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

Bahelia.—The caste of fowlers and hunters in northern India. In the Central Provinces the Bahelias are not to be distinguished from the Pārdhis, as they have the same set of exogamous groups named after the Rājpūt clans, and resemble them in all other respects. The word Bahelia is derived from the Sanskrit Vyādha, ‘one who pierces or wounds,’ hence a hunter. Pārdhi is derived from the Marāthī pāradh, hunting. The latter term is more commonly used in the Central Provinces, and has therefore been chosen as the title of the article on the caste.

Bahrūpia.—A small class of mendicant actors and quick-change artists. They are recruited from all classes of the population, and though a distinct caste of Bahrūpias appears to exist, people of various castes also call themselves Bahrūpia when they take to this occupation. In Berār the Mahār, Māng and Marātha divisions of the Bahrūpias are the most common:7 the former two begging only from the castes from which they take their name. In Gujarāt they appear to be principally Muhammadans. Sir D. Ibbetson says of them:8 “The name is derived from the Sanskrit bahu, many, and rūpa, form, and denotes an actor, a mimic or one who assumes many forms or characters. One of their favourite devices is to ask for money, and when it is refused to ask that it may be given if the Bahrūpia succeeds in deceiving the person who refused it. Some days later the Bahrūpia will again visit the house in the disguise of a pedlar, a milkman or what not, sell his goods without being detected, throw off his disguise and claim the stipulated reward.” In Gujarāt “they are ventriloquists and actors with a special skill of dressing one side of their face like a man and the other side like a woman, and moving their head about so sharply that they seem to be two persons.”9 Mr. Kitts states that “the men are by profession story-tellers and mimics, imitating the voices of men and the notes of animals; their male children are also trained to dance.

In payment for their entertainment they are frequently content with cast-off clothes, which will of course be of use to them in assuming other characters.”10 Occasionally also they dress up in European clothes and can successfully assume the character of a Eurasian.