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Art. XXII.—Some Account of the P'hansigárs, or Gang-robbers, and of the Shúdgarshids, or Tribe of Jugglers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2011

J. A. R. Stevenson Esq
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Extract

The P'hansigárs are a tribe of, perhaps, the most deliberate and decided villains that stain the face of the earth. I hardly know whether they should be called a tribe, for they have no distinct religion or prejudices; they admit into their fraternity persons of all castes and persuasions; and the gangs which are found in different parts of the country appear to have no general knowledge of, or connexion with, each other, further than the diabolical compact existing among a few of the members who may at any period have acted in concert in their trade of villany. The following few particulars I gathered from the examination of part of a large gang which inhabited a village on the western frontier of the Nizáms country, not very far from Bíjápúr.

Type
Original Communications
Information
Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society , Volume 1 , Issue 2 , July 1834 , pp. 280 - 284
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Asiatic Society 1834

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References

* From the Hindústání word P'hánsí, a noose.

* This cloth, or handkerchief, is stated to be always of a white or a yellow colour, those being the favourite colours of their tutelary deity, Mariatta, the goddess of small-pox in Malabar.

* Females, and persons of some particular castes and occupations, are considered by the P'hansigárs as exempted from their attacks, being, as they imagine, in some way connected with their goddess.

† A camp servant, whose general business is to attend to the pitching of tents, &c.

* In the Asiatic Researches, vol. xiii. p. 250Google Scholar, will be found an ample and detailed account of the P'hansigárs, T'hegs, Bádheks, &c. all different classes of gang robbers in India, furnished by Dr. Sherwood, Mr. J. Shakespear, &c. The former gentleman gives several specimens of the cant phrases of the P'hansigárs; a sort of language termed by them Pheraseri-ki-bát, “the language of despatch.”