the houses only two
ApPRAISAl:
109
are new. One of them, the latest, is a Mahar's house built in

1954 at a cost of Rs. 500. The other is the Chambhar's third
house which was built in 1946 at a cost of Rs. 3,000.
Leaving out the Brahmin lady and the Rajput shopkeeper, there are two other families, one of which is an agriculturist-cum-shopkeeper and the other a servant in public
office; and both of them own houses in the village. The shopkeeper is building another house in the fields at an estimated
cost of Rs. 2,000.
If Lonikand as such has not very largely changed its
aspect because of the enclosing wall, the fact that about more
than 50 families are living dispersed in their fields spread out
over a mile distant from the central locality presents a new
configuration, which from the point of view of social solidarity and welfare poses problems.
There has been marked change in the type of domestic
architecture which must be taken into account when considering the total aspect of the village. In place of the terraced
houses, known as 'ma!avadi' in Marathi, we have the two!>lope-roofed ones today. The Vithoba-Rukmini temple with
its spire gives Lonikand of today conspicuity which the old
temple of Mahadev still standing in a neglected state could
have given Lonikand of 1819. Added to this the Savantababa
Mandir and the school building, the Poona Rotary's gift, almost abutting on the great Poona-Ahmednagar road impress
Lonikand on the notice of the passers-by.
Next to the physical appearance is the composition of
the present population. A study of it is not only interesting
but instructive. We have noted that since Coats' time the
population has increased by 150 per cent. Ordinarily this
growth in numbers will be very largely credited to the balance
of births over deaths i.e. natural growth. But that is not so
as our investigation tends to reveal. Out of the 50 families of
our sample with a total population of 427, 22 families or 44
per cent came to Lonikand from somewhere else during the
last 25 to 90 years i.e., more than 30 to 40 years after Coats'
description of Lonikand. If this percentage of immigrants
should be anything like a representative percentage, in the
total population, of immigrants, then not less than 40 per cent
110
AFTER A
CENTURY
AND
QUARTER
of the present population of Lonikand is the descendants of

the immigrants who migrated to Lonikand 30 to 40 years after
Coats' time. This means that the natural growth of the population of Lonikand over a century and a quarter has not been
more than 50 per cent. Even if we make some allowance for
emigrants, if any, from Lonikand and natural extinction of
some others, the natural growth of the population of Loni over
a century and a quarter cannot be much higher than 50 per
cent.
We shall not go into the details of sex and age distribution of the population, the relevant remarks being already
made. We shall refer to the changes in the caste-wise composition of the populace. As already noted, Coats has given
the caste-wise distribution. We have drawn the reader's attention to the fact that Coats refers to the cultivators in general,
calling all of them Kunbis, and assigning them to the fourth
caste, the caste of Shudras. He further distinguishes them as
either hereditary cultivators i.e. 'talkaris' or 'uparis' i.e. cultivators on lease. There is no reference to Marathas nor to
Malis. The first edition of the District Gazetteer of Poona 1
published in 1885, in which as stated therein the account of
Kunbis is based on Coats' account of 1819, the Klmbis are
divided into two main classes namely Kunbis and Marathas
and the observation is added that between the two "it is difficult to draw a line." They are one group of husbandmen; and
though Malis are recQrded2 , they are dismissed with the
remark "their customs are the same as those of Marathas or
Kunbis." In our investigation of the present Loni, we find
that there are Marathas and Malis but no Kunbis. And whether there is any distinction, or none as the Gazetteer stated,
hetween the Marathas and the Malis, it is quite clear to us
that as far as tutelary deity is concerned the Marathas of
Lonikand though joining wholeheartedly in the annual worship of Mhasoba, declare it to be the deity of the Malis and
proclaim that their deity is Khandoba, which is a fact. In
private they will add "even the Malis' tutelary deity is Khandoba and not Mhasoba."
1. Part I. fns. pp. 286-296.
2. op. cit. p. 309 "another class of husbandmen."
ApPRAISAL
III
The greatest compositional change lies in the absence of

