The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India,...

Malyār.58—A small and curious caste of workers in gold and silver in Bastar State. They are known alternatively as Marhātia Sunār or Panchāl, and outsiders call them Adhāli. The name Malyār is said to be derived from mal, dirt, and jār or jālna, to burn, the Malyārs having originally been employed by Sunārs or goldsmiths to clean and polish their ornaments. No doubt can be entertained that the Malyārs are in reality Gonds, as they have a set of exogamous septs all of which belong to the Gonds, and have Gondi names. So far as possible, however, they try to disguise this fact and perform their marriages by walking round the sacred post like the Hindustāni castes. They will take food cooked without water from Brāhmans, Rājpūts and Banias, but will not eat katcha (or food cooked with water) from anybody, and not even from members of their own caste unless they are relatives. This custom is common to some other castes of mixed descent, and indicates that illicit connections are frequent among the Malyārs, as indeed would necessarily be the case owing to the paucity of their numbers. But their memories are short, and the offspring of such irregular unions are recognised as belonging to the caste after one or two generations. An outsider belonging to any higher caste may be admitted to the community. The caste worship Māta Devi or the goddess of smallpox, and revere the spirit of a Malyār woman who became a Sati. They have learned as servants of the Sunārs the rudiments of their art, and manufacture rough ornaments for the primitive people of Bastar.

Mangan.59—A small caste found in Chhattīsgarh and Sambalpur who are the musicians and genealogists of the Ghasias. The term is considered opprobrious, as it means ‘beggar,’ and many Mangans probably return themselves as Ghasias. They are despised by the Ghasias, who will not take food or water from them. At the marriages of the former the Mangans play on a drum called ghunghru, which they consider as the badge of the caste, their cattle being branded with a representation of it. The only point worth notice about the caste is that they are admittedly of mixed descent from the unions of members of other castes with Ghasia prostitutes. They have five totemistic exogamous sections, about each of which a song is sung relating its origin. The Sunāni sept, which worships gold as its totem and occupies the highest position, is said to be descended from a Brāhman father and a Ghasia mother; the Sendaria sept, worshipping vermilion, from a Kewat ancestor and a Ghasia woman; the Bhainsa sept, worshipping a buffalo, from a Gaur or Ahīr and a Ghasia; the Mahānadia sept, having the Mahānadi for their totem, from a Gond and a Ghasia woman; while the Bāgh sept, who revere the tiger, say that a cow once gave birth to two young, one in the form of a tiger and the other of a human being; the latter on growing up took a Ghasia woman to himself and became the ancestor of the sept. As might be expected from their ancestry, the Mangan women are generally of loose character. The Mangans sometimes act as sweepers.