Chaubes

The name Chaube is a dialectical variant of Chaturvedi (knower of the four Vedas), a name, it is claimed, Lord Krishna himself bestowed upon this Brahman community. Today one can most easily meet Chaubes at Vishram Ghat on the banks of the river Jamuna where they wait for and administer to pilgrims taking sin-cleansing baths in the river. Their association with this river is so intimate that they call themselves sons of goddess Jamuna (Jamuna ke putra), the river itself being one form of the goddess (Lynch 1988).

Chaubes trace their origins at least as far back as the first Hindu mythological age, the Satya Yuga, when, it is said, they were born from the sweat of the god, Lord Vishnu in his incarnation as a boar (Y. K. Caturvedi 1968:25). As the Chaubcs tell it, their history is filled with incidents giving evidence of, as well as providing models of and for, their mast character.^[3] For example, one day Krishna and his cowherd friends were out playing. Krishna felt hungry and sent his friends in quest of food from the Chaubes. The

Chaube men, however, were busy in offering sacrifices (yajnas^[*]) and were not to be disturbed even at Krishna's request. When the Chaube women noticed this, they rushed out with sweets, curd, and food for Krishna and his playmates (V. K. Caturvedi, n.d.). In gratitude, Krishna promised that from that time forward the Chaube women would be renowned for their fair-skinned beauty, as indeed they are, and the Chaube men would control pilgrimage in the Braj area, as they do.^[4] In telling the story Chaubes gleefully point out that none but a proud Chaube would have the cheeky mast to ignore Krishna's hunger and thirst.

One of Mathura's great festivals is Kans Mela, or the Festival of Kans's Destruction (Kams^[*] Vadh ka Mela), in the fall of every year.^[5] Kans was Krishna's wicked uncle who tried to slay him as a newborn child because it had been prophesied that Krishna would grow up to kill him. After miraculously escaping his uncle's sword, Krishna grew up to fulfill the prophecy by displaying amazing skills as a warrior, particularly a wrestler, and liberated the people of Mathura from his uncle's demonic rule. The public celebration of this event in Mathura remains a Chaube monopoly. Two young Chaube men arc dressed as Krishna and his brother Balaram. Then, they arc paraded on an elephant to Kans Tila to meet Kans, an elaborate effigy in paper on a wooden frame. After Kans's head is severed from his body, the head is mocked and paraded through the Chhata Bazaar area of the city. Just outside of Vishram Ghat at a place called Kans Khar, Chaube young men wielding heavy wooden staffs (saunta^[*]) beat the severed head until it is pulverized confetti. In this violent event Chaubes publicly and symbolically align themselves with Krishna as both the protectors, if not owners, of the city and its most ancient citizens. The agonistic display is not lost upon others; Chaubes arc a dominant presence in the city and arc dealt with cautiously. Like Krishna, they have a reputation for being tough fighters and skilled wrestlers.

Other legends tell of how their masti, their carefree courage, helped them become the dominant pilgrimage priests in Mathura city and district. One day the Moghul emperor Akbar, it is said, sailed by Mathura on the river Jamuna. He saw some strange people gathered at Vishram Ghat and wondered who they were, what they did, and why they gathered there. He summoned the people to him, but only one, Ujagar Chaube, had the courage to get in a boat and row out to meet the emperor. Ujagar Chaube told Akbar that Mathura was the birthplace of Krishna and that Vishram Ghat was a sacred bathing spot. Akbar put in the palm of Ujagar Chaube's hand a single cowry shell, as a dana (pious offering). When Ujagar Chaube arrived back at Vishram Ghat, the other Chaubes asked him to open his fist and, as was the custom, to share the emperor's gift with them. He refused. The other Chaubes started to fight with him, until Akbar again summoned Ujagar Chaube to return and explain the commotion and why he had not shown the cowry shell to the other Chaubes. Ujagar Chaube said that he would neither

show nor share the cowry shell because it concerned the emperor's and his own honor. If the other Chaubes had seen the emperor's mite of an offering, then they both would have been ridiculed and dishonored. Akbar was so impressed that he gave Ujagar Chaube his wish to have, as his exclusive clients, all those from the surrounding fifty-two kingdoms and all members of the four Hindu sects. From that day, it is said, the system of individual clients (jajmani) was followed, rather than the system of all Chaubes pooling and sharing their earnings from one collection box.