slaves and of immigrant merchants. According to Coats there
were 8 families of slaves with 18 persons and at least one
house in Lonikand was owned by a slave. In the present Lonikand no slave is known to exist. There were, according to
Coats, 3 families of Jain shop-keepers of Kannada extraction
and two Marwari families of shop-keepers. Between them
they owned 3 houses. Today in Lonikand there "is neither a
Jain or Hindu Kannadiga nor is there a Marwari as such.
In their place there is a Rajput from Dehra Dun who has
married a local Rajasthani lady's daughter and has settled
down as a shop-keeper for the last 15 years. His mother-inJaw who has been there since long represents perhaps the
remnants of the old Marwaris. But these people have taken
to the dress and language of the Maharashtrians so much that
they cannot be distinguished from the local Marathas.
The grocery trade of Lonikand offers interesting specimen
of the economics and sociology of rural grocery. Coats has
given a list of articles that were generally kept in the shops
of the grocers, which according to his description would
appear to be 5 in number, giving the average of about one
shop for every 114 persons. He informs us that the shopkeepers had great weight in the township and acted as
bankers. They were ready to advance small loans without
security, charging 37 per cent interest. They sold their grocery merchandise on the basis of 12 months' credit after
which alone the interest was charged. Bulk of the dealings
carried on with the cultivators were on barter system, the
settlement commonly being made at the harvest time. The
list of articles available at the local grocery shops, ranging
from clarified butter or ghee included not only senna leaves,
sal ammoniac (navsagar) and the salt of mercury (puskapoor) but also paper and ink. It also included poppy seed
(khaskhas), bhang (the intoxicating leaves of the Cannabis
Sativa) and opium (aphu) and arsenic (somul) , also saffron
(keshar) and musk (kasturi). The grocery shop was thus an
'all-purpose' store including in it not only the grains and
pulses but also dry-fruits and the spicy vegetables and cocoanut, in fact all the necessities of daily life including cloth.
112
AFTER
CENTURY
AND
QUART!: "
It intrigues us to know that in the shops of Loni there

was available not only saffron but also the rarer luxury and
medicament of musk or Kasturi. In today's shops, even in
the well-stocked one of the Kands, where the daily sale of
commodities brings in about Rs. 30, we have not met with
the latter stuff. The dry-fruits, the 'badams' (almonds) and
dates whether dry or soft ('kharik, khajur') are not easily
available. These dry fruit items have a place in the religiosocial ritual and are generally used as food on fast days.
The strange omissions from the list are pepper, chillies
and oil. People were burning oil lamps and 'karanji' (Ponga nuia glabra) or some such oil was used. They would have
also required 'karadai' (Carthamus tinctorius) or til oil for
seasoning eatables and 'kopra' oil for -hair. Coats does not
mention any 'teli' or oil-presser and the needs of oil could not
have been provided by the 'baluta teli'.
Today all chillies and pepper are there and they must
have been even there in Coats' time. 'Til' or 'karadai' and
'kopra' oil are available today in all the five shops. The old
type of oil for lamp is no longer necessary and kerosene is
used in its place and that is stocked again in all the five shops.
As yet no readymade clothes are available in these sh0pS.
Going into the history of the grocers' shops we find that
all the five shops in existence today are fairly recent, one of
them having been in existence for 25 years, two for about
10 years and the remainjng two for about only 5 years. Three
of the owners are Marathas, one Mali and the fifth a Rajasthani called here a Pardesi.
The state of affairs about the grocery shops before 25 years
is not clearly known but we were assured by the memories
of the oldest residents that the previous grocer they remember
was a Muslim, who died issueless and that his widow left the
village after his death.
Tea would appear to be a post-British addition to the
Indian list of drinks and it is but in keeping with the general
expectation of sociologists that in a big village like Lonikand
situated as it is on the thoroughfare connecting two important
01'
This commodity in the city of Bombay sells at Rs. 30.00 a 'tola'

