Craftsmen castes: Sholapur

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Craftsmen castes: Sholapur

This is an extract from a British Raj gazetteer pertaining to Sholapur that seems to have been written in 1884. If a census has been cited but its year of not given, 1881 may be assumed.

Craftsmen

Craftsmen, include thirty classes with a strength of 74,900 13.9 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Belda'rs, or Quarryrnen, are returned as numbering 117 and as found in Barsi, Karmala, Sangola, and Sholapur. They are strong and dark and the men wear the moustache and top-knot. They speak Marathi. They are stone-cutters and bricklayers, digging wells, blasting rocks, and breaking stones. Their houses are like those of cultivating Marathas. The men wear the loincloth, waistcloth, and short tight trousers or cholnas, the jacket, and the Maratha turban; and the women dress in the ordinary Maratha robe and bodice and do not tuck the end of the robe back between the feet. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They are hardworking, orderly, and hospitable but fond of drink. They have caste councils, do not send their boys to school, and are a steady people earning enough to maintain themselves.

Bhadbhunjas

Bhadbhunja's or Grain-Parehers, are returned as numbering four and as found in the Sholapur town. They are divided into Marathas and Pardeshis. The following particulars apply to the Maratha Bhadbhunjas. Their surnames are Gaikavad, Jadhav, Povar, and Sinde, who eat together and families with the same surname do not intermarry. They look like Marathas, speak Marathi, and live in houses the same as Maratha houses except for the furnace orbhatti and a shop in the veranda. In dress and food they resemble Marathas, eating fish, fowls, and the flesh of the hare, deer, and wild hog. They are an orderly, sober, hardworking and even-tempered people. In addition to parching and selling grain and pulse, they sometimes serve as day labourers, entrusting their shops to their wives and children. They sometimes borrow money and have to pay interest at two, three, or even four per cent a month. They always borrow small sums never as much as one hundred rupees as no one will advance them that sum on the security of their goods. In religion, customs, and community they are the same as Marathas. They send their boys to school and are a poor people. ==Buruds==. Buruds, or Bamboo-workers, are returned as numbering 343 and as found in towns and large villages. According to their own account they are descended from Kenshuka, whose father's name was Bhivar and his mother's Kuvinta, and they are said to have come into the district five or six generations back. They are dark and strong and the men wear the top-knot and moustache. They speak Marathi both at home and abroad, and live in untidy and ill-cared for grass huts or houses of stone and mud with flat or tiled roofs. Their house goods include earthen and a few metal vessels. They keep no servants and a few own cows, buffaloes, and sheep. They do not eat beef or the flesh of dead cattle. Their staple food isjvari, vegetables, and chillies. They drink liquor sometimes to excess. The dress of the men and women is the same as the Mhar's dress. They are hardworking, patient, and forbearing, but intemperate and dirty. They make bamboo baskets, mats, winnowing fans, and sieves, and a few make cane chairs and cots. In Pandharpur they find good employment in making fine bamboo sticks for the use of the frankincense stick preparers. Their women, besides minding the house, help them in their work of making and hawking fans and baskets. They belong to no particular sect, and worship all Hindu gods and goddesses, chiefly Ambabai, Jotiba, Khandoba, and Satvai. Their priests are village Brahmans and they have no priests belonging to their own caste. They keep all Hindu fasts and feasts and believe in sorcery and witchcraft. They marry their children early; the girls between seven and twelve, and the boys between twelve and twenty. The cost varies from £2 10s. to £6 (Rs. 25 - 60). Except that their guardian or devak is the mango tree, branches of which are brought home and tied to the marriage hall, and that the boy and girl are married on the earthen altar or ota, their marriage and funeral ceremonies are the same as those of Mhars and Mangs. They generally bury their dead. They allow widow marriage making over the first husband's children to his relations. They have a caste council, and their headman, who is called mhetrya decides social disputes in consultation with a few leading members of the caste. The fine generally takes the form of a caste feast. They do not send their boys to school, and, as their calling is not well paid, many have turned Varkaris or Pandharpur holy ==time keepers and go about begging.

Chambhars

Cha'mbha'rs, or Leather-workers, are returned as numbering 1131 and as found all over the district. Their surnames are Dhodke, Kamble, and Vaghmare. Families with the same surname eat together but do not intermarry. They are generally rather fair with regular features, and the men wear the top-knot and moustache, and a few the whiskers. They speak Marathi and live either in grass huts with thatched roofs or in mud and stone houses with flat roofs, setting apart the veranda for a workshop. They keep cattle, goats, and sheep, and their houses are dirty and ill-cared for. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. The men wear a loincloth and blanket, and occasionally a waistcloth, jacket, and turban. The women dress in the usual Maratha robe and bodice. Their ceremonial dress is the same as their everyday dress except that it is clean. They are hospitable and forbearing, but fond of drink, and proverbially lazy, as the saying goes, Under his haunches the awl, and in his house starving children. [The Marathi runs: Gandikhali ari ani gharant pore mari.] They work in leather, cut and dye skins, make sandals shoes and water bags, and till the ground. The women help the men in drawing silk flowers and making silk borders to the shoes. Some serve as labourers and hold torches in marriage processions. They worship the ordinary Hindu gods and goddesses, and have house images of Bahiri, Jotiba, Khandoba, and Mhasoba. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts, and their priests are village Brahmans to whom they pay the greatest respect. They worship Satvai on the fifth day after childbirth, name the child either on the twelfth or the thirteenth, and clip the child's hair within four to six months. With them marriage is preceded by betrothal. Before marriage they rub the boy and girl at their houses with turmeric, and as a guardian or devak tie panchpalvis or five tree leaves that is of the mango, the umbar Ficus glomerata, the jambhul Syzigium jambolanum, the saundad Prosopis spicegera, and rui Calotropis gigantea to a post of the booth and worship them, offering a fish and feasting on its flesh. The poor bury the dead and those who can afford it burn them. They allow widow marriage, the widower during the ceremony being seated on bullock harness and the widow on a low wooden stool. They have a caste council and settle social disputes in presence of the headman. They do not send their boys to school. Their income is fair and enough to keep them.

Gavandis

Gavandis, or Masons, are returned as numbering 812 and as found all over the district. They are divided into Jingars, Jires, Kamathis, Marathas, Panchals, and Sagars. A few Brahmans also work as masons. Of these Jingars, Kamathis, and Brahmans are found in very small numbers in the district, and Panchals are rare.

Jire Gavandis

JIRE GAVANDIS are found only in Pandharpur and Sholapur. They are called Jires after their headman's surname who was the Badshas' or Bijapur kings' builder. They are said to have been Maratha husbandmen who were put out of caste because they refused to pay a fine of £15 (Rs. 150) which their castefellows levied on them for building mosques for the Adil-Shahi kings (1490-1686) at Bijapur. They say Marathas are willing to let them back, but that they do not wish to go back, because the Marathas have lately taken to eating, and, in out-of-the-way places, marrying with Telis and Sangars. The Jires and Marathas eat together, and their married women or savashins attend feasts at one another's houses. Bodhlebava, a great Maratha saint, whose headquarters are at Dhamangaon in Barsi, is anxious that the Jires should go back and join the Marathas. The Jires are said to have come into the district seventy or eighty years ago to build Sindia's mansion in Pandharpur. They have Kadus or bastards among them, with whom they eat but do not intermarry. The Jire surnames are Kamle, Pavar, Salunke, and Surve, and families having the same surname do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Apa, Balvanta, Ganpati, and Rama; and among women Elubai, Ittai, Bakkumai and Subai. All belong to the sun family called Surygotra or Surugotra. Neither men nor women differ from cultivating Marathas in look, speech, house, dress, or food They eat fish and the flesh of goats, sheep, rabbits, hares, and fowls, and their staple food is bajri, tur, jvari, milk, and every two or three days rice. They drink liquor once or twice a year especially on the last day of the Shimga or Holiholidays in March-April. They are not great eaters or drinkers, neither are they good cooks. There is nothing special or proverbial about their cooking Before beginning to dine, they sprinkle a little cold water round the dining plate and sip some water repeating the wordsKrishnarpan that is for the acceptance of Krishna. The Jires are hardworking, eventempered, sober, thrifty, hospitable, contented, and orderly They are masons and husbandmen and their women mind the house Their boys begin to help from fifteen or eighteen, A trained mason earns £1 10s. to £3 (Rs. 15-30) a month. All find constant employment. They build houses, ponds, wells, bridges and temples, and cave stone or mould clay images of gods and animals, which they sell at 3d. to £20 (Rs. £ - 200). Their craft prospers and they have credit being able to borrow at twelve to eighteen per cent a year and almost never fail to pay their debts. Their family deities are Bhavani of Tuljapur, Jakhai and Jokhai, and Khandoba of Jejuri. They also worship all Brahmanical gods and goddesse and keep the regular fasts and feasts, Their priests are the ordinary Maratha Brahmans, before whom they bow and whom they worship as gods. Their gurus or religious teachers are either Gosavis or Brahmans. When a child or a grown person is initiated the teacher whispers into his right ear a sacred verse. A year or two after marriage they generally go and seek the advice of the teacher. They believe in sorcery witchcraft and soothsaying, and, when sickness comes to a family, they consult a seer or devrushi as to the best means for driving out the evil spirit. When a boy is twelve, sixteen, or eighteen years old his parents think of marrying him The girl chosen to be his wife is generally eight to twelve years old, but they have no rule that girls should be married before they come of age. Before a marriage can be fixed, the parties must ascertain that the boy and girl have different surnames and have not the same guardian ordevak. After talking the matter over with his wife and the elderly women of his house and fixing on some girl the boy's father goes to a Brahman and asks him when he should set out to make an offer of marriage for his boy. The Brahman, who is generally a village astrologer names the day, and the boy's father, tying in a cloth a few cakes and some vegetables, fried fish, and pounded chillies, starts for the girl's with a kinsman or two. When they reach the girl's, the boy's father makes over the bundle of cakes to the women of the house, and the fathers sit on the veranda, on a blanket spread for them, talking the matter over, asking one another the boy's and girl's ages, their surnames, and their guardians or devaks. After some pressure the girl's father agrees to give his daughter, and they sup together often from the same plate. Next morning the fathers go to the village Brahman, and tell him the boy's and the girl's names, eat a dish of rice and sugar, and settle what presents each is to make to the other's child. Next day some of the boy's kinspeople bring a robe and bodice, go to the girl's house and present it to her. From this time marriage preparations are pressed on. When the Brahman has fixed a lucky evening for the wedding, word is sent to the girl's parents, and the boy's father sends invitations to relations and friends. Marriage booths are built at both houses. Except that an altar is built at the girl's, the preparations at both houses are the same. Musicians are called and early in the wedding morning at the girl's house, the house handmill is washed, and turmeric roots are ground to powder. The girl's head is rubbed with oil and her body with turmeric and she is bathed with a band of little children. When all the children have bathed, the girl's mother sits by her and bathes, and her kinspeople present her with a new robe and bodice. The girl is dressed in a robe and green bodice, her clothes are stained with turmeric, and her brow marked with redpowder. A flower or a tinsel chaplet is tied round her brow and her head is covered with a blanket. By this time the boy has been rubbed with turmeric and bathed. He is then dressed and a tinsel chaplet is tied to his brow. The guests feast, and, seating the boy on a horse or bullock, with music and friends go to the girl's village Maruti, and from it to the boundary of the girl's Village. The girl's friends come and bring them to the village temple, they bow before the god, and the boy is led to the door of the girl's marriage hall, bathed, dressed in new clothes, and seated near the outer wall of the house. The girl is seated on the boy's left. They are then made to stand facing each other, and a cloth is held between them. Behind the girl and the boy stand their maternal uncles and their sisters or karavlis with lighted lamps in their hands. The boy's brother also stands behind him with a lemon stuck on the point of a dagger. The Brahman repeats verses, and the guests throw rice over the pair. At the end of the verses the Brahman claps his hands, the musicians play, and the boy and girl are husband and wife. Then the boy and girl are seated on the altar, the girl on the boy's left. They dine and the guests either stay for the night or go home. On the fourth day the boy takes the girl' to his own house. Jires allow widow marriage and polygamy. When a girl comes of age she is seated in a room by herself for four days. On the fifth she is bathed and word is sent to her parents. She is given a cot, bedding, waterpots, and a robe and bodice, and the boy is given a turban. A feast is held and the girl is told to make the bed ready, and the boy and girl are shut in the room. A young wife generally goes to her parents for her first child. When a child is born a Brahman is asked to name it. The midwife cuts, the navel cord, bathes the mother and child in warm water, and swathes the child in cloth bandages. A piece of cloth soaked in cow's milk is put in the child's mouth, and the mother is fed on rice, butter, and warm water. A lamp is kept burning in the room, and, on the fifth day, the goddess Satvai is worshipped, and on the twelfth day the child is named. When a Jire is on the point of death, his son lays his father's head on his right knee and drops water into his mouth. When he breathes his last some Ganges or Godavari water and tulsi leaves and a piece of gold are put in his mouth. The body is brought out of the house and laid on the door-step with its feet to the road. Warm water is poured over it, it is laid on the bier, and covered from head to foot with a sheet. On the sheet is sprinkled redpowder or gulal and basil leaves, and two copper coins and a handful of grain are tied in the hem of the sheet. The chief mourner ties a piece of white cloth across his shoulder and chest. Then holding in his right hand an earthen jar with live coal in it, the chief mourner starts, and four near kinsmen lift the bier and follow. At the burning ground a stone called jivkhada or the stone of life is picked up, and kept in some safe place in the burning ground. The bier is set on the ground and the pile is made ready.

The chief mourner bathes, brings a potful of water, pours a few drops into the dead mouth, and lights the pile. He takes the jar, bores holes in it, walks three times round the pyre, dashes the pot on the ground, and beats his mouth with the open palm of his right hand. Then they bathe and go back to their homes. While the funeral party are away, at the chief mourner's house the spot where the deceased breathed his last is cow dunged, a cup of milk and a lighted lamp are set on it, and the ground is strewn with wheat or rice flour. The neighbours come with cooked food, serve it to the mourners, and dine with them. In the evening they look for the marks of an ant or other insect's feet, and from the footsteps judge that the deceased has died happy and his spirit has passed into an ant or a fly. If no footsteps are traced, the dead is believed to have had some unfulfilled wish or care that keeps him from leaving the earth. They beg him to come and drink and leave his footsteps' that they may not be anxious what has come to him. This is repeated night and day, the people if no traces are shown puzzling what can be the deceased's unfulfilled wish. On the third day, the chief mourner with some near kinspeople goes to the burning ground and throws the ashes into water. The crows are offered rice balls, and they are asked to come and eat them. If the crows come and touch the balls, it is believed that the soul of the deceased is happy; if the crow refuses to eat the mourners pray the dead to say what ails him, and promise to fulfil his wishes. For ten days the house is in mourning. On the eleventh the whole house is cowdunged, and on the twelfth and thirteenth cooked food and rice balls are again offered to the crows. The chief mourner does not become pure till the morning of the thirteenth, when the whole house is cowdunged, uncooked food and money presents are made to Brahmans, and the caste is feasted. The Jires are bound together by a strong caste feeling. They have no headman and settle their social disputes at meetings of their own and other castemen. The power of caste has of late grown weak. The Jires can read and write Marathi both Balbodh and Modi, and keep their boys for long at schools. They are a steady and contented if not a rising class.

