god, had seven sons. These were talking together one day as they dined
and they said that every caste had an inferior branch to do it homage,
but they had none; and they therefore agreed that the youngest brother
and his descendants should be inferior to the others and make obeisance
to them, while the others promised to treat him almost as their equal
and give him a share in all the offerings to the dead. The Pardhans or
Patharias are the descendants of the youngest brother and they accost
the Gonds with the greeting 'Babu Johar,' or 'Good luck, sir.' The
Gonds return the greeting by saying 'Pathari Johar,' or 'How do you
do, Pathari.' Curiously enough Johar is also the salutation sent by
a Rajput chief to an inferior landholder, [400] and the custom must
apparently have been imitated by the Gonds. A variant of the story
is that one day the seven Gond brothers were worshipping their god,
but he did not make his appearance; so the youngest of them made a
musical instrument out of a string and a piece of wood and played on
it. The god was pleased with the music and came down to be worshipped,
and hence the Pardhans as the descendants of the youngest brother
continue to play on the _kingri_ or lyre, which is their distinctive
instrument. The above stories have been invented to account for the
social inferiority of the Pardhans to the Gonds, but their position
merely accords with the general rule that the bards and genealogists
of any caste are a degraded section. The fact is somewhat contrary
to preconceived ideas, but the explanation given of it is that such
persons make their living by begging from the remainder of the caste
and hence are naturally looked down upon by them; and further, that in
pursuit of their calling they wander about to attend at wedding feasts
all over the country, and consequently take food with many people of
doubtful social position. This seems a reasonable interpretation of
the rule of the inferiority of the bard, which at any rate obtains
generally among the Hindu castes.

2. Tribal Subdivisions

The tribe have several endogamous divisions, of which the principal are
the Raj Pardhans, the Ganda Pardhans and the Thothia Pardhans. The
Raj Pardhans appear to be the descendants of alliances between
Raj Gonds and Pardhan women. They say that formerly the priests of
Bura Deo lived a celibate life, and both men and women attended to
worship the god; but on one occasion the priests ran away with