lled
tank-builders, though perhaps hardly equal to the Kohlis of Chanda. But
they excel especially in the mending and levelling of their fields,
in neat transplantation, and in the choice and adaptation of the
different varieties of rice to land of varying qualities. They are
by no means specially efficient as labourers, though they and their
wives do their fair share of field work; but they are well able to
control the labour of others, especially of aborigines, through whom
most of their tank and other works are executed."

Pardhan

List of Paragraphs

1. _General notice_.
2. _Tribal subdivisions_.
3. _Marriage_.
4. _Religion_.
5. _Social customs_.
6. _Methods of cheating among Patharis_.
7. _Musicians and priests_.

1. General notice

_Pardhan, Pathari, Panal._--An inferior branch of the Gond tribe whose
occupation is to act as the priests and minstrels of the Gonds. In
1911 the Pardhans numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central
Provinces and Berar. The only other locality where they are found is
Hyderabad, which returned 8000. The name Pardhan is of Sanskrit origin
and signifies a minister or agent. It is the regular designation of the
principal minister of a Rajput State, who often fulfils the functions
of a Mayor of the Palace. That it was applied to the tribe in this
sense is shown by the fact that they are also known as Diwan, which
has the same meaning. There is a tradition that the Gond kings employed
Pardhans as their ministers, and as the Pardhans acted as genealogists
they may have been more intelligent than the Gonds, though they are
in no degree less illiterate. To themselves and their Gond relations
the Pardhans are frequently not known by that name, which has been
given to them by the Hindus, but as Panal. Other names for the tribe
are Parganiha, Desai and Pathari. Parganiha is a title signifying the
head of a _pargana_, and is now applied by courtesy to some families
in Chhattisgarh. Desai has the same signification, being a variant
of Deshmukh or the Maratha revenue officer in charge of a circle of
villages. Pathari means a bard or genealogist, or according to another
derivation a hillman. On the Satpura plateau and in Chhattisgarh the
tribe is known as Pardhan Patharia. In Balaghat they are also called
Mokasi. The Gonds themselves look down on the Pardhans and say that
the word Patharia means inferior, and they relate that Bura Deo, their