Sagar Gavandis

Sagar Gavandis claim to have come from Benares in search of work to the Nizam's Haidarabad. Their castefellows are still found near Haidarabad some of them wearing sacred threads and dining in silk waistcloths. They occasionally come on pilgrimage from Haidarabad to Pandharpur when they dine with the Sholapur Sagars, but not unless the local Sagars dress in a silk or in a fresh washed waistcloth. They are said to have come into the district about three hundred years ago, and are divided into Sagars proper and Lekavlas or Kadus that is bastard Sagars who eat together but do not intermarry. The names in common use among them are Govind, Nagu, Narayan, and Narsu; and among women Bhagirthi, Kashi, Yamuna, and Yashvada. Their surnames are Gadpate, Kalburge, Kasle, and Narne; and families bearing the same surnames do not intermarry. All belong to the Kashyap family stock. Both men and women look like Maratha husbandmen, the men wear the top-knot and moustache, but not the beard, and mark their brows with sandal. Their home tongue is Marathi, but those who are settled in the Karnatak and Moghlai or Nizam's country speak Telugu. Their houses are the same as Maratha houses with mud and stone walls and flat earth roofs and their house goods include cots, boxes, metal and earthen vessels, clothes, cattle, and ponies. They eat fish and the flesh of sheep,goats,hares,rabbits,and fowls, and their staple food is jvari, tur, bajri, and occasionally rice and wheat bread. Formerly all ate flesh whenever they could afford it without offering it to the gods. Many of them keep to the old practice, but some who have become varkaris or Pandharpur devotees, offer no sheep, goats, or fowls, have given up eating flesh and drinking liquor, and have taken to wear a necklace of tulsi beads. For their holiday dinners they prepare grain and wheat cakes. They drink liquor but only twice or three times a year on great occasions like Sankrant in January and Shimga in March. They are not great eaters or drinkers, neither are they good cooks. There is nothing special or proverbial about their cooking or their pet dishes. Their only peculiar practice at meals is before beginning to eat to lay some cooked rice for the god Agni or fire in front of their plates. Both men and women dress like Marathas, the men in a waistcloth, turban, jacket, coat, shoulder-cloth, and shoes, and the women in a robe and bodice. The women do not deck their heads with flowers or false hair. Both men and women are fairly neat and clean but they do not show any taste in dress and have no special liking for gay colours. Their holiday dress is made of rich stuff with gold borders. There have been no recent changes in the shape or material. The women wear the nosering, earrings, neck ornaments, bangles, and toe-rings. Men wear a gold neckchain and finger rings, and boys up to fifteen wear wristlets. They are hardworking, even-tempered, sober, thrifty, hospitable, and orderly. Besides by stone-cutting some earn their living as husbandmen and some as labourers. Boys begin to help their fathers at the age of twelve and become skilled workers at the age of twenty-five. A boy gets 8s. to 10s. (Rs. 4-5) a month, and when he becomes a skilled worker his wages rise to 16s. to £1 12s. (Rs. 8-16). Their work is not constant. They sometimes take fields on lease and work in them. They build houses, wells, and bridges, make earth and lime images of Hindu gods and saints, and sell Ganpatis at 1½d. to 6d. (1 - 4 as.). They are not in debt, and are generally able to borrow at about two per cent a month. Sagars claim Kshatriya descent though they admit they have fallen to be Shudras. They eat with Marathas, Dhangars, and Lingayat Vanis, but not with Lingayat Telis, Panchals, Jingars, Sonars, Kasars, or low caste Hindus like Buruds, Mhars, and Mangs. They are a religious people and worship Hindu gods and goddesses as well as Musalman saints and the tabuts or Muharram biers. Their family deities are Balaji of Giri or Tirupati, Bhavani of Tuljapur, Jotiba of Ratnagiri, Khandoba of Jejuri, and Yallama of the Karnatak to whom they sometimes go to pay vows. Their priests are the ordinary Maratha Brahmans to whom they show the greatest respect. The gurus or teachers of some are Ramanujs and of others Shankaracharya. They are either Smarts or Vaishnavs and keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and feasts. They believe in sorcery witchcraft and soothsaying. They marry their girls between seven and twelve, and their boys between twelve and twenty-five. After talking the matter over and fixing on some girl, the boy's father consults a Brahman and starts with a couple of relations for the girl's house. They talk the matter over, and, after some pressure, the girl's father agrees to give his daughter. An astrologer is sent for, the boy's and girl's horoscopes are compared, and, if the horoscopes agree, the parents settle what presents are to be given. The astrologer is asked to fix a lucky day for formally asking for the girl, and, when this is settled, the boy's father returns to his house with his companions. On a lucky day named by the astrologer the boy's kinspeople taking a robe and bodice, a packet of sugar, fruit, dry dates, and betelnut and leaves, go to the girl's house, present her with the robe and the bodice, fill her lap with fruit, dry dates, rice, and betel, and an astrologer is sent for who draws up the marriage papers or patrikas, receives a money present, and retires. The boy's brother or if he has no brother, the boy's father is presented with a turban, a feast is held, and sugar is handed among the guests. Instead of the boy, the girl, with kinsfolk and music, starts on horseback for the boy's. They stop at the village Maruti temple and send word to the boy, and the boy's party come with pots full of cold water, cakes, and millet gruel. After the gruel has been served to such as wish to share it, they are brought into the village and taken to their lodgings. The boy is bathed and rubbed with turmeric, and what is over is sent to the girl's with a robe and bodice. The boy's kinswomen bathe the girl, dress her in the new clothes, and fill her lap with fruit dry dates and betel. Two branches of each of the five guardian trees or panchpalvis that is the leaves of mango, the umbar Ficus glomerata,the jambhulSyzigium jambolanum, saundad Prosopis spicegera, and rui Calotropis gigantea, are laid in an earthen jar and placed in Maruti's temple. Then from both houses a band of kinspeople with music go to fetch the jar or guardian shrine to their houses, place it near the house gods, and worship it with flowers and rice grains. An altar is raised at the boy's with a plantain stem and a pile of six earthen jars at each corner.

A procession is formed and the girl's kinsfolk with the girl carried in the arms of a near relation go to the village temple, and from the temple to the boy's. When the girl reaches the boy's she takes her stand near the door of the booth, the boy's mother waves round her head a cocoanut and cooked rice, and throws it to one side, and the girl walks in with her relations and takes her seat in the house. Two low wooden stools are set in front of the altar, the boy and girl take their stand on the stools face to face, grains of rice are handed to the guests, and, when the Brahmans have finished chanting the marriage verses, the guests throw the rice over the couple and they are husband and wife. Four or five turns of cotton thread are passed round the boy and girl; the threads are offered vermilion and rice, cut, tied round a turmeric root, and bound to the wrist of the boy and of the girl. The priest throws a sacred thread round the boy's shoulders, the boy and girl are seated on the altar, the sacrificial fire is lit, betel is handed, and the guests withdraw. The boy and girl are taken before the house gods, bow to them, and are lifted on the shoulders of two men who dance to music. The day ends with the biting of betel leaf rolls by the boy and girl and the playing of odds and evens with betelnuts, and a feast. Either on the second or the third day after marriage, in the marriage hall, a cot is laid in front of the house door, on which the boy and girl sit near each other. Between them is placed a stone rolling-pin muffled in a piece of white cloth and daubed with turmeric. The pin is by turns placed in the arms of the boy and of the girl, and cold water is dropped on the ground near their feet, and the women call out that the boy's or the girl's child has passed over water. The family priest unties the wedding wristlets, the boy takes off his sacred thread, and after worshipping them they are kept in some corner of the house and in the end thrown away. The girl's father asks the boy's father how many betelnuts he wishes. If the girl's father says twenty, ten are added, and thirty betelnuts are handed to each of the guests whether man woman or child. In this way large quantities of betelnuts are handed round whether or not the guests belong to their own caste. Then except those who have been asked to stay for dinner, all leave. Feasts on both sides end the marriage ceremonies. Their age coming and pregnancy rites are the same as those of the Kamathis. On the fifth day after the birth of a girl's first child the midwife lays healing herbs and roots on a grindstone, and lays vermilion, turmeric paste, flowers, burnt frankincense, and cooked food before them. A feast is held and either five or seven widows are feasted in honour of the goddess Satvai who is believed to be a widow. The women of the house keep awake the whole night. Next morning the midwife carries to her own house and eats the food which the evening before was offered to the healing plants. The plants are taken away and given to the young mother. On the tenth the house is cowdunged, the mother and child are bathed and laid on the fresh washed cot spread with fresh clothes. On the eleventh, as on the tenth, the mother and child are bathed, the cot is washed, and the whole house cowdunged. On the twelfth, five seven or nine pebbles are arranged in a line outside of the house in the name of Satvai, and water is poured over them, red and scented powder sprinkled, flowers rice and sandal strewn, frankincense burnt, and cooked food and two pieces of thread or nadas laid before them. The mother makes a low bow, and retires. In the afternoon the child is laid in the cradle and named, and the thread or nada offered to the goddess Satvai is cut in two, and one-half tied round each of the child's wrists. After three months the father's people fetch the child and its mother to the father's house, and its hair is clipped on some lucky day. When a Gavandi is on the point of death he is laid on a blanket, and water mixed with sweet basil or tulsi leaves, and a piece of gold are put in his mouth. After death the body is bathed in warm water on the house steps, a silk cloth is wound round the waist, and the body is laid on the bier, red and scented powders are sprinkled over it, and it is covered with a white sheet, to whose hem are tied a few grains of rice and a copper coin. Both men and women follow the body to the burning ground. About half-way the bier is lowered, the rice and the copper are laid on one side, the bier is again raised and they go to the burning ground. While the pile is building, the chief mourner bathes and has his head and moustache shaved, and the body is laid on the pile. The chief mourner again bathes, dips the hem of his robe in water, squeezes some drops into the dead mouth, and sets fire to the pile. When the pile is half burnt the chief mourner takes the jar in which he brings fire, fills it with water, bores three holes in it, goes thrice round the pyre and dashes the pot on the ground, and beats his mouth with the back of his hand. Then the mourners bathe, pluck a little grass, return to the house of mourning, and sprinkle the grass on the spot where the dead breathed his last. Ashes are spread on the grass to show footprints, cooked rice is laid close by, and the whole is covered with a basket. Neighbours and kins-people bring cooked food and ask the mourners to eat. They mourn the dead ten days, and on the twelfth hold a feast, when the four bier-bearers are the chief guests. The funeral priest is presented with a cot, bedding, waterpot, umbrella, walking stick, and shoes, to help the dead along the weary way to heaven. The mourners are taken to Maruti's temple, bow to the god, and are brought back, and the neighbours return to their homes. Sagar Gavandis are bound together by a strong caste feeling. They have no headman, and settle social disputes at meetings of men of their own and of other castes. The spread of English law and of lawyers has weakened the power of caste, and the people are afraid to enforce their rules by the old penalties. They send their boys to school till they are about twelve, when their fathers take them to work as masons. Narayan Bapuji a member of this caste was postmaster of Pandharpur for over twelve years and is now a Government pensioner. Another was a telegraph master of the Peninsula railway. The Sagars are beginning to keep their boys longer at school. They are a steady class.

Ghisadis

Ghisa'dis, or Tinkers, are returned as numbering 269 and as found wandering over the whole district. They are said to have originally passed from Gujarat to Haidarabad and from Haidarabad, about five hundred years ago, to Sholapur in search of work. Their commonest surnames are Chavhan, Kate, Khetri, Padval, Pavar, Shelar, Solanke, and Suryavanshi, who eat together and intermarry. They are said to have sprung from Vishvakarma the framer of the universe, who brought out of fire the airan or anvil, the bhata or bellows, the sandas or tongs, the ghan or hammer, and the hatodi or small hammer. He taught the Ghisadis how to make the sudarshan chakra or Vishnu's discus, ban or arrow, trishul or trident, nal or horseshoe, khadg or sword, and rath or war chariot. When these were prepared and approved by their master the caste came to be called Ghisadis and were told to make various tools and weapons of war. They are strong, dark, dirty, drunken, hot-tempered, and hardworking. The men wear a tuft of hair on the crown of the head, and the moustache and beard. They speak a mixture of Gujarati and Marathi. They are wandering blacksmiths and tinkers. They have no regular dwelling but live in the open air, sometimes stretching a blanket over their heads as a shelter. They have cattle, and during the rainy season live in mud or thatched huts. They have a few brass and copper vessels, and are helped in their calling by their wives and children. They eat fish and flesh, and drink to excess. Their daily food is jvari, split pulse, and vegetables. The men wear a turban folded in Maratha fashion, a jacket, a shouldercloth, and a waistcloth; and their women the Maratha robe and bodice, silver ornaments, and the lucky neckthread or mangalsutra. They make horse shoes, field tools including sickles, and cart axles and wheels. They hold their women impure for a month and a quarter after childbirth, and during that time the men do not worship the house gods, rub sandal on their brows, or get their heads shaved. The mother bathes after her impurity is over, and puts new bangles round her wrists, the old ones being removed and carried away by the bangle-seller. A ceremony called panchvi is performed on the fifth day after a birth, and another on the seventh when the child is cradled and named. The child's hair is not clipped until another child is born. If the mother shows no sign of being pregnant, the child's hair is clipped after a couple or three years. On the hair-cutting day the child's maternal uncle first cuts a lock of hair and puts it in a safe place, and the barber shaves off the rest. On some lucky day the lock which was put aside is offered to the village Satvai and a feast is held. The goddess is offered cooked food and is asked to preserve the child. After the hair-clipping the child is bathed and dressed in new clothes presented by its maternal uncle. They have a betrothal ceremony which is performed one to five years before marriage. On the betrothal day, with kins people and music, the girl is taken to the boy's house, is presented with new clothes and full set of ornaments, is feasted, and is sent back. In honour of the ceremony the girl's father presents the caste with £1 10s. (Rs.15) in cash, of which a little is spent in buying gram and molasses, and distributed among relations, friends, and castefellows. The rest is spent on drink and sweetmeats. The boy's father has to give £10 (Rs. 100) in cash to the girl's father. If the boy's father fails to pay this amount, the girl is offered to another boy on payment of £25 (Rs. 250) to the former boy's father. Of this sum of £25 (Rs. 250) £5 (Rs. 50) are given to the caste and £20 (Rs. 200) to the former boy's father, on account of the betrothal ceremony already performed by him and of the ornaments presented to the girl. All the ornaments along with the girl become the second boy's property. No second betrothal ceremony is performed. At the time of the marriage the boy stands with a dagger in his hand in front of the girl on an earthen altar, and a cloth is held between the boy and the girl. The Brahmans repeat verses and they are husband and wife. Four near relations stand on the four sides of the boy and girl and pass cotton thread round them on their thumbs, cut the threads into two parts and tie them with two turmeric roots to the wrists of the boy and the girl. Feasts are exchanged, and the boy takes his wife to her new home, their sisters walking behind them with lighted dough-lamps in their hands. When the boy reaches his house the girl's father presents the boy with 6s. to 10s. (Rs. 3-5) as safety money for bringing home his daughter without accident. This sum is spent either on sweetmeats or on liquor. A girl is held impure for five days when she comes of age. On the sixth day her lap is filled and her parents present her and the boy with clothes. That day is spent in feasting, but no flesh is eaten and no liquor is drunk. They burn their dead and mourn for eleven days. On the eleventh the chief mourner gets his head and moustache shaved, prepares eleven dough balls, and, taking one of the balls in his hands, jumps into the river or stream, leaves the ball at the bottom, and comes out. He does this eleven times, and when all the balls have been left under water he bathes, kindles a sacred fire, goes round it five times, and makes a long bow before it, A feast is held on the spot, and one of the party presents the mourner with a new turban. The Brahman is given uncooked food, and a gondhal or a drum or daur dance is held during the night. On the twelfth his relations friends and castefellows feast the mourner and a sheep is slaughtered for the occasion. On the thirteenth cooked rice, split pulse, and butter are mixed together, served on castor orerand leaves, and laid on the spot where the body was burned, where the bier was rested, and where the deceased breathed his last. The ashes are removed and river water is poured over the spot. After a bath the mourner and his friends return to the mourner's house, sprinkle cold water on the bodies of the house people to make them entirely clean, and to rid him of his mourning, his friends offer the chief mourner a cup of sugared milk, and return to their homes. They allow widow marriage. They settle social disputes at caste meetings, and the fine is spent in drink. They do not send their boys to school and take to no new pursuits. They are a poor class.

