The Ganda or Panka are Kabirpanthi, or fol lowers of Kabir, who is said to have appeared in the weaver caste, in the same country and at the same time as Rai Das, both being disciples of Ramanand, and their doctrines being similar in many respects. Though they cultivate the land, they are not generally esteemed as cultivators, while the few villages they hold as landholders are miserable in the extreme.
The Kanwor are usually looked upon as ab origines, and though their appearance and their preference for the jungles to the cultivated tracts, zia well as their abstinence from Hindu observ ances, would seem to point to this opinion, there is also some ground for supposing them to be Rajputs who settled in early times anioug the hills of the Vindliyan range, and eo failed in be coming Ilindnized like other warlike immigrants. They have always made a claim, though in a half hearted way, to be considered as Rajputs connected with the 'I'uar tribe of the north-west, and their claim has certainly been recognised in ono instance, as the first Kanwar chief of Narra received his estate as a dowry with the daughter of the Rajput chief of Khariar. The warlike traditions of the race are preserved in their worship of Jhagra Kand or Jbagra Kandlia, under the form of a sword, a form of worship not uncommon among Rajput tribes, and recalling to mind the sword which was the national deity of the Hun under Attila. The Kanwar of the present day are most peaceable and quiet, and when once fairly settled in a cultivated country, are industrious and good cultivators and la.ndlords. In the jungles they have conformed generally to the customs of their neighbours, and worship Dula Deo and 13urha Deo, as the Gond race also do ; and they always seem to be ready to take up with the belief of those about them, though all of thetn, except the richer classes, who wish to be considered good Hindus, avoid Brahmans. They bury their dead, and marriages are performed before the elders of the village.
The Halba are immigrants from the south, and their principal colony is in the south-west, where they hold thirty-seven flourishing villages. They
gain their living chiefly by distilling spirit, and worship deified distillers, at the head of whom is Bahadur Kalal. They are, next to the Teli, the best eulivators; except in the jungles, they have generally become Hinduized. All that is neces sary for a good Halba is that he should sacrifice once in his life three goats and a pig,—one to each of the national deities, called Narayan Gosain, Burha Deo, Sati, and Ratna.
In the jungles also the old religion of the Gond tribe is disappearing, and while all the Gond worship Burha Deo and Dula Deo, the latter being the household god, they know little of Pauritola or Karitola, Barangasura, and Gumartola, who with Burha Deo form the distinctive gods of the Dhur Gond, to which-tribe most of the Chlattis garh Gond belong. They are all intensely super stitious, and worship local deities assiduously ; though, except in the jungles, the Baiga or village priest, whose business it is to propitiate the evil spirits of the neighbourhood, is as often as not a kewat, Teli, or Aliir, as a Gond.
The other aboriginal tribes are the Tlinjwar, Bhunjiya, Saonra, Nahar, and Kamar ; of these the Binjwar are allied to the Baiga, who are found in the Mandla district. They chiefly live in the north-east of Raipur, and occasionally cultivate. The Bliunjiya are comparatively numerous all through the cast of the district, and are particu larly so in the Kliariar and Bindm Nawagarh zamindaries, where they hold a good many fairly cultivated villages. The Saonra use only game. All these jungle tribes secin to have conic from Orissa, and their dialects are all akin to Uriya. Except the Saonra, they all gain their livelihood more by collecting jungle produce than cultivation.
The Behlar of Uriya aro tank-diggers by pro fession, and Are 1111 under the command of • chit f ca.11ed A jemadar, who bolls three village' In the district. Under the jeinailar are a nutillssr of each of whom has the commarul of • gang. 'I. hese gangs have no settled home, but go wander ing about the district wherever they can gct work. —Imp. Gra.; Central l'rorinees Gazetteer.