hils or those of pure
aboriginal descent, and all castes would take water from them. [318]
But as Hinduism came to be more orthodox in Rajputana, the Bhils
sank to the position of outcastes. Their custom of eating beef had
always caused them to be much despised. A tradition is related that
one day the god Mahadeo or Siva, sick and unhappy, was reclining in a
shady forest when a beautiful woman appeared, the first sight of whom
effected a cure of all his complaints. An intercourse between the
god and the strange female was established, the result of which was
many children; one of whom, from infancy distinguished alike by his
ugliness and vice, slew the favourite bull of Mahadeo, for which crime
he was expelled to the woods and mountains, and his descendants have
ever since been stigmatised by the names of Bhil and Nishada. [319]
Nishada is a term of contempt applied to the lowest outcastes. Major
Hendley, writing in 1875, states: "Some time since a Thakur (chief)
cut off the legs of two Bhils, eaters of the sacred cow, and plunged
the stumps into boiling oil." [320] When the Marathas began to occupy
Central India they treated the Bhils with great cruelty. A Bhil caught
in a disturbed part of the country was without inquiry flogged and
hanged. Hundreds were thrown over high cliffs, and large bodies of
them, assembled under promise of pardon, were beheaded or blown from
guns. Their women were mutilated or smothered by smoke, and their
children smashed to death against the stones. [321] This treatment may
to some extent have been deserved owing to the predatory habits and
cruelty of the Bhils, but its result was to make them utter savages
with their hand against every man, as they believed that every one's
was against them. From their strongholds in the hills they laid waste
the plain country, holding villages and towns to ransom and driving off
cattle; nor did any travellers pass with impunity through the hills
except in convoys too large to be attacked. In Khandesh, during the
disturbed period of the wars of Sindhia and Holkar, about A.D. 1800,
the Bhils betook themselves to highway robbery and lived in bands
either in mountains or in villages immediately beneath them. The
revenue contractors were unable or unwilling to spend money in the
maintenance of soldiers to protect the country, and the Bhils in a very
short time became so bold as to appear in bands of hundreds and attack
towns, carrying off either cattle or hostag