Karanjkars and Jingars

Ka'ranjkars, that is Fountain Makers, including Jingars, that is Saddlers, who call themselves Somvanshi Arya Kshatris, are returned as numbering 448 and as found over the whole district. They say that the Brahmand and Bhavishyottar purans contain a full account of their origin. The founder of their caste was Mauktik, Mukdev, or Mukteshvar, whose temple is in Shiv Kanchi or the modern Conjeveram in Madras. The spot where Mukteshvar bathed and prayed is called Muktamala Harini. Even two demons Chandi and Mundi were made holy by bathing there, and bathing at this spot still cleanses from sin. This place the Karanjkars hold to be sacred and make pilgrimages to it. They have no divisions and have eight family stocks or gotras, the names of which are Angiras, Bharadvaj, Garg, Gautam, Kanv, Kaundanya, Valmik, and Vasishth. Their surnames are Chavhan, Gadhe, Gavli, Honkalas, Kale, Kamble, Lohare, Vaghmare, and Vasunde. Of these Chavhans belong to the Vasishth gotra, Mukteshvar pravar, Rudragayatri, Rigved, and the colour of the horse and chariot is white or shvet. Families belonging to the same family stock eat together but cannot intermarry. They have regular features and are neither dark nor fair. The men wear the top-knot and moustache and rub sandal on their brow. Their women, who are fair and pretty, tie the hair in a knot behind the head and rub redpowder on their brows. They use false hair but do not deck the head with flowers. The home tongue of most is Marathi, but some speak Kanarese both at home and abroad. Their houses are generally built of mud and stone with flat roofs, having a veranda or room in the front of the house to serve as a shop. Their houses are neat and clean and well-cared-for, and they keep servants to help in their shops, and cows, she-buffaloes, and parrots. They have generally a good store of brass copper and earthen vessels. They are not great eaters or drinkers, and their every-day food consists of rice bread, pulse, and vegetables. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. The men dress like Deccan Brahmans in a waistcloth, coat, waistcoat, shouldercloth, headscarf, Brahman turban, and shoes. The women dress like Brahman women, in a robe and bodice. Children go naked till four or five. After five a boy wears a loincloth, and a girl a petticoat and bodice. Both men and women are neat and clean but are not tasteful in their dress and have no special liking for gay colours. Most of them have a fresh set of clothes for special occasions, a rich robe and bodice worth £2 to £6 (Rs. 20 - 60) which last for several years. They wear head, ear, nose, arm, and foot ornaments. They are sober, thrifty, hardworking, even-tempered, hospitable, orderly, and clever workers. They follow a variety of callings, making cloth-scabbards, and khogirs or pad-saddles and charjamas or cloth-saddles, but not leather saddles. They make boxes and cradles, carve stones, paint and make figures of clay and cloth, pierce metal and paper plates, carve wood, make and repair padlocks, make and repair tin brass and copper pots, make gold and silver ornaments, cut diamonds, and make vinasor lyres and sarangis or fiddles and other musical instruments. Their women and children help in their work. Their children begin to work at seven and are skilled workers by twenty. If the boy belongs to their own caste he is expected to know something and is paid 16s. to £1 (Rs. 8-10) according to the amount he does. If the boy belongs to another caste, from whom the workman does not expect much help, beyond blowing the fire and handing him articles, the boy is paid 2s. to 8s. (Rs. 1-4) a month, but if he proves intelligent and useful his wages are raised to £1 to £1 4s. (Rs. 10-12) a month. A skilful workman seldom serves under another man. He opens a shop or works in partnership with his master. The Arya Kshatris always work to order, and keep no ready made articles in stock. The merchants who want the articles give them the metal agreeing to pay them at so much a pound. The yearly income of a working family, including a man his wife and two children, varies from £10 to £20 (Rs. 100-200). Their work is not constant and few of them have capital. According to their calling Jingars are known as Chitaris, Jades, Lohars, Nalbands, Otaris or casters, Patvekars, Sonars, Sutars, Tambats, Tarkars or wire drawers, and Tarasgars or scale-makers who eat together and intermarry. Besides receiving payment in cash they barter their wares for clothes and grain. They complain that the use of European and Australian copper sheets has taken from them part of their old calling, and, that since the 1876 famine, people have been too poor to paint their houses or to buy ornaments. They are somewhat depressed and some have sunk to be labourers. The uncertainty of their work and the large sums they spend on family observances have sunk some of them in debt. They have credit and borrow at one to two per cent a month. They claim to be Somvanshi Kshatris and their claim is supported by deeds or sanads given to them by the Shankaracharya of Shringeri in Maisur. The Arya Kshatris are Smarts and keep images of their gods in their houses. Their priests are ordinary Brahmans, generally Deshastha to whom they pay great respect. They keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and feasts, and make pilgrimages to Benares, Gaya, Jejuri, Shiv Kanchi, Tuljapur, and Vishnu Kanchi near Rameshvar, and Mukteshvar near Seringapatam. Their teacher or guru is Shankaracharya whose chief monasteries are at Shringeri and Sankeshvar. Every two or three years his followers make Shankaracharya a money present at 2s. (Re. 1) a year from each house. For her first child a young wife generally goes to her parents'. A room is cleaned, cowdunged, and furnished with a cot, and, when her time comes, a midwife is sent for, and the woman is taken to the lying-in room. The child is laid on a cloth on the ground and a hole is dug close by. The midwife washes the mother, cuts the child's navel cord, bathes the child in warm water, binds it in swaddling clothes, and lays it beside its mother on the cot. The hole is worshipped, betel and leaf packets are laid near it, and the navel cord and afterbirth are buried outside of the house. The lying in room is cowdunged and the mother's clothes are washed by the midwife. The mother is given a mixture of butter and assafoetida, and is fed on equal quantities of rice and butter.

The child's head is marked with sweet oil and it is fed by sucking a piece of cloth soaked in cow's milk. A lighted lamp is laid near the mother's cot, and, according to the custom of the family, either five wheat flour lamps are lighted and kept burning in the mother's room for five days or one on the first day, two on the second, and so on to five lamps on the fifth day. Some make no dough lamps, and content themselves with a single brass lamp. On the fifth morning the child is bathed and a handful of vekhand or orris root powder is rubbed on its head, a hood is drawn over its head, and it is laid beside its mother. A grindstone and roller are laid in a corner of the mother's room, and thirty-two kinds of healing plants, herbs, and roots are laid on the grindstone. A penknife is also laid on the stone and worshipped by the midwife, if she belongs to the mother's caste. If the midwife does not belong to the mother's caste the mother herself lays before the grindstone cooked rice, sugar cakes, and fire betel packets. A lighted lamp is placed near the grindstone and fed the whole night with oil. Of the five betel packets one is eaten by the mother and the four others are eaten by four young women, who keep watch the whole night over the mother and her child, playing with dice, odds and evens, and other games. Next morning some married woman or the midwife throws the dough lamps into a stream or river. The healing herbs are moved from the stone and given to the young mother. On the morning of the tenth the whole house is cowdunged, the mother and child are bathed, and ail her clothes and the cot are washed. On the morning of the eleventh day the house is again cowdunged, the mother and child are bathed, her cot and clothes are again washed, and the men of the family change their threads. From this day the mother is touched by the people of the house, but she is not pure enough to enter the cook room or offer cooked food to the house gods. On the twelfth day, five married women whose children are alive, wash the child's cradle, rub it with turmeric and redpowder, and hang it from one of the house rafters. On the ground below the cradle is placed a leaf plate with a handful of wheat and on the plate a lighted dough lamp. In front of the lamp on a betel leaf are laid boiled gram, and the five married women mark the cradle with turmeric and redpowder. They fill one another's laps with boiled gram, betelnut and leaves are served, and they go home. In the afternoon when the feast is ready, the five married women come with other guests who have been asked in the morning, and they dine and go home. In the evening women guests come with presents of caps, hoods, betel, rice, and dry cocoa-kernel. When all have come, a low wooden stool is set near the cradle, and the mother takes the child in her arms and goes and sits on the stool. The guests sit round her and the child's maternal grandmother fills the laps of women guests who do not belong to her daughter's family. The young mother's lap is filled by her mother or by a kinswoman, and copper anklets are put round the child's feet. The child's maternal grandmother marks her daughter's brow with redpowder and presents her with a bodice, fills her lap with rice and dry cocoa-kernel, and puts a hood on the child's head. The other women guests follow her example, presenting the child and mother with clothes, and filling the child's mother's lap. Then the child's father's sisters stand on each side of the cradle, dress a piece of sandalwood in a hood and child's other clothes, and pass it from one to another singing songs. The child is treated in the same way as the piece of sandalwood. It is then laid in the cradle and two women one after the other cry out kur-r-r in the child's ears, and slap each other gently on the back. Then a song is sung by the women guests, sugar and betel are served, and the guests withdraw. On a lucky day, in the third month, if the child is a boy, his head is shaved. In the morning on or below the veranda of the house a low wooden stool is set and on the stool is spread a piece of bodice cloth or cholkhan sprinkled with grains of rice. The child's maternal uncle takes the child on his knee, sits on the cloth, and, while musicians play, the barber cuts the child's hair with a pair of scissors leaving a top and two ear tufts. The uncle leaves his seat with the child in his arms, and, seating the child on another stool, rubs it with fragrant oil and five married women bathe it in warm water and rub its brow with redpowder. It is then dressed in its best clothes, ornaments are put on, and it is seated on a stool. The guests present the child and its mother with clothes. The barber is given the piece of cloth on which the uncle sat while the child's hair was being cut, ten copper coins, a betel packet, and uncooked food. The child is taken to the village temple with women guests and musicians, the god is presented with a copper coin and a betel packet, they bow to him and withdraw. A feast is held and the guests go home. When the boy is two or three years old comes the top-knot keeping. In the morning a low wooden stool is set on the veranda covered with a piece of bodicecloth, grains of rice are sprinkled over it, and the boy is seated on it and held from behind by his father. The barber shaves the child's head and the two ear tufts but leaves a round top-knot. The child's body is rubbed with fragrant oil and he is bathed. A new cloth is wound round his waist and he is carried into the house where he is dressed in rich clothes and taken to the village temple with women guests and music. A copper coin and a betel packet are laid before the god and they return to the child's house. Married women are presented with turmeric and redpowder, and a feast is held when a couple of sweet dishes are prepared and the guests withdraw. When the boy is between seven and nine the boy's father asks the village astrologer to fix a lucky time for performing the thread-girding. The astrologer names a day, and the father goes home, tells the house people what the astrologer said, goes to the market, and, for luck buys 1s. (8 as.) worth of turmeric root and 6d. (4 as.) worth of redpowder. On a lucky day three to five handmills are set in the house. To the neck of each, in a piece of yellow cloth, are tied a turmeric root, a few grains of rice, and a betelnut. Five married women who have children alive are called and asked to grind a handful of turmeric, and they grind it singing songs. After the turmeric has been ground inter powder it is poured into a metal pot; the grinders are presented with turmeric and redpowder, and return to their homes. The house people set to making preparations buying grain, butter, oil, molasses, and clothes A booth is raised, and, in a yellow cloth, a betelnut, a turmeric root, and a few grains of rice are tied to one of the booth posts which is called muhurtmedh or the lucky post. The morning before the day fixed men and women, with the family priest and music, go to the houses of relations, friends, and neighbours, and to the village god asking them to come next day to the thread-girding. After they return the marriage god or devak is installed as among Brahmans. In the evening an altar is raised by the housepeople measuring five and a half spans broad by the boy's hand and nine spans long and whitewashed. On this day all married women of the caste and boys whose munj or grass thread has not been taken off are asked to dine. Early on the thread-girding morning the boy's parents bathe, and a barber is called. The priest asks the barber to bring the razor with which he is going to shave the boy's head. The barber takes the razor out of his leather bag and lays it on the ground. The priest mutters verses over it, throws a few grains of red rice over it, and, taking it in his hands, cuts a strand of the sacred thread with it, as if to test its sharpness, and, with another blade of sacred grass, draws lines over it and gives it back to the barber. The boy is seated on a low wooden stool,, and the barber shaves his head except the topknot. The boy is bathed, his brow is marked with red sandal powder, and he dines from the same plate with his mother in company with married women and boys who have not ceased to wear the munj or grass cord. When his meal is still unfinished, the boy is made to leave the dining plate, his hands and mouth are washed, and he is seated in front of the barber. The barber again shaves the boy's head except the topknot, and a married woman rubs him with fragrant oil, bathes him, marks his brow with red sandal, and seats him on a stool near his father. The priest repeats verses, sprinkles water on the boy's head from the point of a blade of sacred grass, gives him a silk loincloth to wear, and blesses a sacred thread and puts it round the boy's left shoulder so as to fall on his right side. The priest holds in his hand a pimpal Ficus religiosa staff or dand, three feet nine inches long, to which is tide another loincloth and stands facing the boy. The boy is made to stand on the low wooden stool on which he had been sitting, and the men and women stand round the boy with grains of rice in their hands. A cloth is held between the boy and the staff, and the priest repeats verses. When the verses are over, the cloth is pulled to one side, and the boy is seated on his father's lap, who eleven times over whispers the gayatri or sun-hymn in the boy's right ear. The boy takes his seat on the altar, lights the sacrificial fire with the help of the priest, and feeds it with clarified butter, sesamum seeds, and parched rice. Next the boy comes off the altar and stands close by on a low wooden stool, a cord of twisted sacred grass is tied round his waist, and another along with the sacred thread, is put round his shoulders. He takes the staff or dand in his hands, walks into the house, makes a bow before his house gods, comes out, and he is again seated on the altar along with the priest. Married women bring sugar balls and lay them on the altar, and every one present, men women and children, takes in his hand a ladle to which a lucky thread or mangalsutra is tied, puts a sugar ball and a silver or copper coin into the ladle, and when the boy calls Om bhavati bhikshan dehi, Give alms, oh lady, in God's name, rolls the coin out of the ladle into his bag. The money is gathered, a few coppers are added, and the whole is divided into two equal shares, one of which is given to the priest and the other is divided among the Brahman guests. After this the boy dines and the priest is given uncooked food or shidha and 6d. (4 as.) in cash. The priest also gets a further fee of 3s. (Rs. 1½) in cash. The guests then feast on sweetmeats, betel is served, and they withdraw. At five in the evening the priest goes to the boy's, seats him on a low wooden stool, teaches him the prayer or sandhya, and continues to come and teach him every day till he learns it. On the second day nothing particular is done and on the third day the sacrificial fire is put out. In the morning of the third day the boy is bathed and seated on the altar close to the priest. The priest repeats verses and the boy feeds the fire with butter. Then water mixed with milk is sprinkled on the fire to put it out or as they say to make it calm orshant. The Brahman is given uncooked food and a couple of annas. A dish of cakes is prepared and eaten in the house. The guardian gods are bowed out and the booth is pulled down, and if the boy's family deity is a goddess a gondhal dance is performed. From the Gondhli's house a broad hollow pipe or chavandka is brought and worshipped along with the family gods and cooked food is offered to them. A few married women and the Gondhlis are feasted. The dancers bring with them two bags or jholis, three baskets or kotambalis stuck all over with cowrie shells, and a metal lamp or divti which they call the goddess Amba Bhavani. These are placed in a line on the ground and the boy's father bows before them, and, on five betea leaves, lays all kinds of food cooked in the house. The guests including the dancers dine, betel packets are offered them, and the married women and the dancers are each presented with a copper coin. They retire leaving the goddess that is the lighted lamp in the booth. About nine or ten at night the dance is begun and the Gondhlis go on dancing and singing till six next morning. At the the end of the dance the dancers are presented with an old turban or robe and a rupee in cash, Then comes the munj loosening or sodmunjwhich takes place from the fifth day to two, three, or six years after the thread-girding, but always before the boy's marriage. On the morning of the munj loosening a barber is called, and the boy's head is shaved, and he is bathed by married women. The cords of sacred grass which at the thread-girding were tied round his waist and shoulders are brought from the place where they have been kept, and are tied round his waist and shoulders as before. A sacrificial fire is kindled with the help of the Brahman priest and fed with butter and parched rice. The boy leaves his seat and sits close by on another low wooden stool. He is dressed in a waistcloth, turban, coat, and shouldercloth, lampblack is rubbed on his eyes, shoes are drawn over his feet, a walking stick and an umbrella are put in his hands, a bag of rice is laid on his right shoulder, and he is told to ask leave of all present to go to Benares to study the Veds. He asks leave to go. H they agree he walks a few paces, when his maternal uncle stops him, begs him to give up the idea of an ascetic life, and to return, marry his daughter, and lead the life of a householder. The boy comes back and makes over the bag to the priest with about 1s. (8 as.) in cash. The priest is given uncooked food, and the day ends with a feast. A'rya Kshatris marry their girls between five and eleven, or, on pain of loss of caste, at least before they come of age. Boys may be married at any time and are generally married between twelve and eighteen. The parents limit the choice to families of the same caste, and, among castefellows, to families of a different stock or gotra. In families who have a young daughter the women of the house consulting with the men fix on some boy as a good match for their daughter. The girl's father goes to the boy's house, and, after dining, stands on the veranda, looking for a passer-by. He accosts one, and asks him to intercede on his behalf, as he has come from his own village in the hope of getting the son of the owner of the house to marry his daughter. The stranger agrees, leaving any work however urgent, as the helper of a marriage gains merit. He walks in and asks the householder to come out. The three seat themselves on a blanket or carpet, and the go-between explains to the host the object of the guest's visit. He praises the guest and his family and declares that his daughter is healthy handsome and wise. The householder says he does not wish his son to be married, times are hard, and he must consult his people. After much persuasion and flattery, the householder agrees, but says he must first see the girl and decide whether she is suitable for his son. The guest asks the householder to call his son. When he comes, the guest asks the boy his name and his family name, puts him several questions, asks him to show his copy and study books, makes him read and write a little, shows him a picture or a drawing and asks him what fault it has, and if the boy can draw asks him to show some of his work. After having satisfied himself the guest asks the host to fix a day on which he will come to the girl's house to see her. A day is named and the girl's father and the go-between leave. The boy's father talks the matter over with his wife and other members of the house. He tells them he should much like to get his boy married daring his lifetime. On the day named he starts for the girl's house and puts up there. The girl is dressed in rich clothes, decked with ornaments, and brought forward and shown to the boy's father, and one or two relations or neighbours whom the girl's father has asked to be present. The boy's father, taking the girl by her hand, seats her on his lap, and, that he may see her more plainly, another person in front calls the girl and seats her on his lap. He asks her her name, and her parents' and brothers' names, and after a few more questions, she is told to bow before the boy's father and the rest of the company, and then walks into the house. Betel is served and the guests retire. If the boy's father approves of the girl a few Brahmans are called, and the boy's and girl's horoscopes are handed them and they compare them to see if they agree. If they agree the girl is called, and the boy's father presents her with a robe and bodice, she goes into the house and puts them on, and takes her seat as before. A packet of sugar is handed her which she takes, bows before them all, and walks into the house. The girl's father presents the boy's father with a new turban, betel is handed, and the guests prepare to leave. Before they go the boy's father asks the guests to wait for a short time, as he is anxious to settle some points before returning home. Then, either himself or some one on his behalf, asks the girl's father how much money he wishes settled on the boy and what clothes and ornaments he expects to be given to the girl. The girl's father says he is willing to give £2 10s. (Rs. 25) in cash as hunda or dowry and £5 (Rs. 50) worth of outfit or harni. After much haggling the cash and the outfit together are fixed at £10 (Rs. 100). Lists are made of things to he presented to the boy by the girl's father and to the girl by the boy's father, read, and handed to the fathers. [ The lists are to the following effect: Yadi or list of articles to be presented to the daughter of Ramchandra Babaji inhabitant of Sholapur by Govind Bapu inhabitant of Kolhapur, the boy's father, five chirdis or girls robes, fire cholis or bodices, thres turbans, three sashes, three rich robes, three common robes, one silver chain, one pair of silver feet chains or valas; one pair of silver toe rings or jodvis, one gold belpan and one gold kevda for the head, one putlyachimal or coin necklace, one pair of balis or earrings, nosering, and one pair of gold wristlets or patlis. Yadi or note of articles to be presented to the son of Govind Bapu inhabitant of Kolhapur by Ramchandra Babaji inhabitant of Sholapur, the girl's father, dowry or hunda Rs. 25 in cash, one silk robe, three waistcloths, eight turbans, eight sashes, three robes, three bodices, and metal vessels worth £1 (Rs. 10).] Then the Brahmans are asked to fix some lucky day for the marriage. After the marriage day or muhurt is fixed, sugar and betel packets' are handed and presents made to Brahmans. The boy's father is feasted and returns to his home. On his return he sets to work, buying grain, clothes, ornaments, and other articles required for the wedding. Red-sprinkled invitation cards are sent to distant kinspeople, and, if the boy's parents do not live in the same village with the girl's, the boy's people ask the villagers to come with them and they start so as to reach the girl's village at least a couple of days before the marriage. At the girl's village a house is hired for the boy's party, marriage booths are built at both houses, and an image of the god Ganpati is drawn under the front door of each house. When the boy's party comes close to the girl's village, they send a message to the girl's parents. In the evening a party start in procession with a gaily trapped horse and music, and seating the boy on the horse, bring him to his lodgings, followed by a number of carts containing guests, furniture, and clothes. This procession is called varkad or marriage. The house is lighted and the guests are seated, and, when betel has been served, they are taken over to their new lodging, shown the rooms, where to store their goods, and where to cook, sleep, and sit. A cook is sent to the boy's lodgings with uncooked dishes, and, after they are cooked, the guests are feasted, one of the girl's party acting as host. The invitation to the village god and other guests, the installation of the marriage gods, and the simant pujan or boundary worship are the same as among Komtis.