about Rs. 75.00 an ounce.
ApPRAISA L
113
centres of population, there should be a tea shop in the village. Actually, there are two and they are owned by what
lire known here, as already stated, as Mehmans, that is, neither
Shindes, Kands nor Zurunges. One is a Maratha and the
other a Mali. The shop of the Maratha, who is a local resident is 15 years old but that of the Mali is a recent addition
the owner having migrated to this village not more than ten
years ago. What was the drink, if any, that was available in
a shop before the British advent or more correctly before the
advent of tea-shop is not known. But that there would have
been some eatables like 'chikki>l<' and 'ladu' and perhaps
'chakali' in some wayside shops is very likely. The two teashops of the present day in addition to tea and such eatables
also keep at least butter-biscuits made in bakeries nearby .
The tea-shops of Lonikand are no exception to this. The Sathe
biscuits of Poona and in reality of Yeravada are yet not
known in these shops. But the main eatable which is erved
and favoured these days is 'bhe!' which is a mixture of 'shev'.
'kurmure' and 'chivJa'. There being a bus-stop for nearly half
a dozen bus routes, some customer is always available for
these shop-keepers. Other local residents visit these shops in
the months of March, April and May when they are comparatively free from their agricultural work. The daily ca h
collection of these shops is Rs. 10 to 15 in each. Of the local
people it is generally the milk-carriers that patronize the shop.
Even in these shops, the tea is sweetened with jaggery and
not with sugar. Only on special order is it sweetened with
sugar.
The people of Lonikand are favourably inclined towards
the bicycle, a contraption making for mobility, of fairly recent
introduction in the rural areas. Situated so near Poona and
fairly far off especially before the days of motor buses, sellers
of milk and well-to-do cultivators able to afford comforts saw
their chance in the possession of old cycles-it is more often
than not the old cycle that is seen in the possession of the
villagers. In our sample inquiry the oldest possession of a
cycle dates only 25 years back. Whatever the position about
In the Konkan 'khllje' takes the place of this sweet.
114
AFTER
A CENTURY AN
A QUARTER
the cycle-ownership may be 25 years ago, today there are

about 25 cycles owned by Lonikars. We have already noted
in our sample study the existence of the ownership of more
than one cycle by some families. Where 25 bicycles are owned
there mayor may not be a repair shop. In a technically
minded society there should not be any. But in Lonikand we
have one cycle shop which has been in existence for about
20 years. It attends to cycle repairs and also keeps about
3 cycles to be offered on hire. In addition to this specialist's
shop one of the five grocers has been keeping five cycles for
hire for the last 3 years.
This is the proper place to note the existence of the one
corn-grinding machine that is run in Lonikand today because
it is a kind of shop. Corn was ground at home by women in
the old world grinding-stone-mill worked by hand. During the
last 25 years oj' so there have been set up grinding mills
worked on diesel engines in a number of villages in Haveli
taluka. Specially is this the case with villages wherein progressive and well-to-do farmers have set up oil engines for
irrigation purposes. With this grinding convenience offered
to the people there has grown the tendency to get corn ground
in the mills and to discontinue its being ground at hume on
the hand-mill. With growing custom there are cases where
grinding-mills run on diesel engines are set up for that purpose only. And this mill of Lonikand is of that nature. It is
due to the enterprising .and shop-keeping nature of a Sindhi
gentleman who set it up about 5 years ago. As soon as he
got better opportunities of going to some 8indhi colony he
sold it to a local Maratha who now owns and runs it.
Another change is that in place of 5 Muslim families of
Coats' Loni, we have two at present, one of which is in a
decaying condition. Coats' Muslim families owned four houses
but today even the Muslim Tamboli who is a local resident
does not own any house in the village.
It is in keeping with the change in the administrative setup, that out of the three Ramoshi families of old, today we
have only one. Ramoshi was the old-time local police. With
the State police system developed by the British the Ramoshi
became superfluous. There was one Koli family which was
ApPRAISAL
115
the traditional water-carrier of the village community. Is it

due to the decay of that type of organization that today we
do not find a Koli in Lonikand?
We can understand the absence of the potter in today's
village economy and social life. During the last 100 years us
of copper and brass pots as household utensils has naturally
diminished the field of potter's activity. We can therefor
understand his stationing himself at Perne a village nearly
3 miles to the north-east on the banks of the Bhima river and
discharging his truncated 'baluta' duties of Lonikand as and
when required. The same reasoning to our mind cannot
explain the absence of the Parit or the Dhobi or the washerman from today's Lonikand. His services are required, apart
from cleaning clothes, in the marriage rituals.
The absence of the Gurav or the attender on village temples from such a big village as Loni is rather strange. This
is the more so because in Coats' Loni there existed a Gurav
family and it owned a house.
On the credit side we can point out the existence of not
one but two Lohars or ironsmiths who are residents and
owners of houses in today's Loni whereas in Coats' Loni this
particular village servant was non-resident. Coats has not
given the number of bullock-carts then owned by Lonikars,
but there are 51 of them today and they must be providing
work for the Lohars. Another addition is that of a Mang or
the rope-maker, the present head of the family having migrated to Lonikand 25 years ago.
We have already drawn attention to the fact of the
increased proportion of population in relation to the land and
consequent pressure of population on it. And now we will
like to draw the reader's attention to the relative decrease of
cattle wealth over a century and a quarter. In 1819 the
number of bullocks per family was 1.7 on an average. At present they are only 1.2 per family. In the former year for
every 100 persons of Lonikand there were 31 cows and shebuffaloes taken together. The 'talathi's' data of the present
returns an average of about 25 only of these animals per
100 persons. The only agreeable feature-hens excepted, as
Coats has not given any estimate of their number in his time
116
AFTtR
CENTURY
AND
QlJARTEII
-is that the sheep-stock of Lonikand today is twelve times

