THE RELIGION AND CUSTOMS OF THE URA.ONS. 157 



authority of any given man does not reach beyond the limits of his own village. The only 

 organization to safeguard the customs of the tribe is a general panchayat of chief men 

 of a group of villages This takes place very seldom, and only when a man has to be 

 ejected from the tribe or readmitted into it. 



The following are the offences for which the punishment is expulsion from the 

 tribe : — 



(i) Eating cooked rice with any man not belonging to the tribe, or eating rice 

 cooked by anyone but a member of the tribe. 



(2) Sexual intercourse with any member of any other caste. 



(3) Drinking water, rice-beer or eating bread with any member of caste or tribe 



with whom it is forbidden to do so. 



They are allowed to drink water and rice-beer with all the aboriginal and semi-abori- 

 ginal tribes except theTuris. They can also eat bread and meat with them, provided they 

 be cooked in a vessel that has not been used previously for cooking rice or curry vege- 

 tables. There is no restriction on eating or smoking tobacco with anyone. They lose 

 their caste by drinking water with Lohars, Ghasis, Turis, Chamars, Dusadhs. 



The readmission into the caste is the work of the kartaha. His office is hereditary. 

 There are three or four of them in every district. 



When a man has been ejected from the tribe for one of the offences mentioned above, 

 and wishes to be readmitted, he goes to the kartaha who fixes a day for the panchayat. 

 On the appointed day all the chief men of the surrounding villages are summoned to 

 attend at the meeting. They all assemble at the village of the delinquent and form a 

 great committee with the kartaha at their head. They discuss the question, weigh the 

 fault of the man, and settle how much he has to pay and give. This depends on the 

 fault committed and on the means of the guilty man. The penalty is always a very 

 heavy one for poor people. He has first to feed all the members of panchayat and the 

 whole village for one day and a half. Of course, everybody makes the most of the oppor- 

 tunity, and they are not satisfied with a dry meal with rice and meat, but they must be 

 well supplied also with plenty of rice-beer. The least the kartaha takes for his remu- 

 neration is Rs. 10. A white goat is sacrified to Dharmes, and the guilty man has to drink 

 some of its blood to wash away the stain of his sin. At the last common meal he is 

 called, and if he has done everything to the satisfaction of the panchayat, he is allowed to 

 sit and eat with everyone, not, however, before getting a sound admonition from the 

 kartaha. 



The Panch. — In every village there is a kind of administration which, however, is far 

 from being the same everywhere. In its most ancient form it consists of: (1) The panch ; 

 (2) The munda ; (3) The pahan ; (4) The mahto. Where this form exists the people are 

 divided into three khunts — the pahan khunt, the mahto khunt, and the munda khunt. The 

 panch or panchayat : According to the etymology of the word this should be composed 

 of five members only, but in practice the panch is the whole community represented 

 by its eldest members. A panchayat is an assembly of the panch or the eldest 

 people of the village to discuss a question or settle difficulties that arise in the 