An earthen altar is raised at the girl's, seven by eleven of the girl's spans, the back rising about eighteen inches above the altar in three six inch tiers each narrower than the tier below it. When finished the whole is whitewashed. Twenty-six earthen pots, including five covers, are brought from a potter's and laid near one another. Next morning four plantain posts or khambs are set one at each corner of the altar. Near each post are piled five earthen vessels one above the other, a fifth pile is raised to the right of the altar, and the topmost pot in each of the five piles is closed by an earthen lid or cover called yelni.Married women rub the girl with turmeric and bathe her, and the rest of the turmeric is taken to the boy's in a plate with music and the present of a turban, sash, waist-cloth, and a cup of oil. The boy's relations rub the boy with turmeric, bathe him, and the girl's relations present him with clothes. He wears the waistcloth, rolls the turban round his head, covers his body with the sash, and walks into the house. The plate and cup are left as a present to the boy, and the girl's relations are starting to return, when they are asked to wait and accompany the boy's party to the girl's. The boy's relations take in a plate, a green robe and bodice, a betel packet, almonds, rice, dry dates, and turmeric roots and with music go to the girl's. They call the girl, give her the bodice and robe to wear, fill her lap with the almonds turmeric roots and other articles brought in the plate, and the boy's party return home. Near the altar the astrologer sets a bathing tub or ghangal on rice grains, fills it with cold Water, and floats a copper cup in it with a small hole in its bottom. Each time the cup sinks, the astrologer marks a line on the wall with wet redpowder. In front of the waterpot he sets a lighted lamp and sits all the while repeating verses. A procession from the boy's house starts accompanied by kinsmen and kinswomen, the priest, and music, and taking a robe and bodice, silver anklets or valas and silver chains or sankhlis, gold wristlets or patlis, a gold coin necklace or putlyanchimal, and earrings or balis, also rice, dry cocoa-kernel, turmeric roots, betel, redpowder, sugar, and 2s. (Re, 1) in copper. They are all seated and the girl is called and presented with the robe, bodice, and ornaments. Her father is presented with a turban, and after betel is served and Brahmans are paid, the guests retire. After this comes the marriage ceremony. On the marriage morning, from the girl's house, the girl's sister, holding a metal plate with a lighted lamp in it, and giving a servant a second plate with a flower garland, nosegay, cocoanut, and a cup of sweet milk, and, accompanied by married girls and boys and musicians, goes to the boy's house. They are seated on a carpet and the boy is called. When he comes he is seated on the carpet and one of the girl's relations puts the garland round his neck, sticks the nosegay in his turban, and asks him to drink the milk. Marriage ornaments or mundavals are put round his brow, he bows before the house gods, is seated on a horse, and, followed by his and the girl's sisters, with lighted lamps in their hands and kinspeople, friends, and music, goes in procession to the village Maruti and from that to the girl's. When the boy comes near the gate of the girl's marriage hall, the girl's mother goes in front of him, waves curds and cooked rice round his face, and throws them on one side. She then takes a whitewashed copper waterpot, touches the boy's eyes with a little water from the pot, and pours the rest on the horse's feet. The boy's father presents her with a bodice, and the girl's father waving a cocoanut round the boy's head dashes it on the ground. The girl's brother takes him off the horse, leads him into the marriage hall, and seats him on the carpet with the other guests. The girl's priest draws near, asks him to take off his coat, waistcoat, turban, and shoes, and the girl's father presents him with a new silk waistcloth. Then the madhupark or honey-sipping is performed with the same details as among Brahmans. Rolls of betel leaves are placed in the boy's and girl's hands, they are made to stand in front of each other on low wooden stools, and a necklace of black glass beads is tied round the girl's neck. Between the two wooden stools is laid a sandal grindstone or sahan which the boy and girl touch with their toes and a cloth is held between them. In the middle of the cloth is drawn a redpowder cross or nandi, and the boy and girl are told to fix their eyes on the red lines. Behind both the boy and girl stand their maternal uncles and red rice is handed to the guests. The priests repeat marriage verses, and, at the end, throw red rice on the heads of the couple and they are husband and wife. Betel is served, money is presented to Brahmans and other beggars, and the guests retire. The cloth and the sandal grindstone are removed and the boy and the girl are seated on the low wooden stools on which they were standing. Five Brahmans sit round the couple, repeat verses, and taking a cotton thread dip it in water and pass it seven and nine times round the couple. The thread is divided in two and laid in a plate along with two turmeric roots and worshipped by the boy and girl. Turmeric roots are tied to the two threads, the thread of seven turns being tied to the girl's wrist and the thread of nine turns to the boy's wrist. This is called the tying of the wristlets or kankans, and silver toe-rings or jodvis are also put round the girl's big toes. The boy and girl leave their places and are seated on the altar or low wooden stools near each other, the girl to the left of the boy. A married woman brings fire from the house, and, setting it on the altar in front of the boy, marks her brow with red-powder and retires. The boy feeds the sacrificial fire with butter and the girl feeds it with parched grain which her brother hands her. This ends the hom ceremony, and the boy and girl walk into the house. The ear-squeezing ceremony is not performed but on account of it the boy's father presents the girl's brother with a turban. The boy and girl dine in company with other children, and after the guests have all dined, the marriage day is over. On the morning of the second day the girl's kinspeople accompanied by music go to the boy's and ask his party to a feast at their house. The boy and girl are rubbed with turmeric and they play games at odds and evens and bite off rolls of betel leaves from each other's mouths. They are then bathed and dine with children. About twelve the girl's kinsmen go to the boy's house with music and fetch the men to dine at their house. After the men have dined the women are brought and after dining they too retire. On the third day the same ceremonies are performed as on the second day except that the women walk on cloths which the washerwomen spread in front of them. The girl's mother washes the boy's mother's feet with warm water and presents her with a comb and five brass boxes and a washing pot or tast.About eight in the evening the girl's mother and a few kinsmen and kinswomen go to the boy's with music and take their seat in the house on carpets and mats. The boy's parents with relations and friends and the girl's relations all leave for the girl's house, on the way throwing redpowder or gulal on one another and rubbing it on one another's faces. When they reach the house door, the boy's mother refuses to enter unless she is given a richpaithani robe. The girl's party at once promise her one bat she refuses to move unless it is given into her hands on the spot. The girl's relations then give her 10s. (Rs. 5)|in cash and she walks into the house, the rest of her company following her. The boy's mother dresses in old clothes, her body is rubbed with fragrant oil and powders, and she is bathed in warm water. Such of her relations as wish are also bathed in the same way. Then the boy and girl are rubbed with turmeric and bathed. The boy puts on a silk waistcloth, kindles a sacrificial fire, and feeds it with butter. The girl's father presents him with a suit of new clothes, which he puts on and sits on a low wooden stool in the marriage hall, and the girl sits on another in front of him. The girl's parents sit beside their daughter. In front of the boy and girl a heap of wheat is made and over it is placed a big red earthen jar or dera. Round the big jar are set four small earthen pots or madkis. Then a piece of thread is fastened from each of the small pots to the great jar. When the four little pots are tied to the great jar a few grains of rice are dropped in each of the five pots and the big jar is closed with an earthen lid or yelni,and the months of the four small pots are covered with betel leaves. Then over each of the four small pots a lighted dough lamp is set and a big lamp on the big jar, and twenty-one lamps on a round bamboo plate called shiptar or padli. The girl's parents worship all the twenty-six lamps, and the girl leaves her seat and sits beside the boy on a low wooden stool. The girl's father marks the boy's brow with sandal and the girl's mother marks the girl's brow with redpowder. The girl's father throws a garland round the boy's neck and a nosegay is stuckin his turban. The boy's father presents the girl with a robe, bodice, cash, hair ornaments, and a nosering. She goes into the house, dresses in the new robe and bodice, puts on the ornaments, and throws the sash or shela over her head. The girl's mother makes small grain-like balls or maltya of wheat flour, and fills the girl's lap with them, and tells her and the boy pointing to the big jar that the big jar is to warm their daily bath water, the jar lid is to be their dinner plate, and the four small earthen pots are to be their daily cooking pots. The girl's father sets the bamboo basket with the lighted lamps first on the boy's and girl's heads, and then on the heads of the boy's father, mother, and paternal uncles. The girl's mother takes the bamboo basket in her turn and sets it on the heads of the boy's mother and her near kinswomen. The boy's father presents the girl's father with a new turban and cash and the boy's mother presents the girl's mother with a rich robe as apotjhakni or stomacher and the girl's other relations with bodices. The girl's mother presents the boy's mother with a rich robe and bodices, or robes to close relations. The boy goes into the house, takes one of the girl's house gods, and hides it in his clothes. He comes back to the booth and is presented with a waterpot and cup and a brass lamp. The boy and girl are seated on horseback, and, accompanied by kinspeople and music, are taken to the boy's house. At the boy's the Lakshmipujan or Lakshmi worship is performed with the same rites as are described in the Komti account. That night the girl stays at the boy's house. Next morning the boy and girl bathe and are taken to the girl's house where they dress in silk clothes, and take their seats on Tow wooden stools near each other. The priest repeats verses, and the threads or kankans are untied from the wrists of the boy and girl, laid in a plate, and worshipped by the boy and girl, after which a pinch of rice is thrown over them and their guardian power leaves them. A hole is dug somewhere near the house, milk is sprinkled over the hole, and the two strings with the turmeric roots are buried in it. The women guests throw a few rice grains over the five piles of earthen jars. Five are kept for the use of the girl's mother and the rest are handed among the women guests. The boy's sister cowdungs the altar and throws two robes over it which become the girl's mother's property. The boy and girl are taken to the boy's house and the girl's parents and relations are feasted. Meanwhile at the boy's house the marriage gods are bowed out. Next day the marriage gods at the girl's house are bowed out and the boy's party are feasted. If their family deity is the Tuljapur Bhavani a gondhal dance is held that night. After a couple of days the boy's party has a final feast and starts for its own village. A plateful of sweetmeats orkanavlas are presented to the women of the boy's party, who distribute them among all the women present. The girl is presented with a variety of sweetmeats and the girl goes to her new home. When they reach the boy's home the Lakshmi worship is repeated. The girl is kept for a week or so, is presented with a new robe and bodice, and is seat back to her parents. When a girl comes of age her mother sends a message or a letter to the girl's' father-in-law to say that he has been blessed with a grandson. If they belong to the same village, on receipt of the message, the girl's father-in-law tells his wife the news. The messenger is given a packet of betelnut and leaves and a handful of sugar and goes back. The boy's parents talk the matter over. If the boy is young or the day is not lucky, word is sent to the girl's house that it does not suit them at present to bring the girl to their house. The girl's mother then makes a bamboo frame, folds a turban round it, and seats her girl in it on a low wooden stool. She is offered turmeric and redpowder, and her lap is filled with rice, betel, and dry cocoa-kernel. The lap-filling is repeated for three days, and, on the morning of the fifth day, she bathes and becomes pure. Five married women fill her lap with rice grains, turmeric roots, betel, dry dates, and almonds, and she is feasted on some sweet dish. After about a month when she is at her father-in-law's she is again seated in a frame, as at her mother's and her lap is filled. On the second day the girl's mother takes her a present of sugared milk and biscuits, and feasts her along with some children. On the third morning the same ceremony is observed as on the second, and on the fourth morning nothing is done beyond bathing the girl. On the fifth morning the boy and girl bathe as usual and are seated in the frame. The girl's parents come with presents of a robe, bodice, waistcloth, turban, flowers, rice, cocoanuts, and fruit. The girl's mother marks her brow with redpowder and presents the boy and girl with the clothes. They go into the house, put on the new clothes, come back, and again seat themselves in the frame. A flower garland is put round the boy's neck, a nosegay is fastened in his turban, the girl's lap is filled with fruit rice and betel, and the boy takes a cocoanut and puts it in the girl's lap. The boy puts on a sllk waistcloth, and sits on a low wooden stool the girl sitting on another stool close to him. The god Ganesh is worshipped, with the help of the Brahman priest, a sacred fire is lit and fed with butter and parched rice. The boy and girl are rubbed with fragrant oils and bathed in warm water. They then dress in fresh clothes and are presented with new clothes. Betel packets are handed round, and if the parents are well-to-do, a feast is given, the girl serving butter on at least five of the dinner plates. After the feast is over the girl's mother makes the girl a present of a set of betel dishes, bedding, lamps, water vessels, cups and saucers, and a carpet, and retires. In the evening the boy's mother asks the girl to spread the bedding in one of the bedrooms, to fill the waterpot with cold water, to put a wick and oil in the lamp and to light it, and to make packets of betelnut and leaves. When she has made all these ready the boy is asked to walk into the room, and the girl follows with a lighted lamp in her hands, and the mother closes the door behind her. The little wife washes the boy's feet with the water she brought in the jar, rubs his body with fragrant powder, throws a flower garland round his neck, and fastens a bouquet in his turban, offers him milk, and betel, and waves the lamp round his face. In the seventh month of a girl's first pregnancy, a letter is sent to her parents, asking them to a feast at the boy's in honour of the event. No one attends the dinner except the girl's father, who brings a robe, bodice, turban, and grain. To avoid two dinners, the girl's father hands the grain to the boy's father, and a joint feast is given The boy and girl are presented with the robe, bodice, and turban and the father takes back his daughter to his house. The boy's father says, Why take the girl she is both your and my child. Let her stay here and spare yourself the expense. If the girl's father is anxious to take his child home with him the boy's father allows him. After the girl has gone to her father's she is now and then taken to some garden on the banks of a river and feasted. If no river is near she is seated on a swinging cot, songs are sung, and she is feasted on dainties. Shortly before death a dying Jingar is laid on a blanket and his son sits with his father's head on his right knee. Water in which a Brahman's toe has been washed, a few drops of the Ganges water, and the five cow gifts are dropped into the dying mouth. When all is over relations gather round the dead and weep. A bamboo bier is made, and the body is brought out of the house and laid on the house steps. Its head is rubbed with butter and warm water is poured over the body. It is dressed in a flax or tag waistcloth and covered with a white sheet. It is then tied to the bier with a cord and carried to the burning ground with a copper coin and rice grains tied to one of the hems of the sheet. The chief mourner goes in front carrying an earthen fire-pot and the other mourners follow. Somewhere near the burning ground the bier is lowered and the copper coin and the rice are laid by the side of the road, the bearers lift the bier on their shoulders, and carry it to the burning ground. A pile of cowdung cakes is made and blessed by the Brahman priest who throws a few sesamum seeds over it. The chief mourner bathes, has his head and moustache shaved, and again bathes. The body is laid on the pile, a handful of rice is cooked and a ball of wheat flour made, and, after offering the ball and cooked rice and throwing sesamum seed on them, they are laid on the dead man's chest. The mourner dips his shoulder-cloth into water, squeezes a few drops into the dead man's mouth, and the pile is lit. The Brahman priest throws a few, sesamum seeds over the pyre, repeats verses, and after boring the jar in three places, the chief mourner walks round the pile thrice, and throws the jar backwards over his shoulder on the ground beating his mouth with his open hand. He takes a pebble from the spot where the jar fell and brings it home as the stone of life or jivkhada, and lays-it in some safe place. All the mourners bathe and each carrying a nimb branch they return to the deceased's house. The spot where the deceased breathed his last is cowdunged, and each mourner, taking a leaf or two of the nimb tree, throws it on the spot and returns home.