that it was in 1819.
Apropos of the animal wealth, as we have earlier mentioned the number of ploughs and the kind of ploughs that
are owned by the villagers, we may note here that the number
of oxen at the two enumerations are 220 and 353 respectively.
In relation to the arable land the ratio between a pair of oxen
and the amount of arable land at the two periods works out
at 17.77 and 16.87 acres respectively, the higher ratio being
at the enumeration of 1819. A little less land to be ploughed
by a pair of oxen considered along with the fact that the
plough is an iron one may indicate better ploughing of the
land than was possible in 1819. If all the 353 oxen are used
for drawing the plough we get more than 4 oxen per plough.
Perhaps the extra oxen are solely used for being yoked to
the bullock-cart. In our sample there are eight cases of
bullock-carts being owned by people who do not possess a
plough. In Coats' time 8 pairs of oxen were deemed sufficient to keep two ploughs going-this gives just double the
average number of oxen per plough which we have found to
(>xist today as stated above.
A further observation of Coats on this matter is vo=ry important and that is, "a person possessed of 8 pairs of oxen ...
is thought to be in very good Circumstances", because it
implies that there were some farmers in Coats' Loni who
owned 8 pairs of oxen . Today, however, we have reason to
believe that there is not a single family in Lonikand which
owns 8 pairs of oxen. As a matter of fact in our sample,
there is only one family which owns more than G oxen; and
our sample, though composed of only 50 families, contains
two or three richest families of the village. This indication
of the impoverishment of the people in itself supports our
previous observation made in connection with the dispersal
of the families in their fields and is itself strengthened by the
fact that the proportion of land brought under cultivation is
higher than it was in 1819. Today arable land forms a little
over 70 per cent of the total land whereas in 1819 it was a
little over 53 per cent.
By far the greatest change that Lonikand has gone
ApPRAISAL
117
through is on the side of the facilities for education and its

spread and the organization on which its social life is based.
Today, thanks to the Rotary Club of Poona, there is a
nice school building. Even before the erection of the building
about two years ago, the school added the seventh standard
and thus made training upto vernacular final examination
possible in the local school. There are clear indications that
Lonikars have an intense desire to take education. We nnd
that among the 48 heads of the families of our sample, 25 have
had some education. Two of them had studied upto the Matriculation, three had passed the seventh Marathi standard, one
each the sixth and fifth , seven passed the fourth standard and
eight the third. Three of the heads had passed the second
standard and 23 had not done anything in the line. Of the
25 brothers of these heads , 12 have had no education while
one has passed the Matriculation. Three of them did the
Matriculation. Three of them did the Marathi seventh and
one each the sixth and the seventh standard. Four passed the
Marathi fourth standard, one the second and two the first
only. On the whole, the educational performance of the heads'
brothers may be pronounced to be very similar to that of the
heads.
Among the 79 sons of the heads and their brothers, 27
have already stopped their education, and 19 of them are
already married. Of the married sons only one is uneducated
while one is a Matriculate. Of the unmarried sons one left
off from the X and one from the IX standard. Of the 52 sons
of the heads and their brothers who are still going to school,
8 are in the I, 11 in the II, 11 in the IV, 7 in V and VI each,
4 in the VII and 1 in IX standard. We may conclude that as
far as education is concerned, things are going forward in
Lonikand.
During the last few years two agencies, one of the Union
Government under the Community Development Project and
the National Extension Service, and the other that of the
Rotary Club of Poom~ under its own ideals have been trying
to help and transform the village machinery and life. The
laudable endeavour of the Rotary has given to the village a
fine school building but at the same time, we are sorry to
118
AFTER A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
note, has tended to make the villagers less self-dependent. As

