1835.] Stevenson^ s account of the P^hansigars. 255 



III. — Some account of the P^hansigdrs, or Gang- 

 robbers, and of the SJiudgarshids, or Tribe of Jug- 

 glers, by James Arthur Robert Stevenson, Esq^ 

 of the Madras Civil Service. — f Communicated by 

 the Bombay Branch Royal Asiatic Society.) 

 Read 1st of February, 1834. 

 (Extracted from the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Soci- 

 ety, Vol. 1. page 280.) 

 The P'hansigdrs^ are a tribe of, perhaps, the most deli- 

 berate and decided villains that stain the face of the earth, 

 I hardly know whether the)^ should be called a tribe, for 

 they have no distinct religion or prejudices : they admit 

 into their fraternity persons of all castes and persuasions ; 

 and the gangs which are found in different parts of the 

 country appear to have no general knowledge of, or con- 

 nexion with, each other, further than the diabolical com- 

 pact existing among a few of the members who may at 

 any period have acted in concert in their trade of villany. 

 The following few particulars I gathered from the exa- 

 mination of part of a large gang which inhabited a vil- 

 lage on the western frontier of the Nizams country, not 

 very far from Bijapur. 



The number of males in this troop amounted to about 

 sixty, almost all of whom had families and houses in 

 Dudgi, which they considered as their head-quarters. 

 They were subject to two ndiks, or chiefs, who planned 

 their expeditions, and regulated the division of booty, 

 being themselves entitled to a double share : they were 

 also responsible to the pattel, or head of the village, for 

 the payment of a regular tribute, the price of his protec- 

 tion and silence. The greatest proportion of this gang 

 were Muhammedans ; but there were among them Ra- 

 japuts, and other castes. Their ostensible employment 

 was agriculture and daily labour ; but their only actual 

 means of subsistence was the plunder obtained by the 



* From the Hindustani word Phdm'i, a uoc^e, 