The neighbours bring cooked food for the mourners and ask them to dine. They tell them they do wrong to weep for the dead has gone to God; all has been well with him. He was fortunate in having friends to drop the holy water in his mouth and to close his eyes. Weeping will never bring him back. It does him evil not good for every tear swells to a river which the poor soul crosses with great suffering. The mourners, to please their friends, try not to think of their sorrow and eat a little and the neighbours leave. Before he eats the chief mourner makes a rice ball and lays it under a basket on the spot where the deceased breathed his last. Next morning with a Brahman priest, the chief mourner takes the stone of life to the burning ground, cooks rice, makes a wheat flour cake, and, placing it on a small earthen pot, offers it to the stone and throws it into the river or stream. The chief mourner returns home, and, before dining, lays some cooked rice in front of the rice ball. On the morning of the third day the rice flour ball and the nimb leaves are removed and taken to the burning ground; the spot where the dead breathed his last is cowdunged, and a lighted lamp is set on it, and kept burning night and day till the tenth day. At the burning ground the mourner gathers all the ashes, throws them into the water along with the nimb leaves and rice ball he brought from his house, bathes, and returns home. On the fourth day he takes wheat flour and rice, goes to the burning ground, bathes and prepares four wheat balls one on account of the third day ceremony and three on account of the vedishraddh or altar mind-rite which he lays each at one corner of an earthen triangle. On the morning of the fourth day a wheat ball and cooked rice are offered to the stone of life, sesamum seed is dropped over it, and the offering is thrown into the river. This is repeated on the fifth and sixth, and daily up to the ninth. On the tenth day six balls and cakes are made, one on account of that day and five on account of the vedishraddh or the altar mind-rite, offered to the lifestone, and thrown along with the stone into the river. By the time the mourner returns, the house is cowdunged and all the clothes are washed. On the eleventh day, the lamp, which was kept burning at the place where the dead breathed his last, is put out, and the men belonging to the deceased's family go to the river to bathe, sip the five cow gifts, and change their sacred threads. On this day the chief mourner makes seventeen dough balls, one larger than the rest on account of that day, and sixteen on account of the shodashi shraddh or sixteen-ball mind-rite, and offers them on a leaf plate to the deceased and his ancestors. Sesamum seed is dropped on them and cooked rice ball is laid before them, and the chief mourner takes the large ball, and, at some distance from the rest, lays it for the crows. After the crows have eaten or at least touched the big ball the remaining balls are thrown into the river. Then, besides a cow and calf, ten presents or dashdans are made to Brahmans. On the twelfth day three dough balls and a long piece of dough like a stone rolling-pin, eight fingers by three, are made, and laid on a leaf-plate. The chief mourner takes a few blades of sacred grass, twists them into a cord, and divides the dough rolling-pin in three parts. He takes each of the three parts of the dough rolling-pin, adds it to each of the three balls, and, by sprinkling water over them, offers the balls to the spirit of the dead, his father, and his grandfather. The balls are then thrown into the river, the chief mourner bathes, and other three balls are prepared, worshipped, and thrown into water. Brahmans are presented with a blanket, a walking stick, a fan, an umbrella, an earthen jar, uncooked food, and money. On the thirteenth day a shraddh or mind-rite is performed and castefellows are feasted. Presents are made to Brahmans, a cow with her calf, a waterpot, a set of betel dishes, sacred books, a rosary of basil or other beads, and a lighted lamp with butter enough to last for a considerable time. On the fourteenth the mourner's head is shaved, and Brahmans and near kinsfolk are feasted on gram cakes. Red sandal is rubbed on the mournerys brow and the Brahmans bless him and retire. About three more mind-rites or shraddhs are performed, one a month or six months after the death, the second on the death day, and the third on some day before the death day. The Arya Kshatris have a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of castemen. Breaches of caste rules are punished by fines which take the form of caste feasts. If the offender is poor, a service of betel takes the place of a dinner. Of late the authority of caste has grown weak. Their boys go to school but they remain there only till they can read write and cast accounts. They are a clever class, but have not yet recovered their losses during the famine time.

Kasars

Ka'sa'rs are returned as numbering 1573 and as found in every large village and town. They are divided into Marathas and Jains, who neither eat together nor intermarry. The Marathas look like high caste Hindus and speak Marathi. They own dwellings one or two storeys high with walls of brick and tiled roofs and with a veranda outside for a shop. Their houses are well supplied with metal vessels, bedding, cattle, and ponies. Except the Jain Kasars they eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. Both men and women dress like Maratha Brahmans, the men in a waistcloth, coat, waistcoat, turban, and shoes; and the women in the full Maratha robe and bodice. They are clean, neat, hardworking, and orderly, and make vessels of copper brass and tin. They also deal in glass bangles and make and sell wax bangles, in some of which they set small pieces of looking glass. They worship all Hindu gods and goddesses and keep the usual fasts and feasts, and their priests are the ordinary village Brahmans. They wear the sacred thread only at the time of marriage, and marry their girls before they are nine and their boys between twelve and sixteen. They hold their women impure for eleven days after childbirth, worship the goddess Satvai on the sixth, and name the child on the twelfth. They have lost much of their former trade and income from the competition of European copper and brass sheets, but on the whole are a well-to-do class. They have a caste council and send their boys to school, but only for a short time, till they are able to read, write, and cast accounts in Marathi.

Khatris

Khatris are returned as numbering 1174 and as found in all sub-divisions. They claim to be Kshatris and are said to have come from Cheul in Kolaba about a hundred years ago. The men are short, spare, fair, and small-eyed; and the women are fair and short but not good-looking. The men wear the top-knot, moustache, and whiskers, but not the beard. Their home tongue appears to be Marathi but they speak a mixture of Kanarese Gujarati and Hindustani. They live in dirty badly kept mud stone and brick houses with flat or tiled roofs. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. Their staple food is jvari split pulse and vegetables, but on holidays they prepare dishes of rice, wheat bread, and a variety of sweet dishes. Both men and women dress like Maratha Brahmans and have costly clothes in store which they wear on holidays and other days. They are hardworking, even-tempered, forbearing, and patient, and are cotton and silk weavers, dyers and dealers in gold, silver, and silk lace. Most families have a loom or two in their house, but a few are day labourers. They worship the ordinary Hindu gods and goddesses, and their favourite household gods are Khandoba, Narsoba, and Renuka. Their priests are ordinary Brahmans whom they treat with respect. They worship Satvai on the fifth day after a child's birth, gird the boy with a sacred thread before he is ten years old, and marry him at any time before he is twenty-five. They marry their girls before they come of age. They mourn ten days and on the twelfth feast the caste. They practise widow marriage and polygamy. Their social disputes are settled by a meeting of elderly caste-men in presence of their Brahman priests. They send their boys to school and are a well-to-do and rising class.

Koshtis

Koshtis, or Weavers, are returned as numbering 10,658 and as found all over the district. They are divided into Hatgars, Khatavans, and Patnavals, and are said to have come from Mungi Paithan four or five generations ago. Of the three divisions the Hatgars and Patnavals are Lingayats and do not eat from the Khatavans. None of the three divisions intermarry. They look and dress like Marathas and high caste Hindus. They speak Marathi, and live in houses of mud and stone with flat or tiled roofs, and keep cattle. The Khatavans eat fish and flesh and drink liquor; the Hatgars and Patnavals are vegetarians, and avoid spirits. Their daily food is jvari, vegetables, and pulse, and on holidays they prepare pulse cakes, and rice, costing 1s. to 4s. (Rs. ½-2) for a family of five. A caste feast costs about £1 10s. (Rs. 15) for a hundred plates. The men and women dress either like Marathas or high caste Hindus and have clothes in store for great occasions. They are hardworking, forbearing, hospitable, and temperate. Koshtis, Salis, and Sangars, though of different castes all follow the craft of weaving cotton and silk. They weave sheets, quilts, waistcloths, robes, and turbans. Some are shopkeepers and others are labourers. Their women help in cleaning yarn and spinning. They begin work from the early morning and their busy season is after the rains. A family makes about 1s. (8 as.) a day, including about 1½d. to 17/8d. (1 -1¼ a.) for a woman and an equal sum for a boy. The competition of European and Bombay goods depresses the Koshtis. The Khatavans' house gods are Khandoba, Mahadev, Vithoba, and the goddesses Ambabai, Jakhai, Kombai, Nalsaheb, and Shivrai, and their priests are Brahmans. The priests of the Hatgars and Patnavals are Jangams. The Khatavan customs are the same as those of Marathas. They burn the married and bury the unmarried dead. The Koshtis have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. They send their boys to school and are fairly off.

Kumbhars

Kumbha'rs, or Potters, are returned as numbering 3852 and as found in all towns and market villages. It is not known when they came into the district, but they are believed to have come with the Marathas as their potters. Most are Marathas but a few are Lingayats and Pardeshis. Except Pardeshis who speak Hindustani, both Lingayats and Marathas speak ordinary Marathi. Their houses are generally of mud and stones with flat or grass roofs. They cook sleep and sit in one-fourth of the house and give up the rest to their cattle, tools, and pots. Except a few metal pots their vessels are of clay. They have no servants, and the animals they keep are cows buffaloes and ponies. Their daily food is jvari bread, split pulse, and vegetables, and, except the Lingayats, all eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. The men wear a pair of drawers reaching to the knee, a smock, a waistcloth, turban, and blanket; and the women a robe and bodice. They are hardworking, patient, forbearing, and hospitable. Though their appliances are simple, they turn out good serviceable wares making small and large vessels and jars for storing water and grain, and cooking and dining pots and pans, children's toys, smoking pipes or chilims, and tiles and bricks. They burn sweepings in their kilns and sell their wares either in their houses or at the nearest market. All people buy them and their prices vary from ⅛d. to 1s. (1/12-8 as.) a piece. Bricks are sold at 8s. to 12s. (Rs.4-6) and tiles at 6s. to 8s. (Rs.3-4) the thousand. The men are early at work and keep working till noon. After a meal and a quarter of an hour's rest they begin again and go on till evening, when they sup, and go to bed about ten. Their wives never help them in their work, but they make hearths or chuls. Boys of ten and over help a little in the work, which is on the humblest possible scale with no stock in hand. They mix ashes and horsedung with earth and knead it well before using it. They prepare a kiln or bhatti once a week, which costs them 1s. to 1s. 6d. (8-12 as.) to make ready. Their tools are a wheel, a bat-shaped piece of wood called phala, and a round stone called gunda. They are a poor class, living from hand to mouth, and bartering their wares for grain. After the birth of a child the mother is held impure by Lingayats for three and by other Kumbhars for seven days, and except the midwife no one touches her. On the fifth the whole house is cowdunged and the goddess Satvai is worshipped. A feast is held and the men and women guests are served with Indian millet bread. If the new-born child is a boy, either on the twelfth or thirteenth, married kinswomen and friends come bringing handfnls of wheat or jvari and hoods and other child's clothes and present them to the child. The child is cradled and named. When a year or thirteen months old the child's hair is clipped by a barber who is given some jvari.Kumbhars do not gird their boys with the sacred thread. At the marriage time they rub the boy's and girl's bodies with turmeric at their houses. Their marriage guardian or devak is thethapatne or bat-shaped piece of wood with which they beat their pots to harden them before baking. To their marriages Lingayat Kumbhars call both a Jangam and a Brahman priest. Other Kumbhars call only a Brahman priest. During the night the boy and girl are seated on a bullock and paraded through the village. Feasts and return feasts are given and the marriage ceremony is over. After a girl comes of age, she is held impure for four days and joins her husband on the sixteenth. They bury their dead and carry the body in a cloth slung from the shoulders of two men. Lingayat Kumbhars mourn for three and other Kumbhars for seven days. They have a headman or mhetar who settles all social disputes in the presence of the castemen. They do not send their boys to school and those of their boys who do not learn their father's calling turn day-labourers. They are a poor class.