already mentioned, for little things connected with the school
and other things like medical help every now and then the
villagers expect the Rotary Club of Poona to come to their
help. So much so is this dependent attitude developing-not
perhaps without indirect encouragement from the outside agencies themselves with their very natural desire of showing the
experiment to be successful-that in the case of the Mahila
MandaI or the Ladies' Association started by the National
Extension Service in 1954 the Rotary Club of Poona has to
spend Rs. 75 per month to engage a lady who goes from Poona
on Sunday and stays in Loni till the following Thursday. She
conducts classes in the old school building and tries to teach
embroidery, stitching and cutting in the daytime to girls and
to ladies at night. The justification for this particular activity lies in the fact that the people have shown a fair eagerness to attend the classes, both children and ladies. They
have made out a number of things some for use and some for
beauty only.
The local persons who contact the Rotary men and carry
on the integrative, ameliorative or cultural work are the teacher by name Zurunge, and referred to by people as Zur unge
Guruji, the local 'savkar' or the grocer-cum-bankel' Kand by
name, and one Buwa Tapkir who is an agriculturist of middling status. The last person is an immigrant but of the Mehman
or in-law type. He comes from Charholi Budr uk in the NorthWest. The family came and settled in Lonikand which is a
village of his mother. Buwa Tapkir and his brother have
inherited some land from their maternal grandfather. Buwa
Tapkir though not highly educated is a person given to newspaper-reading and has a knack for knowing details about the
families of Lonikand. His newspaper contact with the outer
world and his direct contact with the inner world of Lonikand have conspired to give him local importance. The influence that he wields can be well gauged from the incident
about the operation of vasectomy that was proposed to be
carried out on some of the local people. The doctor of the
Rotary who was in charge of the campaign first of all won
over Buwa Tapkir and made him agree to get the operation
ApPRAISAL
ll9
done on him. Under Tapkir's influence and the doctor's persuasion six other men of Lonikand agreed to have it done on
them too. For the operation they had to go to Poona. But
on one pretext or another Tapkir did not pl'Qceed and the
doctor could not persuade others to go with him. They insisted that they would go only if Tapkir went with them. Tapkiris about 50 years old.
Zurunge teacher is also an honorary compounder for dispensing medicines locally according to the prescription of th
visiting doctor of the Rotary. He is also an agriculturist. Be
it noted that though he is a teacher, he is not the headmaster
of the school. His services in the dispensing of medicines
have been considered as so invaluable that the Rotary Club
has intervened to prevent his transfer from Lonikand.
Zurunge's being comparatively free from transfer is a factor
in his local importance. He is a Mali, and Malis consult him
in marriages, where more often than not he officiates as the
priest. The Malis of Lonikand do not employ Brahmin priests
for any of their religious or social rites.
Kand Savkar who is one of the trio is in actuality the
most important man of Lonikand. For any social or religious
function Kondiba Kand, the "savkar" as he is generally known ,
is the treasurer. Surplus money therefore remains with him.
Any outside monetary help for any village purpose is taken
in his name and is deposited with him. Being a grocer he can
oblige a number of families in small or great ways.
All these persons work as the core of the committee of
management for the annual Mhasoba festival. None of them
is, however, a member of the Village Panchayat formed under
the Panchayat Act.
The villagers of Lonikand being keenly aware of the need
for and possibilities of water for irrigation in their village
had sometime suggested to the Government agencies that a
dam could be and should be put up in the stream that runs
to the west and south of the village. On agreed basis of sharing the expenses-the villagers to pay one-third of the total
expenses-the dam was finally put up in 1955. But unfortunately the dam has not been able to dam the water and thewhole scheme as a water-providing measure seems to be a
120
AFTER
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AND
QUARTER
failure. The Government demands from the villagers their

share of the expenses and the villagers rightly point out that
since the scheme has failed, they cannot be expected to pay
as agreed upon previously. In the Government accounting an
amount of about Rs. 6000 which represents one-third of the
total expenses of the dam is shown as 'taqavi' loan to the villagers. The villagers disowning this arrangement and their
responsibility for it, the dead-lock still continues. It is work
of this kind that tends to discredit the Government agency
and strengthens the old attitude of the villager towards
schemes of amelioration in which he is asked to share the
burden of his quota.
In view of what has happened it will not be out of place
10 refer here to the observations of a highly intelligent and
deeply sympathetic British Indian official made about a small
town or large village in the adjoining district of Ahmednagar
almost exactly a century ago. R. N. Goodine, whom we have
referred to and quoted previously, in his Report on the Village
Communities of the Deccan remarks on the dire need of potable water for the flourishing town of Yewla and the utter
inability of the local people to cooperate for providing it. "Th(:>
munificence of some individual in by-gone days had form~d a
tank, but it has since become choked with mud and is consequently u seless. As usual in such cases, the Patel might have
afforded some assistance from his office (by forming a subscription, or what not, have made the necessary arrangements, but this was contrary to the regulations of the present
Government. During the last few years, several efforts, I
understand, have been made to induce the present Government to form an aqueduct, and it had consented to defray
half the expense, if the inhabitants would defray the rest. A
subscription list was set on foot, but the amount of promised
subscriptions fell short of the sum required and the measure
failed, through the dissension or disunion of its promoters.
Government subsequently rescinded the mohoturfa or town
dues. A petition was again made for an aqueduct and Government again professed willingness to bear half the expense,
if the town would bear the remainder, urging at the same
time that, as it had relieved the people from so great an
ApPRAISAL
121
amount of taxes, they ought cordially to cooperate in effecting

