Kir.1—A cultivating caste found principally in the Hoshangabad District. They numbered about 7000 persons in 1911. The Kirs claim to have come from the Jaipur State, and this is borne out by the fact that they still retain a dialect of Marwari, though they have been living among the Hindi-speaking population of Hoshangabad for several generations. According to their traditions they immigrated into the Central Provinces when Raja Man was ruling at Jaipur. He was a contemporary of Akbar’s and died in A.D. 1615.2 This story tallies with Colonel Sleeman’s statement that the first important influx of Hindus into the Nerbudda valley took place in the time of Akbar.3 The Kirs are akin to the Kirars, and at the India Census of 1901 were amalgamated with them. Like the Kirars they claim to be descended from the mythical Raja Karan of Jaipur. Their story is that on a summer day Mahadeo and Parvati created a melon-garden, and Mahadeo made a man and a woman out of a piece of kusha grass (Eragrostis cynosuroides) to tend the garden. From these the Kirs are descended. The name may possibly be a corruption of karar, a river-bank.

The Kirs have no endogamous divisions. For the purpose of marriage the caste is divided into 12½ gotras or sections. A man must not marry within his own gotra or in that to which his mother belonged. The names of the 12 gotras are as follows: Namchuria, Daima, Bania, Baman, Nayar, Jat, Huwad, Gadri, Loharia, Hekdya, Mochi and Mali, while the half-gotra contains the Bhats or genealogists of the caste, who are not allowed to marry with the other subdivisions and have now formed one of their own. Of the twelve names of gotras at least seven—Baman (Brahman), Bania, Mali, Mochi, Gadri (Gadaria), Loharia and Jat—are derived from other castes, and this fact is sufficient to show that the origin of the Kirs is occupational, and that they are made up of recruits from different castes. Infant-marriage is customary, but no penalty is incurred if a girl remains unmarried after puberty. Only the poorest members of the caste, however, fail to marry their daughters at an early age. For the marriage of girls who are left unprovided for, a subscription is raised among the caste-fellows in accordance with the usual Hindu practice, the giving of money for this purpose being considered to be an especially pious act. At the time of the betrothal a bride-price called chari, varying between Rs. 14 and Rs. 20, is paid by the boy’s father, and the deed of betrothal, called lagan, is then drawn up in the presence of the caste panchayat who are regaled with liquor purchased out of the bride-price. A peculiarity of the marriage ceremony is that the bridegroom is taken to the bride’s house riding on a buffalo. This custom is noteworthy, since other Hindus will not usually ride on a buffalo, as being the animal on which Yama, the god of death, rides. After the marriage the bride returns to the bridegroom’s house with the wedding party and stays there for eight days, during which period she worships the family gods of her father-in-law’s house. The cost of the marriage is usually Rs. 60 for the boy’s party and Rs. 40 for the girl’s. But a widower on his remarriage has to spend double this sum. The ceremonies called Gauna and Rauna are both performed after the marriage. The former generally takes place within a year, the bride being dressed in special new clothes called bes, and sent with ceremony to her husband’s house on an auspicious day fixed by a Brahman. She remains there for two months and the marriage is consummated, when she returns to her father’s house. Four months afterwards the bridegroom again goes to fetch her and takes her away permanently, this being the Rauna ceremony. No social stigma attaches to polygamy, and divorce is allowed on the usual grounds. Widow-marriage is permitted, the ceremony consisting in giving new clothes and ornaments to the widow and feeding the Panch for a day.

