Mewar as Focus of Guhila State (Part-XXI)
Recognition of the Bhils as indispensable forest-guards can be seen in the collection of a levy called rakhwâli for the protection of the travellers by local, Bhil and Rajput bhumia. — Prof. Nandini Kapur Sinha
The estate of Oghna in Mewar is described as the ‘sole spot in India’ which enjoyed a state of natural freedom. ‘Attached to no state, having no foreign communication, it lived under its own head, a chief with the title of rana, head of five thousand bows. Anthropologists like Robert Deliege seem to have taken this description literally. He observes that since many of the Bhils and Bhilâlâ chiefs are described as bhumiâs or girâsiâs (derived from girâs, subsistence/a share of the produce of the land) in the literature, the Bhil regions did not actually constitute the normal territories of the râjâs but enjoyed independence even as they paid tribute. However, I find such an interpretation highly questionable. It is important to note that not only the Bhils but many Rajputs of Mewar too enjoyed the status of bhumia and girâsiä. Girâsiâ are known to have supplied regular troops to the state while the bhumiâs rendered local, administrative service and paid an annual quit-rent on their estates to the state. The crucial issue of tribe and state does not hinge around the direct annexation of tribal territories, but their political incorporation into the state. Their incorporation not only accelerated the process of territorial integration and consolidated state power in Bhomat but also mobilized manpower for the state from within the limits of at least Oghna Panarwa and Undri (the Bhil chiefs of these regions were associated with the coronation ceremonies of the ranâs).
The strategic importance of the Bhomat country for the state of Mewar has already been noted. The link routes connecting Chittaur-Malwa to the arterial route down the Palanpur gap in Gujarat-Sirohi passed through Bhomat country. Hills and forests tend to restrict the capacity of governments to move humans and goods. The Bhil chiefs of the core-area, once integrated, were expected to facilitate communications throughout Bhil-country because they were guarding the forests, caves, passes and hill routes. They could also function as buffers between the nucleus of the state and the rest of the Bhil population of Bhomat. The fact that local Bhils were always valuable as forest-guides is evident from names popular amongst them such as banaputras (the children of the forest), Mairote (born of mountain), Goind (lord of the caves) and Pål Indra (lord of the pass). Recognition of the Bhils as indispensable forest-guards can be seen in the collection of a levy called rakhwâli for the protection of the travellers by local, Bhil and Rajput bhumia and girâsia chiefs in their domination in the latter medieval period. However, the beginnings of this process can certainly be dated back to the period between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The Bhil chiefs in the centre possibly established links with the gametis (village headman) of the päls (villages of Bhils) in territories beyond their jurisdiction. The institution of the gameti was an old feature of the pals. ‘The institution, however, is indigenous to the tribe, and it carries with it a considerable amount of prestige and importance, besides financial rewards. The gradual incorporation of the Bhil pals and the administrative service rendered by the Bhil gametis is evident from late medieval records of Mewar. The Dhulev bhandar of files and bahis (registers) along with an early nineteenth-century inscription reveal some of the traditional duties of the Bhil gametis of Magra locality in Mewar. Magra is another Bhil locality in the Mewar hills, away from the Oghna-Panarwa-Undri belt. These records disclose that the ranks of gameti and girâsiâ were once again bestowed on the former gameti and giräsiä of village Bilak and pal Bilak enabling them to execute some of the magisterial powers and police duties. Mobilization of the Bhils from Oghna-Panarwa and Undri for construction work on fortresses, roads and temporary bridges seems to have been the other important requirements.
Mobilization of miners at least from the local Bhil population continued to be an important aspect of state-tribe relationship. The following quotation from Old World Archaeometry gives idea of mining at Zawar:
The intensive process of mining activities specially at Zawar dated back to twelfth century. At Zawar, by the AD 12th century zinc was being produced industrially. Already in the late 14th century, production was on a considerable scale, and perhaps it is not surprising that the first direct historical reference to Zawar occurs in AD 1380 when Rana Lakshasimha was credited with founding of the mines. Production continued on a major scale for about four centuries before ending during the wars and famine which plagued Rajasthan in the early 19th century, and in the face of western competition. Ironically, the western technology was almost certainly derived from Zawar.
The celebration of the worship of Zawarmâtâ among the Bhils is a theme of Bhil folksongs and testifies to their long association with the Zawar mines. The local Bhils also seem to have continued to supply the fuel to the Zawar mines. It is evident from the discovery of charcoal retort dumps (smelting) at Zawar particularly, between the early eleventh and the seventeenth centuries.
As noted in Chapter I, charcoal preparation has been one of the major economic pursuits of the majority of the Bhils engaged in non-agricultural activities. If the mahâjanas were the entrepreneurs at early medieval Aranyakûpagiri, the social group possibly involved in the organization of mining activities in fifteenth-century Zawar is likely to be the Jains. Archaeological and inscriptional evidence points to the presence of elite Jain families in Zawar in the fifteenth century. Today, remains of a number of Jain temples of the fourteenth-fifteenth century stand scattered in and around Zawar. The Zawar Jain Temple Inscription of AD 1421 recording the building of the Säntinâtha temple at Zawar by a family of merchants attests to the long association of Jains with the Zawar mines. This association evidently had an economic basis since excavations indicate intensive mining activities at this centre of the zinc-lead concentrates, especially from the twelfth century onwards. The Jain merchants must have been involved in the entrepreneurship that went into the regular organization of mining and in the marketing of its products, both raw materials and manufactured zinc, from the local workshops. Thus, they are likely to have entered into negotiations with local Bhil chiefs to mobilize labour. Like in Aranyakûpagiri, the presence of Jain merchants and Jain temples seem to have laid the foundation for the emergence of an exchange centre in Zawar by the beginning of the fifteenth century.
To be continued ...
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