Lakheris

La'kheris, or Lac Workers, are returned as numbering fifty and as found in the town of Sholapur. They are Marwar Vanis who are said to have come into the district between seventy-five and eighty years ago to trade in lac bracelets. They say they are Kshatris, and their surnames are Bagdis of Jaypur, Chavaris of Ajmir, Pavars of Ujain, and Sisodes of Udepur. Their stocks or gotras are Gantami, Kashyap, and Vasishth; and persons bearing the same surname do not intermarry. They are the same as Marwar Vanis, look like them, wear their hair like them, with a top and two ear knots, the moustache and whiskers, and some the beard. Their home tongue is Marwari, but out-of-doors they speak good Marathi. They live in thatched huts and have metal vessels, and some keep goats. Their staple food isbajri and wheat. They are notorious for the amount of butter they drink at feasts mixed with sugar. They have no objection to eat fish and flesh or to drink liquor. Both men and women dress like Marwar Vanis, and the women wear lac bangles or chudas and occasionally a couple of glass bangles. They make eight kinds of bracelets kangnis, todas, gots, chudas,gangajamnis, gajras, raymanis, and chhavds which cost ⅜d. to ¾d. (¼-½ a.) a pair. Their boys become apprentices at fourteen or fifteen, and are skilled workers after a couple of years. They are seldom employed by others. When employed they are paid, besides food, 6d.to 1s. (4-8 as.) a day. Their work is not constant. They buy lac from Komtis at 7s. to 10s. (Rs. 3½-5) the sher of eighty rupees and dyes or chopda at £1 4s. (Rs. 12) the man;chandras at £2 8s. (Rs. 24) white or sapheta at 10s. (Rs. 5), and vermilion or hingul in packets of two and a half tolas for 2¼d. (1 2/3 a.). If they set pieces of glass in the lac bracelets they have to buy the glass at £1 4s. (Rs. 12) the forty pounds or man. When they have work to do their wages represent a profit of £1 to £14s. (Rs. 10 -12) a month. Their work is not constant, and they work to order. The craft is hereditary and their women and children help. They say a good workman can make three thousand bracelets or chudas in four or five days. They are either Shaivs or Vaishnavs, and their priests are the ordinary Maratha Brahmans. They occasionally go to Marwar to fetch their children. The mother is impure for seven, nine, or eleven days after childbirth when the child is named. They worship the goddess Satvai on the fifth day, perform no thread ceremony, and marry their girls either before or after they come of age. They allow widow marriage, burn the dead, and mourn ten days. They have caste councils, and send their boys to school. The demand for their bracelets is declining as glass is more fashionable than lac. They used to sell their bracelets at £1 10s. to £2 (Rs.15-20) the thousand, but now they do not get more than 8s. to 10s. (Rs. 4-5). They borrow money at two per cent a month. They are a falling class.

Lohars

Lohars, or Blacksmiths, are returned as numbering 2938 and as found in all large villages and towns. They are divided into Akuj, Kalsabad, Kamle, Pokalghat, Parvale, Sinde, and Tingare, who neither eat together nor intermarry. They are dark and strong, The men wear the topknot and moustache, but not the beard. They speak Marathi, live in mud and stone houses, with metal and earthen vessels, tools, cattle, and goats, and servants. They eat fish and flesh, and drink liquor. Both men and women dress like cultivating Marathas, and make and repair the iron work of ploughs and carts. They also make pickaxes, spoons, iron vessels, and nails. Their house deities are Bhavani, Khandoba, Jotiba, and Mahadev, and their priests are Maratha Brahmans. They keep the chief Hindu fasts and feasts. They worship the goddess Satvai at their houses on the fifth day after childbirth, and again on the twelfth day at her village temple. They name their girls on the twelfth, and their boys on the thirteenth. When the child is a year old, its hair is clipped on its mother's or father's sister's knee, and the hair is buried. When the child is five years old, a knot is allowed to grow on the crown of its head. They marry their girls before they are eleven, and their boys between fifteen and twenty. Their devaks or marriage guardians are sandas or a pair of tongs, thehatoda or hammer, and the panch palvis or five tree leaves which they tie to a post of the marriage hall and worship. At the time of marriage thread bracelets or hankans and turmeric roots are tied to the wrists both of the boy and the girl, and, after the marriage ceremony, are untied by washerwomen at the boy's and girl's houses. They also tie marriage brow-horns or bashings to the boy's and girl's brows, and, in addition, gird the boy with the sacred thread. On the fourth day after marriage the girl's lap is filled with rice and sesamum seed or til balls. After the marriage the marriage ornaments and sacred thread are removed and are never again used. They either bury or burn the dead and mourn ten days. They settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. They do not send their boys to school, are a steady and well employed people, but suffer from the competition of European hardware.

Lonaris

Lona'ris, or Cement-makers, are returned as numbering 4625 and as found all over the district. Their surnames are Bule, Dage, Gadse, Gaganmal, Gavno, Ged, Gudal, Jhadge, Kalarkar, Karche, Korde, Khandekar, Khilari, Kolal, Lagad, Munje, Notraliparkar, Pharkar, Shelki, Thire, and Vag, who eat together and intermarry, They are strong and robust. The men wear the top-knot and moustache, and they keep donkeys and ponies. Their staple food is jvari, wheat, pulse, and vegetables, and, when they can afford it, fish, flesh, and liquor. The men wear the loincloth, short trousers, the waistcloth, and a coat reaching to the knee. Their turbans are folded after the fashion of those worn by cultivating Marathas, and their women wear the robe and bodice, but do not pass the end of the robe back between the feet. They make and sell cement and charcoal and also work as labourers. Their women help by hawking cement and charcoal. Their chief god is Mahadev, and they have house images of Ambabhavani, Bahiroba, and Khandoba. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts and their priests are the ordinary Deshasth Brahmans. A woman is impure for twelve days after a birth. On the fifth day the goddess Satvai is worshipped; and on the twelfth the child is cradled and named. When the child is about a year old, a Dhangar cuts its hair and is presented with five copper coins, five pieces of dry cocoa-kernel, and a betel packet. They have betrothals, and, if the boy's parents are poor, they present the girl with 2s. (Re. 1) and the ceremony is over. They marry their girls before they come of age, and the day before the marriage offer a sheep to the family god. At the time of the marriage the girl is made to stand on a grindstone or pata, and the boy on a coil of rope. A cloth is held between them, paper browhorns or bashings are tied to their brows, at the end of the marriage verses the Brahman priest and other guests throw rice over their heads and the boy and girl are husband and wife. They are seated on the altar or bahule, the hems of their garments are knotted together, and presents of clothes are exchanged. Feasts and return feasts are given, the girl bows to the village Maruti, and walks with the boy to his house. They burn their dead, mourn ten days, offer rice balls on the eleventh, and end the mourning with a feast. They have a caste council, and a feast or a low bow admits the guilty back into caste. Their income has of late been much lessened by Lohars and Ghisadis buying English coal, and because many house-owners have taken to make their own cement. They do not send their boys to school and are a poor people.

Niralis

Nira'lis, or Indigo Dyers, are returned as numbering 823 and as found in towns and large villages. They are divided into Niralis proper, and Kadus or bastards who eat together but do not intermarry. Their surnames are Chitrakar, Kadge, Kalaskar, Kandarkar, Mehetar, Misal. and Nakil. The traditional founder of their caste was one Prakash who was the son of a Kukut mother and an Abhir father. Their home tongue is Marathi. They live in houses of mud and stone with flat or tiled roofs and keep cattle. Their staple food is jvari, split pulse, and vegetables, and their holiday dishes are rice and wheat and gram cakes. They do not eat fish or flesh, neither do they drink liquor. The men dress in a Waistcloth, coat, and turban folded after the Brahman fashion or a scarf and shouldercloth. The robes, bodices, and jewelry of their women are like those worn by Deshasth Brahmans. They prepare indigo and dye yarn; some weave and others serve as day-labourers. Their women and children help in untying the bundles of yarn and keeping them well reeled. Their priests are ordinary Maratha Brahmans, and their chief deities are Ambabai, Khandoba, and Vyankoba. They worship the usual Hindu gods and goddesses, have images in their houses, and keep the regular fasts and feasts. On the fifth day after a birth they worship the goddess Satvai, and on the twelfth day name the child. At the time of betrothal, the boy's parents present the girl with a robe and bodice and with silver and gold ornaments. A day before the marriage the boy and girl are rubbed with turmeric at their houses, booths are raised, and caste-fellows feasted. During the marriage the boy and girl are made to stand on low wooden stools in front of each other, a cloth is held between them, and when the priests have repeated the marriage verses and the guests have thrown red rice over their heads they become husband and wife. The hems of their garments are tied and they are taken to the village Maruti's temple. A feast and a return feast are given, and with friends and kinsfolk the boy walks with the girl to his own house. Niralis either bury or burn the dead. The body is carried either slung in a cloth or on a bier. They mourn ten days, offer balls to the spirit of the dead, and feast caste-fellows on the thirteenth on rice and wheat bread. They allow and practise widow marriage and polygamy. They send their boys to school, but only for a short time, and are not well-to-do.