The caste worships especially Bhairon and Devi, and each section of it reveres a special incarnation of Devi, and the Bhairon of some particular village. Thus, for instance, the Namchurias worship the goddess Parvati and the Bhairon of Jaria Gowara; the Bania, Nayar, Hekdya and Mochi septs worship Chamunda Mata and the Bhairon of Jaipur, and so on. Members of the caste get triangular, rectangular or round pieces of silver impressed with the images of these gods, and wear them suspended by a thread from their necks. A similar respect is paid to the Ahut or the spirit of a relative who has met with a violent death or died without progeny or as a bachelor, the spirits of such persons being always prone to trouble their living relatives. In order to appease them songs are sung in their praise on important festivals, the members of the family staying awake the whole night, and wearing their images on a silver piece round the neck. When they eat and drink they first touch the food with the image by way of offering it to the dead, so that their spirits may be appeased and refrain from harassing the living. Kirs revere and worship the cow and the pipal tree. No Kir may sell a cow to a butcher. A man who is about to die makes a present of a cow to a Brahman or a temple in order that by catching hold of the tail of this cow he may be able to cross the horrible river Vaitarni, the Styx of Hinduism, which bars the passage to the nether regions. The Kirs believe in magic, and some members of the caste profess to cure snake-bite. The poison-curer, when sent for, has a small space cleared and plastered with cowdung, on which he draws lines with wheat flour. A new earthen pot is then brought and placed over the drawing. On the pot the operator draws a figure of Hanuman in vermilion, and another figure on the nearest wall facing the pot. A brass plate is put over the pot and the person who has been bitten by the snake is brought near it. The snake-charmer then begins to name various gods and goddesses and to play upon the plate, which emits, it is said, a very melancholy sound. This performance is called bharni and is supposed to charm all beings, even gods and serpents. The snake who has inflicted the bite is then believed to appear in an invisible form to listen to the bharni, and to enter into the sufferer. The sufferer is questioned, being supposed to be possessed by the snake, and asked why the bite was inflicted and how the snake can be appeased. The replies are thought to be given by the snake, who explains that he was trampled on, or something to that effect, and asks that milk or some sweet-smelling article be placed at his hole. The offering is promised, and the snake is asked not to kill the sufferer, to which he agrees. The snake usually gives the history of his former human birth, stating his name and village and the cause of his transmigration into the body of a serpent. The Kirs believe that human beings who commit offences are re-born as snakes, and they think that snakes live for a thousand years. After giving this information the snake departs, and the person who has been bitten is supposed to recover. The chief festivals of the Kirs are Diwali and Sitala Athain. They worship their ancestors at Diwali, making offerings of cooked food, kusha grass and lamps made of dough at the river-side. The head of the family sprinkles water and throws the kusha grass into the river, lights the wicks placed in the lamps and burns a little food in them, calling on the names of his ancestors. The rest of the food he takes home and distributes to his caste-fellows. Sitala Athain is observed on the seventh day of the dark fortnight of Chait. Devi is worshipped at night with offerings of milk and whey, and on the next day no food is cooked, the remains of that of the previous day being eaten cold, and the whole day is devoted to singing the praises of the goddess.

The Kirs usually burn their dead, but children under twelve are buried. The ashes and bones are either sent to the Ganges or consigned to the nearest river or lake. Children have only one name, which is given on the seventh day after birth by a Brahman. During the birth ceremony the husband’s younger brother catches hold of the skirt of the child’s mother, who on this pays him a few pice and pulls away her cloth. If this custom has any meaning it is apparently in symbolical memory of polyandry, the women bribing her husband’s younger brother so that he may not claim the child as his own.

The Kirs do not take food from any caste except the Dadharia Brahmans, who are Marwaris, and act as their family priests. Brahmans and other high castes will drink water brought in a brass vessel by a Kir. The Kirs eat no meat except goats’ flesh and fish, but are much addicted to liquor, which is always conspicuous at their feasts and festivals. They have a caste panchayat, which deals with the ordinary offences. Temporary excommunication is removed by the offender giving three feasts, on which an amount varying with his social position and means must be expended. The first of these is eaten on a river-bank, the second in a garden, and the third, which confers complete readmission to caste intercourse, in the offender’s house. The Kirs live along river-banks, where they grow melons in the sand and castor and vegetables in alluvial soil. They are considered very skilful at raising these crops, and fully appreciate the use of manure. For their own consumption they usually grow bajra and arhar, being, like all Marwaris, very fond of bajra. The members of the caste are easily distinguished by their dress, the men wearing a white mirzai or short coat, a dhoti reaching to the knees, and a head-cloth placed in a crooked position on the head, so as to leave the hair of the scalp uncovered. They wear necklaces of black wooden beads, besides the images of Bhairon and Devi. The women wear Jaipur chunris or over-cloths and ghanghras or skirts. They have red lac bangles on their wrists and arms above the elbow, and ornaments called ramjhul on their legs. The women have a gait like that of men. The speech of the Kirs sounds like Marwari, and they are peculiar in their preference for riding on buffaloes.