an object entirely for their own benefit. Another attempt was
made at a subscription, but seemed again likely to fail from
want of unity among the inhabitants; they stating that they
would gladly continue to pay the mohoturfa tax, if Government would supply the town with water . . " These facts are
not peculiar to this town alone, but, with slight modifications.
are equally applicable to most of the large towns of the
Deccan."
The other influence through governmental and legi lative
measure is the formation of the Village Panchayat with its
rights, privileges and responsibilities. As already pointed out
it has been working since April 1954 and the lady memberbecause there must be a lady member-is the Brahmin widow
who has never once attended the meeting. None of the three
citizens in Lonikand, viz. Kondiba Kand, Buwa Tapkir and
Zurunge Guruji, whose activities are briefly described above.
is a member of the Panchayat. Of the other influential persons who carry great weight is the present, hereditary Patil
of the village viz. Anandrao Shinde Patil who though a man
c.f about 30-35 years is perhaps the most respected and weighty
citizen of Lonikand. There are four other citizens of Loni-,
kand, three of them natives of the village and one a temporary immigrant, a Mali teacher, who wield great influence
in the village. Of these four, one a Mali grocer is an elected
member of the Village Panchayat. None of the others belong
to the Panchayat. Ramrao Valunj and Shripatrao K and, the
remaining two of the four are agriculturists mainly, the former besides running a tea-shop.
It will be seen from the brief description of the important personages of Lonikand that only two persons, namely,
Buwa Tapkir and Shripatrao Kand have no additional source
of influence over and above their membership of the village
and their agricultutal status in it. Buwa Tapkir as already
pointed out is not a considerable agriculturist. Shripatra()
Kand on the other hand is a considerable agriculturist owning more than a hundred acres of land and employing a
whole-time servant throughout the year. Shripatrao has a
well-built house on his land about a mile away from the main
11
122
AFTER A CENTURY AND
A QUARTER
village but the distance has not prevented him from wielding
influence in the village.
Here is a phenomenon which seems to show that with
the inception of the Panchayat two sets of influential groups
operate in two different fields of village life. Even without
any rivalry or animosity between them, the functioning of
the two groups is like divided authority. If we may represent
the division in sociological terms we may speak of it as division between temporal and spiritual authority. The Panchayat
with its taxation and its village administration may be said
to operate in the temporal aspect of the villagers' life. Anandrao Shinde Patil, Kondiba and Shripatrao Kand, Buwa Tapkir, Valunj, and the two Gurujis operate in the spiritual field.
Bhumkar is influential in his own right and is also a member
of the Panchayat. But he hardly ever figures in the religious
or the social life of the people.
We have already dealt with the religious life and brought
out the particular roles of the individuals in this group. We
may now mention that in three affairs of social significance
in which the well-being of some of the citizens of Lonikand
was involved and in the grand cooperative effort connected
with the construction of the dam, more than one of these Look
a leading part.
Leaving the affair of the dam we shall begin with the
part that under the guidance of Shinde, Kand and Tapkir and
the teachers, some of the villagers have played in arranging
the marriage of the only son of the local goldsmith, Sonar.
The gentleman is too poor to defray the expenses by himself.
The villagers have contributed among themselves a sufficient
sum to enable him to do so.
We started with this social action of the villagers of Lonikand because it appears to be a curious echo of the first historically recorded incident about Lonikand nearly two centuries
ago. In the diary of the Peshwa Madhavrao IS, only a little
less than two centuries ago, the then local Sonar of Lonikand-let it be remembered that in those times the village
was known by the name Sukloni-it is mentioned, had some
8. Vad, Diaries of the Peshwas, Thorale Madhavrao, Vol.
n,
p. 215.
ApPRAISAL
123
difficulty of a different nature about the marriage of his son.

