irls generally
wear skirts instead of _saris_ or cloths folding between the legs;
they also must not wear toe-rings. Women of the Panwar subcaste wear
glass bangles on the left hand, and brass ones on the right. All
women are tattooed. They both burn and bury the dead, placing the
corpse on the pyre with its head to the south or west, and in Wardha
to the north. Here they have a peculiar custom as regards mourning,
which is observed only till the next Monday or Thursday whichever
falls first. Thus the period of mourning may extend from one to four
days. The Bhoyars are considered in Wardha to be more than ordinarily
timid, and also to be considerable simpletons, while they stand in much
awe of Government officials, and consider it a great misfortune to be
brought into a court of justice. Very few of them can read and write.

Bhuiya

List of Paragraphs

1. _The tribe and its name._
2. _Distribution of the tribe._
3. _Example of the position of the aborigines in Hindu society._
4. _The Bhuiyas a Kolarian tribe._
5. _The Baigas and the Bhuiyas. Chhattisgarh the home of the Baigas._
6. _The Baigas a branch of the Bhuiyas._
7. _Tribal subdivisions._
8. _Exogamous septs._
9. _Marriage customs._
10. _Widow-marriage and divorce._
11. _Religion._
12. _Religious dancing._
13. _Funeral rites and inheritance._
14. _Physical appearance and occupation._
15. _Social customs._

1. The tribe and its name.

_Bhuiya, Bhuinhar, Bhumia._ [360]--The name of a very important tribe
of Chota Nagpur, Bengal and Orissa. The Bhuiyas numbered more than
22,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, being mainly found
in the Sarguja and Jashpur States. In Bengal and Bihar the Bhuiyas
proper count about half a million persons, while the Musahar and
Khandait castes, both of whom are mainly derived from the Bhuiyas,
total together well over a million.

The name Bhuiya means 'Lord of the soil,' or 'Belonging to the soil,'
and is a Sanskrit derivative. The tribe have completely forgotten
their original name, and adopted this designation conferred on them
by the immigrant Aryans. The term Bhuiya, however, is also employed
by other tribes and by some Hindus as a title for landholders, being
practically equivalent to zamindar. And hence a certain confusion
arises, and classes or individuals may have the name of Bhuiya without
belonging to the tribe at all. "In most parts of Chota Nagpur,"
Sir H. Risley says, "