Identifier: tribescastesofce04russ (find matches)
Title: The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane), 1873-1915
Subjects: Ethnology -- India Madhya Pradesh Caste -- India Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (India) -- Religion
Publisher: London : Macmillan and Co., limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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hite cloth with no colour in it, as this is thedress of widows. A white cloth with a coloured border maybe worn. The men generally wear shoes which are openat the back of the heel, and clatter as they move along.Women do not, as a rule, wear shoes unless these arenecessary for field work, or if they go out just after theirconfinement. But they have now begun to do so in towns.Women have the usual collection of ornaments on all partsof the person. The head ornaments should be of goldwhen this metal can be afforded. On the finger they havea miniature mirror set in a ring ; as a rule not more thanone ring is worn, so that the hands may be free for work.For a similar reason glass bangles, being fragile, are wornonly on the left wrist and metal ones on the right. But theDhanoje Kunbis, as already stated, have cocoanut shellbangles on both wrists. They smear a mark of red powderon the forehead or have a spangle there. Girls are generallytattooed in childhood when the skin is tender, and the
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II THE KUNBI AS CULTIVATOR 47 operation is consequently less painful. They usually havea small crescent and circle between the brows, small circlesor dots on each temple and on the nose, cheeks and chin,and five small marks on the back of the hands to representflies. Some of the Deshmukh families have now adoptedthe sacred thread ; they also put caste marks on the fore-head, and wear the shape of pagri or turban formerly dis-tinctive of Maratha Brahmans. The Kunbi has the stolidity, conservative instincts, 23. Thedulness and patience of the typical agriculturist. Sir R. cultivator.Craddock describes him as follows : ^ Of the purely agri-cultural classes the Kunbis claim first notice. They aredivided into several sections or classes, and are of Marathaorigin, the Jhari Kunbis (the Kunbis of the wild country)being the oldest settlers, and the Deshkar (the Kunbis fromthe Deccan) the most recent. The Kunbi is certainly amost plodding, patient mortal, with a cat-like affection forhis land,

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