A particular bride, the daughter of a particular Sonar of another village had been fixed for him and the father of the
bride created difficulties with a view to abrogate the match.
The Sonar of Sukloni having appealed to the Peshwa, the
latter instructed his officials to see that the match came off.
For an adequate judgment on the quality of individual
and social life, for the appreciation of individual and social
achievements in the process of adaptation, socialization and
integration, and for the evaluation of individual and social
welfare, some glimpse into the nature and extent of factions,
quarrels, litigation and crimes, if any, in the group studied is
necessary and we shall present some data which we have been
able to collect on these items.
For a comparative and panoramic view we shall begin by
quoting the general observations of Coats on the cultivators,
the main bulk of the population of Lonikand-he has not given
any specific data-made more than a century and a quarter
ago. Coats says: "They are just in their dealings amongst
themselves, but would not be scrupulous in over-reaching the
Government or persons without. Theft is scarcely known
amongst them; and the voice of the community is loud against
all breaches of decorum, and attaches weight and respectability to virtuous conduct in its members. . .. They are naturally timid, and will endeavour to redress their wrongs rather
by strategem than more generous means; when roused, however, they will be found not without courage, nor by any
means contemptible enemies." "They are mild and unobtrusive in their manners, and quickly shrink from anything like
an opposite behaviour in others. Litigation is not a marked
part of their character. They are forgetful of injury, or, if
they harbour animosity, they are seldom hurried by it into
acts of violence or cruelty." "They are not restricted by religious prohibition from the use of spirituous liquors, but drinking is considered disreputable and rarely practised. When they
take a dram, it is as much as possible in private, and as if by
stealth. No intoxicating liquor is sold in the town, and probably very few of the inhabitants have ever been seen drunk."
In Lonikand of today there are no factions as such. Caste
124
AFTER
A CENTURY
AND
A QUARTER
feeling is not absent as is seen from the new erection of the

Savantababa hall by the Malis. It is also seen silently at work
in the choice of the tea~shop visited by the local people, the
Malis patronizing the Malis' and the Marathas that of the
Maratha owner. The feeling of the local Marathas about the
Malis' claim that their deity is Mhasoba also indicates an
undercurrent of caste feeling. But so far it does not seem to
have taken any more militant or even overt shape. The Malis'
not engaging Brahmin priests is another fissure~like feature
which does not foster hatred or even sourness because the
Brahmins generally are at a discount with the villagers as a
whole.
Of the three cases of litigation which are proceeding and
irom time to time seem to agitate some people, two pertain to
relations between landlord and tenant, both of which stem
from the new Tenancy Act. In both, the contending parties
belong to different castes. In one the landlord is the Brahmin
lady and the tenant is a well~known Maratha agriculturist of
the place. The lady wants her rented land made over to her;
but for some reason the person who is fighting the case for
her is that son out of her three, all of whom are living separately, who is most disliked by most of the leading villager.... The
tenant who has been one of the admirers of the Brahmin
widow and has not only respect for her, but even now bears
friendship, is reported to be voicing privately his willingness
to release the land if, in his own words, "Nani (the Brahmin
widow as she is usually- referred to in endearing terms) were
directly to ask him for it." This quarrel and land-litigation is
thus of an ambivalent nature, if we may use this phychological term in this context. The other quarrel, the parties to
which are a Maratha and a Mali is more serious and shows
utter lack of mutual trust as well as dour determination. Even
the mediation of the popular Rotarian of Poona has not yet
been able to resolve the conflict. The landlor d, who is habi~
tually in a distant State, served his tenant with a notice to
surrender and quit his lands as far back as 1950, but not
clearly before the passing of the Tenancy Act. He is liberal
in his patronage of good causes in his village of origin and
estate, Lonikand, and has already donated Rs. 500 for the new
ApPRAISAL
1:!5
school building and has promised Rs . 3000 in case his lands