Otaris

Ota'ris, or Casters, are returned as numbering 156 and as found in towns. They look, speak, and dress like Maratha husbandmen; their houses are of mud, stone, and bricks, with tiled or flat roofs, and they have metal and earthen vessels in their houses. They keep a servant to help them in their work, and own cattle and ponies. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They are hardworking, hospitable, and orderly. They make molten images of Hindu gods, copper and brass ornaments, and vessels. Except that their goddess Satvai is offered cakes or mutkis of bajri flour on the fifth day after childbirth, and that their devak or marriage guardian is a pardi or pair of scales and panch palvis or the leaves of five trees, their customs are the same as those of cultivating Marathas. They burn their dead, allow widow marriage, and practise polygamy. They have a caste council, send their boys to school, and are a steady people. ==Panchals==. Pa'ncha'ls are returned as numbering 216 and as found only in Madha. They give three explanations of the name Panchal, first that they are composed of five classes, Goldsmiths, Coppersmiths, Blacksmiths, Carpenters, and Masons; second, that the word comes from panch five and al to melt because they melt gold, silver, copper, brass, and zinc; and third, that they have only five stocks or gotras, Abhuvan, Pratan, Sanag, Sanatan, and Suparn. They say they are sprung from Vishvakarma the framer of the universe and that they came to the district a hundred years ago. They are divided into Kasars or coppersmiths, Lohars or ironsmiths, Patharvats or masons, Sonars or goldsmiths, and Sutars or carpenters who neither eat together nor intermarry. Their surnames are Dharmadhikari, Kshirsagar, Mahamuni, Pandit, and Vedpathak; and persons bearing the same surname eat together but do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Govind, Narhari, Raghunath, Vaman, and Vishnu; and among women Chandrabhaga, Ganga, Mathura, Sarasvati, and Savitri. They are strong and fair, and, especially the Sonars, look like Brahmans. They speak an incorrect drawling Marathi both at home and abroad. Their staple food is millet, rice, pulse, and vegetables, and they are fond of chillies and hot spices. They neither eat fish or flesh nor drink liquor. They never eat without bathing, and worshipping and offering cooked food to their house gods. The smoking of hemp or ganja is on the increase among them. They dress like Brahmans, the men in a waistcloth, coat, shouldercloth, headscarf or turban, and shoes; and the women in a robe and bodice. The women rub their brows with redpowder and wear false hair but do not deck their heads with flowers. They are generally hardworking and thrifty, but hot-tempered, quarrelsome, and dishonest. They are goldsmiths, coppersmiths, blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, husbandmen, and clerks and writers. Their calling is steady and well paid, but owing to heavy marriage expenses they are generally in debt. They have credit and obtain loans of £10 to £50 (Rs. 100-500) varying at twelve to eighteen per cent a year. They consider themselves equal if not superior to the local Brahmans and do not eat or drink either with them or from them. The local Brahmans term them Shudras, and hold them lower than Kunbis. Panchals worship all the Brahmanic gods and goddesses. Their family deities are Bhavani of Tuljapur, Kalmadevi of the Karnatak, Khandoba of Jejuri, and Vyankoba of Giri. Their family priests, who are members of their own community, are held in high respect. They keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and feasts and go on pilgrimage to Benares, Jejuri, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. They believe in sorcery and witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, lucky and unlucky days, and oracles. For her first confinement, a girl is taken to her parents' house, and, as soon as labour sets in, a midwife, generally of the Kunbi caste, is sent for, and digs a hole in the floor of the lying-in room. As soon as the child is born the midwife sprinkles the child with cold water to awake it, and cuts its navel cord with a knife. She puts the cord with the after-birth in an earthen pot, buries them in the hole, and to prevent the water from running into the street, as to walk over water that has come from a lying-in room is supposed to make women barren, the hole is partly covered with earth. For ten days the mother and child are bathed in warm water over this hole. After the mother and child are bathed they are laid on the cot. For the first three days the mother is fed on rice and butter and the child on castor oil and honey. On the fourth day the mother for the first time suckles her child, and in the evening of the fifth day, a grindstone is set in the mother's room with a lighted lamp beside it. Then the rolling-pin is set upright leaning against the wall, and on the grindstone are arranged the knife with which the navel-cord was cut, dough lamps, thirty-two kinds of healing herbs, an image of Satvai, a sheet of blank paper, a pen and an ink pot, and over the whole a woman of the house sprinkles turmeric and red and scented powders, burns camphor and incense, and offers them rice flour balls and betel. The mother, sitting in front of these articles, bows before them, and prays them to be kindly to her child. Near kinspeople and friends are asked to dine, when the chief dish is wheat flour cakes or mutkia boiled in split pulse. The guests retire with a present of betel, and, during her confinement, to strengthen her gums, after her meals, the mother is given betelnut soaked in marking-nut oil and pieces of dry cocoa-kernel. During the night the women stay awake, singing, talking, and playing. Next morning the worship of the goddess Satvai is repeated with the same details, and, except the image of Satvai, the whole is thrown into water. They hold the mother unclean for ten days, and on the morning of the tenth cowdung the whole house and wash the cot, the bedding, and the mother's clothes. On the eleventh the child and the mother are bathed, cow's urine is sprinkled over the house and sipped by all the inmates, and the men change their sacred threads. On the morning of the twelfth the mother worships five pebbles outside of the house, and names the child if a girl on that day and if a boy on the following day. When it is between three months and two years old the child is laid on its maternal uncle's lap, its hair is clipped for the first time, and it is taken to the village temple to bow to Maruti. They gird their boys with the sacred thread when they are between seven and nine. From a week to a month before the day fixed for the thread-girding near friends and relations are told, and during the interval by turns feast the boy's parents. Drummers and pipers are sent for, the terms on which they will play at the thread-girding are settled, a booth is built, and cards are sent to distant kinspeople and friends. To ask the people of the caste, the boy's parents and their kinspeople and friends start with music. Before they start they lay a cocoanut in front of the house gods and ask them to attend the ceremony; they then ask the village god, and then their relations and friends. A feast called the Brahmans' feast or Brahmanbhojan is held when kinsfolk and castefellows are asked to dine. In the booth an earthen altar is raised seven lengths of the boy's right foot and about eight inches high. In front is a step and behind rises the wall above the altar. On the right side of the altar are arranged two and on the left three piles of earthen pots each pile of five pots, the upper ones being smaller than those below. Each contains a few grains of coloured rice and a piece of turmeric. A carpet is spread in the booth and round it is traced a line of wheat within which the boy sits, to his right his mother and to her right his father. Five married women come out of the house, each rubs the brow of the father, mother, and son with redpowder, and waves a betelnut and a lighted lamp round their heads. They then anoint the three with fragrant oil, and seating them on low wooden stools in the same order in which they sat in the wheat square, place five earthen jars round them and pass a cotton thread round the jars. While musicians play, the three bathe in warm water, dress in silk, and take their seats on three wooden stools as before. The family priest lays a betelnut before them in honour of Ganpati, the three lay before the Ganpati betelnut, sandal, red and scented powder, flowers, and grains of rice, wave a lighted lamp, camphor, and frankincense before him, and offer him sugar. In this manner they worship Mother Earth or bhumi and the water-pot or kalash. The father takes a winnowing fan, spreads a bodicecloth over it, and arranges twenty-seven betelnuts on it. He makes six rolls of mango leaves in which he puts the jambhul and shami leaves and ties the roll with thread. He lays them in the winnowing fan alongside of the betelnuts, takes a whitewashed and red-lined earthen jar, fills it with wheat, lays a cocoanut over its mouth, winds cotton thread over the whole of it, offers it sandalpaste vermilion rice and flowers, and lays it in the winnowing fan. He calls it the Vighnanash or evil-killer. All this time the mother and child sit quiet doing nothing. The mother takes the earthen jar into both her hands and the father takes the winnowing fan, and they walk into the house. The father throws a few grains of rice over the house gods and a few more in front of them. On the grains in front of the gods, he lays the winnowing fan and the mother sets the jar in the fan as before. They make a low bow and go into the booth. Then the father hangs bunches of mango leaves round the booth, and performs the Nandishraddh that is festive ancestral worship or peace offering by repeating the names of his three immediate ancestors. The family barber is called and the priest takes a razor from him, sprinkles water over it, and keeps it near him. The priests rubs curds over the boy's head and sticks small balls of butter behind the boy's two ears, at the back and on the crown of his head, and over his brow. He holds a blade of the sacred grass over the boy's head and cuts it in two with a razor. He gives the razor back to the barber and tells him to shave the boy's head leaving the hair on the spots marked with butter. The boy is anointed with fragrant oil and bathed. He dines from the same plate with his mother in company with five married women and five bachelors who have been girded with the sacred thread. When dinner is over the boy is taken back to the barber, who shaves four of the five locks, and leaves the fifth on the crown of the head. The boy is again bathed, and dry sandal paste is rubbed all over his brow, and grains of rice are stuck on the brow-sandal. He stands on a low wooden stool in front of the altar, and his maternal uncle stands behind him supporting him. His father sits on a low wooden stool on the altar, and near relations hold a cloth between the boy and his father. The maternal uncle puts a little sugar into the boy's mouth, and the priest, along with some of the guests, repeat the lucky verses or mangalastaks. After the verses are over grains of red rice are thrown over the boy's head by the guests and the cloth is pulled on one side. The priest ties a piece of cotton thread and a piece of silk round his loins. He hangs a bit of gold and deer's skin to a string of sixteen strands and puts it across the boy's shoulders. The boy is seated on a low wooden stool and the priest sits on another stool near him and covering himself and the boy with a shawl whispers into his ears the sacred sun-hymn or gayatri and makes him repeat it after him until he has learnt it by heart. The boy next sits on the altar on a low wooden stool, kindles the sacrificial fire, and feeds it with eighteen pieces of pimpal and butter. The boy is given apimpal staff in his hands, his father covers him with a shawl, seats him on his hip, and takes him to the village Maruti before whom the boy lays a copper coin and makes a low bow. On his return the boy is seated in front of the fire and feeds it with sixteen handfuls of cooked rice and butter. The boy stands with a bag and begs for alms. His kinspeople and friends present him with sugar cakes and dry cocoa-kernel or cocoanuts. Then they dine. In the afternoon women go with a variety of dishes to the village temple accompanied by musicians,' leave a little of each dish before the god, and go home. In the evening the sacrificial fire is kindled and fed into a blaze with a couple of cups full of clarified butter. The priest teaches the boy the evening prayer, and after the prayers are over, the mother presents the boy with a rich conical cap with two ear flaps, a coat, and a waistcloth. After this the mother and the other women take a ladle, wind a black glass bead necklace round its handle, fill it with a gram ball, and empty the ball into the boy's bag. Next morning the boy bathes and the priest teaches him his prayers. The sacrificial fire is rekindled and fed with butter, dry dates, and a twisted cord of the sacred darbh grass. The priest makes four clay cakes and arranges them in a pile one on the other, and, on the top of them, plants a branch of the palas tree Butea frondosa. The boy and his parents sit in front of the branch, and offer it a betelnut and leaves and a copper coin. Then the boy followed by his father, and the father by the boy's mother go round the branch. At the end of the first round the boy sprinkles turmeric wafer over the branch, at the end of the second round the father throws a few grains of red rice over it, and at the end of the third the mother throws gram pulse over it. Then the three go to the god Vighnanash or evil-killer and throw a few grains of red rice over him. The mother takes the earthen jar in both her hands, and the father the winnowing fan, go into the booth, and set them on the ground as before. The jar and the winnowing fan are worshipped with flowers and sandal, and they, that is the guardian spirits in them, are asked to depart. The priest carries the fan and its contents to his own house, and the day's proceedings end with a feast. Within sixteen days after the thread-girding, though it is sometimes put off till the boy is ten or twelve years old, comes the samavartan or pupil's return. Till that time the boy continues to wear the piece of deer's skin and the grass waistcord. If before the return ceremony comes off, the grass cord gets snapped, it is taken off and carefully kept until the return ceremony is performed. On the morning of a lucky day the boy's' head is shaved except the topknot, his body is anointed, and he is bathed. The boy's parents bathe and dress in silk, and, along with the boy and with the help of the priest, perform the preliminary ceremonies of Punyahavachan or holiday calling,Ganpatipujan or Ganpati worship, and, Matrikapujan or the worship of the divine mothers. No Nandishraddh or festive ancestral worship is performed, neither do they bring into use the earthen water jar or the winnowing fan, but arrange the twenty-seven betelnuts on a piece of cloth. The sacrificial fire is kindled, and, while the priest is chanting verses, the boy throws over the fire two dry dates, sixteen pimpal Ficus religiosa sticks, and clarified butter. The boy is dressed in a new waistcloth, coat, shoulder. cloth, turban, and shoes. A staff and an umbrella are put in his hands, as well as bundles of half a pound of rice, wheat flour, pulse, salt, chillies, and spices. Thus supplied the boy asks his parents for leave to go on pilgrimage to the river Ganges. He starts, and after walking a few paces is stopped by his maternal uncle who asks whither and why he is going. The boy answers he is going on a journey to the holy Ganges. The uncle persuades him to gives up his journey, and come back and live among them, and he will give him his daughter in marriage. The boy agrees and coming back makes Over the provisions to the priest, and the ceremony ends with a feast. A girl is married between eight and twelve and a boy between twelve and twenty-five. The boy's father has to look out for a wife for his son. When he has found a girl, he calls a few of his and of the girl's near kinsfolk, and tells them that the girl's father has promised to give his daughter in marriage to his son. Betel is served and the guests retire. The fathers give a dinner and a return dinner and exchange turbans. After a few days the girl's father asks his own and the boy's relations to his house, as well as the family priests of both houses and fixes the marriage day: A few days before the marriage their near kinsfolk feast the boy and girl by turns at their houses. Musicians are called and the terms on which they will play are settled. Invitation cards are sent to distant kinsfolk and friends, and, to ask close relations and friends, the men and women of the boy's house start with music. Before starting they ask the house gods to be present at the wedding and to let the lucky matter they have in hand come to a prosperous end. They go to the village god, and from the god to relations, friends, and castefellows. Next day some of the girl's relations go with music to the boy's, and the girl's mother washes the boy's feet, and the girl's father wipes them dry, marks his brow with sandal, and sticks grains of rice on the sandal. He puts a new turban on the boy's head and a sash over his shoulder, tucks a bunch of flowers in his turban, and ties a chaplet of flowers round it. He lays curds on the boy's right palm which the boy sips, puts a nosegay into the boy's hand, and retires to his house with his party. The boy is seated on horseback, and with kinsfolk and music goes to the village temple. At the temple he is met by the girl's party, and the girl's father rubs his brow with sandal, presents him with a new turban and shouldercloth, and puts a flower garland round his neck and a nosegay into his hands. The girl's mother approaches the boy, washes his feet, and, after wiping them dry, gives him sugared milk to drink, and the parties return to their houses.

This is called the boundary worship or shevantipujan, properly simantpujan. On the marriage day the girl's kinswomen, with cooked dishes, go to the boy's house, serve the food to the boy and his kinswomen, and go home. A square earthen altar is raised at the girl's house nine lengths of the girl's left foot and about eight to nine inches high, whitewashed, and five piles of earthen jars are set round it. The boy's kinswomen go to the girl's with music and a tray containing a green robe, a bodice, and glass bangles. They seat the girl on a low wooden stool, anoint her with oil and turmeric, dress her in the new robe and bodice, and put glass bangles round her wrists. The girl's kinswomen accompanied by the boy's go to the boy's house with the rest of the oil and turmeric and rub it on the boy, bathe him, and return home. The boy's kinspeople taking trays of clothes, ornaments, fruit, rice, and betel go to the girl's house, one of the men worships Ganpati and Varun, and, seating the girl before him on a low wooden stool, rubs her brow with redpowder, on the powder sticks grains of rice, and presents her with a robe and bodice, which she puts on in the women's room, comes out, and takes her former seat. The boy's father decks her with ornaments and fills her lap with rice, almonds, betel, dry cocoa-kernel, dates, turmeric, and plantains, and returns home. This is called vaknis-chaya that is troth-plighting, and after this the girl is supposed to be half married to the boy. A party of friends and relations start from the girl's house with a richly trapped horse and followed by the girl's sister richly dressed, with a lighted dough-lamp in her hands with blackened wicks. Behind her walk the guests and servants with plates filled with garlands and nosegays and a jar of sugared milk mixed with wheat. At the boy's the bridegroom's brow is touched with redpowder, garlands are thrown round his neck, a nosegay is put in his hands, and sugared milk is offered him. He is seated on a horse, his sister walks behind him with a burning dough-lamp in her hands, the same as the lamp which was carried by the girl's sister, and his kinspeople follow him. At the door of the girl's booth, some one from the girl's house waves cooked rice and curds round the boy's head and throws it to his right and left. He alights from the horse and takes his seat on a low wooden stool in the booth. The girl's father offers him water to wash his feet, and, after he has washed them, he is presented with a new silk waistcloth which he puts on and covers his shoulders with a shawl. The girl comes out of the house, stands on a stool facing the boy, and near relations hold a sheet between them. The priest and a few of the guests repeat marriage verses, and, at the end of each verse, throw grains of red rice over the heads of the boy and girl. When the verses are over, the curtain is pulled on one side, and the boy and girl change places and take their seats on the stools. The girl's father pours on the boy's open palm milk, curds, butter, sugar, and honey, and he sips them thrice. This ceremony which is called the honey-sipping or madhupark is performed either before or after the marriage. The priest gives the boy a sacred thread and he wears it along with his old one. He then clasps both the girl's hands in his and four married men sit round them with outstretched hands. The priest takes a cotton thread, winds it round the couple's thumbs and from their thumbs winds it round the thumbs of the four men. In this way he makes two sets of circuits, one of five turns and the other of four, and draws off the two sets of thread and keeps them by him. The boy lets go the girl's hands, and she holds her open hands over the boy's, and the priest keeps a metal dish below the boy's hands. The girl's father pours water over the girl's hands, and it trickles down on the boy's and from the boy's into the dish. He drops some silver coins into the girl's hands which she lets pass into the boy's hands, and he into the dish. Water is again poured into the girl's hands and the ceremony of giving away the girl or kanyadan is over. The priest takes the two circlets of thread he kept near himself, and tying a piece of turmeric root to each of the threads, fastens the one of five strands round the boy's right twist, and the one of four strands to the girl's left wrist. This is called the wristlet tying or kankanbandhan. The boy's father presents the girl with a pair of toe-rings which she puts on her toes, and a married woman ties a necklace of black glass beads round the girl's neck. The boy and girl take their seats on the altar, and, with the priest's help, kindle the sacrificial fire, feeding it with pimpal Ficus religiosa sticks and clarified butter. The girl's brother stands behind his sister and she throws handfuls of parched grain into the fire. In reward for standing behind his sister, her brother is presented with a turban by the boy's father, which he puts on. The hems of the boy's and girl's robes are knotted together, and the pair go into the house and make a low bow before the house gods. They then go into a room on the wall of which a mango tree is drawn, and, below the tree on the ground, are spread grains of wheat and on the wheat sixteen earthen jars in four piles. In front of the jars is spread a bodice-cloth, and on it are laid rice grains, dry cocoa-kernel, turmeric, almonds, and betelnuts, and the boy and girl sit in front and make a low bow. The girl's mother hands the boy a cup of sugared milk which he drinks, leaving some for the girl. The boy and girl leave their seats and go and sit on the altar, and the hems of their garments are untied. The girl walks into the house and joins the women, and the boy sits in the booth with the men. The day ends with a feast. Next morning the girl and boy play together rubbing each other with turmeric and throwing water over each other. In the afternoon the boy's kinsfolk and friends are dined. On the third morning the boy and girl splash one another with water, bathe, dress in silk clothes, and sit on the altar. The priest comes and with his help the boy kindles the sacrificial fire and feeds it with butter anddarbh grass. The pair leave their seats and sit in the booth on stools the girl to the boy's left. In front of them two whitewashed red-lined earthen jars are set on wheat grains one above the other, the upper closed with a shallow plate or lid. In the first or lower jar is water, in the upper jar rice, and in the plate, pulse, a wafer biscuit, and wheat bread, and over the whole a dough lamp. Round this pile are arranged four small earthen jars with wheat grains spread underneath them. The jars are whitewashed and red-lined and covered with wafer biscuits, wheat cakes, and dough lamps. In a winnowing fan are arranged sixteen small dough lamps set on biscuits and cakes. In front of the boy and girl, on the other side of the jars, sit the girl's parents dressed in silk. The boy and girl lay sandal paste, rice grains, vermilion, turmeric, and betel leaves with nuts and a copper before the jars and light the dough lamps including the sixteen in the fan. The girl is seated on the boy's knee and her father lifting the winnowing fan in both hishands, holdsitover the boy's head, and the priest hands the boy a pinch of sugar which he puts into the girl's mouth. The girl's father holds the fan over the boy's father's head and seating the girl on his knee, the boy's father puts a pinch of sugar into her mouth. In this way the girl is seated on the knee of each of the kinsfolk both of the boy and of the girl, and the winnowing fan is held over their heads. The girl's father presents the boy with a turban and shouldercloth and the boy's father presents the girl with a green robe and bodice. The hems of the boy's and girl's robes are tied together, and they are seated on a mare and taken in procession to the village temple, and from the temple to the boy's house. In a room at the boy's a dough image of the goddess Lakshmi is made and set on a water drinking pot or tambya turned upside down. This pot is placed on a big metal waterpot or tapele, turned upside down like the drinking pot, and the goddess is rolled in a robe whose folds cover the two pots. Ornaments are put on the goddess' neck head and ears, and three heaps of rice are made in front of the goddess. In the middle heap the priest hides a gold ornament, and seats the boy and girl in front of the heaps on two low wooden stools. The priest sits near the boy, takes a plate full of rice, writes in the rice the name to be given to the girl, and asks the boy to read it, which he does in a loud voice. The girl is told to repeat the boy's name, and, after much hesitation and persuasion, she agrees. The priest asks the girl to find what is in the middle heap of rice and keep it as a present from her husband. She searches, finds the gold necklace, and puts it on. The priest hands the guests sugar in token of the new name given to the girl, unties the boy's and girl's wristlets or kankans, throws a few grains of rice over the earthen jars and the marriage gods, and the guests retire with presents of sugar and betel. Exchange feasts are given and after three or four days spent at the boy's, the girl returns to her father's and the marriage rites are at an end. When a girl comes of age, word is sent to her husband's house, who send a band of kinswomen, who take the girl either on foot or in a carriage with music to her husband's. If the girl happens to be at her husband's when she comes of age, she is sent quietly to her parents if their house is in the same village or to some neighbour's and brought back in pomp to the husband's with a party of kinswomen and music. Before starting for the husband's, her parents present her with a new robe and bodice which she puts on, deck her head with a net or jali of flowers, and rub redpowder on her brow and turmeric on her face and arms. A sandalwood doll rubbed with red and turmeric is put in her hands. At her husband's a bamboo frame or mokhar is raised, surrounded with a twisted turban, or hung with glass bangles. The wife is seated in the frame, red and turmeric powders are given her and the guests, and they retire. For three days the girl is considered impure. On the fourth morning she is bathed and her mother presents her with a new robe and bodice. She is seated in the frame along with her husband, and her mother-in-law fills her lap with rice fruit and betel, and her husband puts a cocoanut into her lap. The girl's mother next fills her lap with rice and fruit, and the wife and husband bow before the house gods, go to the village temple, bow before Maruti, and come home. On the fifth morning, or on any other lucky day within sixteen days from the coming of age, the husband and wife are bathed, and, sitting on two low wooden stools, with the help of the family priest worship the gods Ganpati, Varun, and Navagrahas or the nine planets. A sacrificial fire is kindled and fed with cooked rice, butter, sesamum, wheat, and bits of palas Butea frondosa, amba Mangifera indica, khair Acacia catechu, aghada Achyranthes aspera, jambhul Syzigium jambolanum, and umbar Ficus glomerata. The husband lays cooked rice on a leaf plate, covers it with wheat bread, sprinkles redpowder over it, and sets on the top of it a dough lamp with a thick cotton wick soaked in oil and lighted. A Raul brings a trident which the husband sticks in the cooked rice, lays flowers and grain in front of the trident, and places some money near it. The Raul lifts the whole in his two hands and going outside sets it at the roadside and walks away with his trident. The husband and wife walk after the Raul, as far as the outer door, sprinkling water after him. On coming back they wash their hands and feet and walk into the house. They are anointed with oil, bathed, dressed in silk and seated side by side on low wooden stools. They again throw rice at and bow before a betelnut Ganpati, are taken in procession accompanied by kinspeople friends and music to the village temple, bow to Maruti, and return home. A feast is held at which the wife serves butter to at least five guests. In the evening the husband and wife are thrust into a room prepared for them and the ceremony is over. In the seventh month of the wife's first pregnancy a feast is given to kinswomen and female friends and her mother-in-law presents her with a new robe and bodice. Panchals burn their dead. The dying is laid on a blanket strewn with darbh grass. After death a couple of kinsmen or friends go to the market and bring what is wanted for the funeral. When they come back they busy themselves making the body ready, and when it is ready they take it out of the house, wash it, and lay it on the bier. The bier is raised on the shoulders of four kinsmen and carried out feet foremost. The chief mourner walks carrying an earthen jar containing burning cowdung cakes. When the mourners have gone half way, the bier is lowered, a couple of copper coins are laid on the ground, the bier is raised, and carried to the burning ground. At the burning ground a pile of cowdung cakes is raised, the chief mourner has his head and face shaved by a barber, bathes, and, after the body is laid on the pile, sets fire to it. He next fills with water the jar in which he carried the burning cowdung cakes and picking a pebble called the ashma or lifestone, makes a hole in the jar and thrice walks round the pyre. At the end of the third turn he dashes the pot on the ground and beats his mouth. Along with other mourners he bathes, and carrying the lifestone home with him, keeps it in some safe place rolled in cloth. The mourners on coming to the deceased's house, look at the burning lamp which has been set on the spot where the dead breathed his last, and return home. From the second to the ninth day, with the priest, the chief mourner goes to the burning ground, makes three balls of rice, offers them to the stone of life, and throws them into water. On the third day in addition the chief mourner sprinkles curds, milk, and cow's urine on the ashes, removes them, and throws it into water. He makes a mound of sand on the spot where the body was burned, sets three small earthen jars on the mound, and fills their mouths with rice balls. He lays the pebble close by on the mound, offers it the balls, and then gathers the balls, throws them into water, and returns home with the lifestone. They mourn the dead ten days. On the tenth morning the chief mourner goes once more with the priest to the burning ground, makes six balls of rice and sets five of them on five earthen jars, and the sixth in the middle of the mound. Near the balls he lays the lifestone, offers it sesamum seed and water, and leaving the sixth ball for the crows, throws the five into water, and returns home with the pebble. On the eleventh day he kindles the sacrificial fire, drinks the five cow gifts, offers thirty-two balls of rice, bathes, and returns home. A dough cow and calf are made and presented to the Brahman, and, after making him a money present, the cow and calf are thrown into water, and they go home. On the twelfth day the chief mourner cooks several dishes of rice and vegetables, offers them to the spirit of the dead, feasts at least five men, and returns home. On the thirteenth the mind-rite or shraddh ceremony is performed, and on the fourteenth a caste feast is held and the mourning is over. Panchals have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. They send their boys to school for a short time and are fairly off.

