LALBEG

Lalbeg, Who is still more widely venerated, is considered to have been Ghazi Miyan, the nephew of sultan Muhammad of Ghazni, and a saint much worshipped in the Punjab. Many legends are told of Lalbeg, and his worship is described by Mr. Greeven as Follows: “The ritual of Lalbeg is conducted in the presence of the whole brotherhood, as a ruled at the festival of the diwali and on the other occasion when the special business arises. The time for the worship is after sunset and if possible at midnight, His shrine consists of a mud platform surround by steps, with four titles turrets at the corners and a spire in the center, in which is placed a lamp filled with a clarified butter and containing a wick of twisted tow. Incense in thrown into the flame and offerings of cakes and sweetmeats are made. A lighted huqqa is places before the altar and as soon as the smoke rises it is understood that whiff have been drawn by the hero”. A Cock is offered to Lalbeg at the Dusehra Festival.

INTRODUCTORY : In this Province (India) they generally confine themselves to their hereditary occupation of scavenging, and are rarely met with outside the town and large village.

 The Present sweeper caste is made up of diverse elements, and the name Mehtar, generally applied to it, is a title meaning a prince or leader. Its application to the caste, the most object and desplised in the hindu community, is a perhaps partly ironical; but all the low caste have honorific titles, Which are used as a method of address either from ordinary politeness or by those requiring some services.

The regular caste of sweepers in northern India are bhangies, whose name is drived by Mr. Crooke from Sanskrit bhanga, hemp, in allusion to drunken habit of the caste.

In Mr. Greeven’s account also, Lalbeg, the patron saint of the sweeper, is described as intoxicated with the hemp drug.

CASTE SUB DIVISION : Mr. Greeven gives seven main subdivisions, of which the Lalbegis or the followers of  Lalbeg, the patron saint of sweepers, are the most important. The Rawats appear to be an aristocratic subdivision of the Lalbegis, their name being a corruption of the Sanskrit Rajputra, a prince. The Shaikh Mehtars are only real Muhammadan branch, for though the Lalbegis worship a musalman saint they remain Hindu.

The Lalbegis are often considered here as Muhammadans rather than hindus and bury their dea. In Saugor the sweepers are said to be devided into Lalbegis or Muhammadans and Doms or Hindus. The Lalbegis, Dom or Dumar and the hela are the principal subcastes of the north of the Province, and Chuhra Mehtars are found in Chhattisgarh.

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION: The Lalbegis sweepers have eight companies or berhas, consisting of the sweepers working in different localities; these are the sadar, or those employed by private resident in cantnments; the kali paltan, who serve the Bengal Infantry ; the Lal Kurti, or Red coast, Who are employed by British Infantry; the Teshan (station), or those engaged at three railway stations of the town; the shahar, or those of the city; the ramnagar, taking their name from the residence of the maharaja of Benares, Whom they serve; the kothiwal, or Bunalow men, who belong to residents in the civil lines; and lastly the General, Who are the descendants of the sweepers employed at the military head-quarters when Benares was commanded by a General of Division.