are amicably handed over to him. He is further willing to
surrender his claims to a part of the total lands provided the
tenant relinquishes his right first. The tenant is a very influentiallocal personality, yet is ready for the compromise. But
the bargain cannot be completed because of mutua} mistrust
raising the insuperable difficulty who should do his part of
the compromise first.
The third litigation is a family quarrel-between a paternal uncle and his nephew whose houses adjoin with some open
land in between, which is the bone of contention. This quarrel
about land is complicated by sex, the uncle suspecting the
wife's brother of his nephew of having made stealthy overtures to his daughters.
Of crimes proper there are very few. The only case of
murder remembered is that of a Muslim grocer about fifteen
years ago. A Pathan from Poona who was the paramour of
the grocer's wife is believed to have killed him in his house
at night. The widow soon after is said to hove left lor Poona.
The other crime is a case of misappropriation of public money
which was discovered in 1956. A Thrift and Credit Society
was formed in 1947. The Chairman was one of the two Patils.
The Society having not done well had to be wound up in 1956
when it was discovered that the Chairman had misappropriated about Rs. 1,100 belonging to the Society. He was duly
prosecuted and was sentenced to three months' imprisonment.
His 'pli~ilki' which he had to lay down , was handed over by
him to a paternal cousin of his in preference to his own
younger brother.
Though there is 'prohibition', and no liquor, as in Coats'
time, is sold in Lonikand and, though, as again in former
1imes, there is naturally no drunkenness to be met with in
public, it is very well known that all such functions as marriage, whether in Lonikand itself or in another village, make
ample provision for extemporised drink. Quite a number of
usually active and social people are known not to show their
faces in public for one or two days after such an event as a
marriage in a fairly well-to-do peasant's family. The particular recipe for preparing the drink known to be in practice
126
AFTER A
CENTURY ANIl A QUAR'l'BIl
in Lonikand is a mixture in certain proportions, of French

polish, allum and aqua. pUTa.
U. A. S. BANGALO RE
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY.
12 JAN 18b~
Ace.
12612
NO ..................... '"
CL. NO .. .. . ...- .
\i:
-._ ..... :

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AFTER A CE

LONIKAND THEN AND NOW

POPULAR BOOK DEPOT

Relea cd On. __ ____ _

Thi book hould be returned on

811 cIu! .. me autlun"

Caste and Class in India

The Scheduled Tribes

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

ORGANIZED SOCIAL LIVING

DOMESTIC LIFE : SoclO-EcONOMIC

"No one can study the growth of towns without a realization

"If a positive policy of town and country planning is to be

- Report of the Committee on Qualifications

Newer type of houses.

Aspect of the village looking Inwards from the Chawdl.

ROUPINGS of human beings b s d on

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

the newer stage of nuclear and automational technology.

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

mentioned. And we are informed that a great king, evidently

as 'nagara', the latter word being used to designate a large

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

village is described as belonging to the 'Tinisapadradvadasaka',

V.V. Mirashi, Inscriptions in the KaZachuri Chedi Era, pp. 608-09.

CENTURY AND .It.

hundred. The inscription which provides this information

Dhulia in West Khandesh appear as LSangamakhe~aka' and

VII, 28, 31, 32.

appears as 'Samipadraka' in an inscription of 706 A.C. and

Mirashi, op. cit., pp. 18, 82-3, 59-65.

AFTER A CENTURY A N D A QUARTER

their cultivated or cultivable fields were concerned, to be

measuring 12 'velis' or 80 acres. The Tanjore inscription

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

middling-plough. The third type drawn by four bullocks only

In Maharashtra till about the end of the 15th century,

AFT E R A CENTURY AND A 'QUARTER

is added after them the term 'mahattara'IjG.

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER:

anybody of the village concerned other than those mentioned

Muslim way of expressing the hierarchy and is a Urdu word.

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

77. Transactions of the Bombay Literary Society, Vol. ill (1823)

78. Ibid, pp. 197-203.

A FTE R A C E NTURY AND A QVARTER

honour of "Jami" (an incarnation of Bhowani) at marriages.

of travellers, but expected a present. "The skins of all sh~ep

AFTER A CENTURY AND A QUARTER

"a small quit-rent." Each of the hereditary families got forty

A CENTURY AND A QUART ER

AFTER A CENTURY A N D A QUARTE R

to exist even to the extent revealed by our investigation. This

OtCuPlfD 61' , iiI f'ItIAM'NoU

IIRtA OCCIlPIID IJr rHt """&. /J

::::: ARCA II'rlfH HOuJIl IN

Sf>fOP CUM /Ill/DINe,

;:: : 'OOT PAl,.,

LONIKAND: A GENERAL VIEW

ing in 1819 called it, is situated on a dry

Mahadeo, of Hanuman, and of Bhairav; and a Mahommedan

mencement of the rains; but water was always got by digging

with the nodules of the calcareous stone-not productive; 8)

Relea cd On. __ _