Ujagar Chaube also established the relationship of the Chaubes with the Pushti Marg (Pusti^[*] Marga) sect upon which they are still most dependent. Chaubes say that Vallabhacharya, the founder of Pushti Marg, went on a pilgrimage around Braj, but it was unsuccessful. In a dream he was told to go to Vishram Ghat and to take the niyam (observances, promises, vows) of the pilgrimage from a priest. He went to Vishram Ghat, took pilgrimage vows from Ujagar Chaube, and thereafter successfully completed three pilgrimage rounds of Braj. From that day onward, all followers of Pushti Marg take one or another Chaube as their pilgrimage priest, and even today Vallabhacharya's descendants take pilgrimage vows from Big Chaube, Ujagar's descendant. This event was decisive for the history of the Chaubes because the wealth of Vallabhacharya's followers has been a major source of Chaube income and has supported many of them in a far. from destitute lifestyle.

Not all contacts with Moghul emperors were, however, so peaceful and so profitable. The emperor Aurangzeb, it is said, once summoned two Chaubes, Ali Datt and Kulli Dart, to dig a grave. Rather than dig one grave they started digging grave after grave, and soon they would have reached Delhi. Aurangzeb heard of this and ordered their appearance before him; he asked what they were doing. Ali Dart and Kulli Dart saucily replied that they were preparing graves for the time of the emperor's own death. Frightened by this bad omen, the emperor dismissed them and ordered them to dig no more graves. Chaubes today delight in this version of the story because it so defiantly portrays their witty but courageous impertinence.

When recounting such stories, or better, when recounting their history as they see it, to themselves and others, Chaubes produce and reproduce among themselves masti, a culturally inherited emotional disposition that lends a constituent continuity, mythological depth, and historical anchoring to their behavior and belief about themselves, their emotional character, and their emotional experience. They were too busy to be concerned about Krishna's hunger; they were so saucy as to dig a grave for a living Muslim emperor; and they are so self-assertive, boisterous, and carefree as to be envied, if not feared, by other communities in Mathura. Chaubes epitomize the quintessence of Braj character, the mastram; they arc ever outgoing, often boisterous, sometimes pushy, occasionally quarrelsome, and always delighted by an in-suiting joke or a playful tease.

Chaubes are largely concentrated in one area of the city called Chaubiya Para whence they have spread toward and along the banks of the river Jamuna from Vishram Ghat to Bengali Ghat. In 1882 Growse (1979:3) noted their population was 6,000. My own rough estimate puts their number in 1978 at about 11,300.^[6] Some have owned significant pieces of land in and around the city, and they control many of the city's religious guest houses (dharmsala). From their territorial stronghold they dominate the Chhata Bazaar area of the city. Their unity against outsiders, their extroverted presentation of self, their often physically imposing wrestlers' bodies, and their public occupation as pilgrimage priests who constantly dun others for alms, cause locals to avoid, if not fear, them.

As pilgrimage priests, the Chaubes' main occupation is to guide pilgrims to the main temples and sacred spots, especially the holy waters of the river Jamuna, in and around Mathura. At the most important sites they offer a necessary prayer of dedication (sankalp^[*]) to sanctify a pilgrim's offering. More important, they are the guides for the Braj Caurasi Kos Parikrama.

This annual forty-day pilgrimage stops at the spots of Lord Krishna's miraculous, childhood deeds (lila) (see Lynch 1988). It moves like an army of about six thousand people complete with mobile police, post office, and shopkeepers. The journey through inhospitable jungle and around ripening millet fields is difficult and often trying; a treacherous thorn may infect an unprotected foot, or tainted water may attack a sensitive stomach. Only a solicitous Chaube guide can ease the way. The relationship between a Chaube and his clients is most often traditional and passed down through families. Trust in them is great, and women unchaperoned by men from their own families may be entrusted into a Chaube's care. In return clients give donations to their Chaubes who make return visits to clients during the year.

Pilgrimage priests outside of Mathura city in the rest of Brai are most often Gaur or Sanadhya Brahmans who, unlike the Chaubes, do not travel from station to station throughout the area. Thus, Chaubes compete for the donations of pilgrims, and their peripatetic rights in Braj have been resented to the point of occasional challenge in the courts. Sanadhyas resident in Mathuts city seem particularly resentful because the Chaubes have edged them almost totally out of Vishram Ghat and other sacred centers in the city.