Patharvats

Pa'tharvats, or Masons, are returned as numbering 410 and as found over the whole district. They look-like Marathas, speak Marathi, live in mud and stone houses, and eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. Both men and women dress like Marathas, and are hardworking even-tempered and hospitable. They make stone pillars, handmills, grindstones, rolling-pins, and images of gods, and also work as stone masons and carriers. They worship the usual Hindu gods and goddesses and keep the regular fasts and feasts. Their priests are the ordinary Maratha Brahmans, and their customs are the same as those of Marathas. They marry their widows and burn their dead. They have a caste council, send their boys to school, and are a steady class.

Patvekars

Patvekars, or Tassel Makers, are returned as numbering seven and as found in the town of Sholapur. They look speak and dress like Marathas, and like them eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They are a hardworking orderly people, and make silk threads for necklaces, and other head, hand, and waist ornaments. They string and fix gems or beads on silk or cotton threads, and make fringes tassels and netted work. They make silk and cotton waistcords called katdoras or kargotds to which high caste boys a short time after their thread ceremony and all Marathas fasten the loincloth or langoti. They work from sunrise to sunset, and their daily wages represent a daily profit of 4½d. to 6d. (3-4 as.) Their work is constant. The craft is hereditary and the women do not help them. Their boys begin to work at twelve and are skilled workers by sixteen. They also work as day labourers and some of them are musicians. They do not send their boys to school and are a steady class.

Rangaris

Ranga'ris, or Dyers, are returned as numbering 391 and as found in towns and large villages. They say they were originally Kshatris, and that their ancestors who were twin brothers, on being pursued by Parashuram, hid in a temple belonging to the goddess Ambabai and sought the goddess' protection. The goddess gave one brother a piece of thread and a needle, and the other a paint which she spat at him and told the one to sew and the other to dye. Meanwhile Parashuram begged; the goddess to make over to him the two Kshatris, but she denied all knowledge of them, and Parashuram had to go back disappointed, From that time the sewer became a Shimpi and the dyer a Rangari. Their surnames are Bagre, Kunthe, Nikte, Rashankar, and Sarvade, who eat together but do not marry with people who have the same surname. Among their family stocks or gotras are Gangav Rishi and Vasishth. They look speak and dress like Marathas. A Rangari's house can be known by the high four-legged stool or jhanji which is generally kept on the veranda and also from dyed turbans and robes hung to dry on ropes or poles. They say they prepare thirty-six colours. The names of some of the colours are, Motiya or pearl white, abashai or reddish, pyaji or light pink, baingani or brinjal purple, lal or red, pivla or yellow, hirva or green, asmani or blue, and gulabi or rose. They do not dye Mack and look down on and refuse to touch any one who dyes black. The pots which they use in making dyes are satkal a circular copper water vessel, baguna a metal vessel for boiling colour, and jhanji a square high legged wooden stand with thick cloth tied on the top in which colour is poured, and through which it drops into a vessel. If the Rangari is poor these vessels are of earth. Earth vessels cost 8s. to 10s; (Rs. 4-5) and metal vessels £2 10s. to £3 (Rs. 25-30). If they are told to give a turban a 4s. (Rs. 2) dye they give it a three shilling colour and keep 1s. (8 as.) as profit. They buy the colours from Komti traders and make 16s, to £1 (Rs. 8-10) a month. The women and children help the men. They have no capital and have to borrow at 37½ per cent a year (½ anna the rupee a month). Some of them sew, and others serve as day-labourers. A boy becomes a skilled worker at eighteen or twenty, or if he is dull at twenty-five. They have house images of Ambabai, Davud Malik, Ganpati, Khandoba, and Mahadev, and their priests are ordinary Maratha Brahmans. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts. Their women are not held impure after childbirth. They worship the goddess Satvai on the fifth, and, if the child is a girl, name her on the twelfth, and if a boy on the thirteenth. They offer a sheep to the goddess Satvai on the fifth or other convenient day and feast the caste. They marry their girls between five and ten and their boys between five and twenty. If a girl remains unmarried till after she comes of age her whole family is put out of caste. They either burn or bury the dead. They mourn ten days, and the chief mourner gets his moustache shaved either on the tenth or on the twelfth day after a death. They give a feast to their castefellows on the thirteenth. They have a caste council or panch and settle social disputes at meetings of the caste men. Breaches of caste rules are punished by fines varying from 4s. to £1 (Rs. 2-10) which are generally spent on a feast or in buying vessels for caste feasts. They send their boys to school and some of their castepeople can read their sacred books fluently and explain them. They are a falling people. They suffered much from the 1876 famine, and to save money the people long wore undyed or very iightly dyed clothes.

Rauls

Ra'uls, or Tape Makers, are returned as numbering 529 and as found scattered over the whole district. They say the founders of their caste were Adinath and Machhendranath. They look like Marathas and Gosavis, some keeping the top-knot and wearing the hair like Marathas, while others wear long matted hair, whiskers, and beards, and rub themselves with ashes. It is sometimes difficult to tell a Raul from a Gosavi. Their surnames are Abdule, Chavhan, Gaikavad, Jadhav, Kavad, Naikjavle, Povar, and Salunke. All of these eat together, but the Abdules and Jadhavs do not marry with the rest. When they do not cover themselves with ashes, wear the hair long and matted and the beard and whiskers, they look like Marathas; otherwise they do not differ from Gosarvs. They speak Marathi both at home and abroad, and also Hindustani, when they are in high spirits. Their houses are like Maratha houses and contain metal and earth vessels, cattle, sheep, goats, and ponies. Except those who turn ascetics or Jogir, they eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. Both men and women dress like Marathas, the women wearing glass and silver bangles and the men sometimes dressing in an ochre-coloured shouldercloth or a headscarf. They are clean neat hardworking and orderly. They weave strips of coarse cotton cloth, and kachas or girdles, nadas or tape,padshis or wallets, pishvis or purses, potis or coarse cloth bags. They weave both at their houses and as they move from door to door. They till, beg, and play music, have a daur or drum and dance like the Gondhlis. They are Shaivs of the Gorakh panth or sect, and their fasts and feasts are the same as those of Marathas. They worship Bahiroba, Devi, Khandoba, the bottom or patar of a dried gourd, the trishul or trident, the dried gourd or tumba cut at the head, or the begging bowl, and the shankh or conch-shell. They worship the goddess Satvai on the fifth day after childbirth, hold the mother impure for ten days, and name the child on the twelfth. The boy's hair is clipped on his maternal uncle's lap when he is ten months to two years old. When the child is three years old he begins to wear a top-knot. They carry a whistle or shringi hung to a woollen string or saili, wear ear ornaments calledmudras, and a necklace of manshankh or rudrdksh beads. Their bethrotals and their guardians or devaks are the same as among Marathas, and except that the Gurav repeats the words dhan properly dhyan that is attention in the boy's ears after the marriage ceremony, their ceremonies are the same as those of Marathas. They allow widow marriage, and bury the dead carrying the body slang from a pole. The body is dressed in ochre-coloured clothes, and in front of the body one of them goes blowing a conch-shell or shankh. They repeat the word Gorakh while carrying the body, and their women accompany the men to the grave. After the body is laid in the grave, the chief mourner pours a little water into its mouth and the grave is filled. They feast the caste on the thirteenth day after a death. They have a caste council and their social disputes are settled by a mass meeting of the castemen. They send their boys to school and are well-to-do.

Saltangare

Saltangars, or Tanners, are returned as numbering eighty-two and as found only in Karmala. They are a wandering tribe of Marwaris, and are said to have come into the district from Marwar some centuries ago. They are generally goodlooking, fair, and robust, and the men wear the moustache and a few the beard. They speak a mixture of Hindi and Marwari and live in mud and stone houses one storey high with either flat or tiled roofs, and keep cows buffaloes and sheep. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor, and their staple food isvari, bajri, wheat, and split pulse. They are noted for the large quantities of oil they use. They are generally neat and tidy in their dress the men wearing waistcloths, coats, and turbans, and the women the robe and bodice. They are hardworking and hospitable, but intemperate, and drink to excess when an opportunity-offers. The men tan hides and skins, deal in cattle, and go about selling them in market villages. The women and children work in the fields. Their god is Balaji or Vyankoba, and they keep the eleventh of each fortnight as a fast day. They mourn ten days and allow widow marriage.

Salis

Sa'lis, or Weavers, are returned as numbering 8950 and as found all over the district, but especially in towns and large villages. They are dark and tall, the men wearing the top-knot and moustache and rubbing the brow with sandal. They speak Marathi, live in mud houses, the entrance room being used as a workshop generally with one or two handlooms. The second room has a store of cotton goods and tools, wooden stools and benches for the use of customers, and shelves and cupboards where they store and keep their goods. They are a poor people, and suffer from the competition of European goods. They are hardworking, even-tempered, courteous, and hospitable, and weave turbans, quilts orpasodis, and waistcloths; a few are moneylenders and the rest day-labourers. They eat flesh and drink liquor, but their staple food is jvari, pulse, and vegetables. They do not allow widow marriage. Their family gods are Ambabai, Jotiba, Khandoba, and Mahadev, and their priests are ordinary Maratha Brahmans. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. They do not send their boys to school and as a class are rather badly off.

Sangars

Sangars, or Wool Weavers, are returned as numbering 1357 and as found over the whole district. They are divided into Sangars proper, Dhangar Sangars, and Mhar Sangars. The surnames of the Sangars are Dhoble, Gonjare, Karande, Palshande, and Raul, who eat together but do not intermarry. They cannot tell when or whence they came into the district, neither can they give an account of their origin. They look like Marathas and speak Marathi. Their houses are like those of Marathas, having an open space in front in which pegs about a foot long are fixed. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They never use liquor at their feasts, even at flesh feasts. They dress like Marathas and the women do not pass the end of the robe back between the feet. They weave and sell blankets and serve as day-labourers. They work from sunrise to sunset, and their boys' become skilful workers before they are sixteen. They buy wool from Dhangars and a family makes about 6d. (4 as.) a day. Their women and children help in their work, and they sell blankets at 9d. to 2s.-(Re. 3/8-.1) each. Their work is constant. They work to order, receiving money in advance. Their house gods are like those of Marathas and their priests are both Brahmans and Jangams to whom they pay great respect. They have betrothals and their marriages cost them £2 to £5 (Rs. 20 - 50). They have no rule that girls must be married before they come of age. Both Jangams and Brahmans conduct their marriages and one after the other repeat marriage verses. At the end rice grains are thrown over the boy and girl and they are husband and wife. A girl sits by herself for three days during her monthly sickness, and the mother is impure for seven days after childbirth. They worship the goddess Satvai on the fifth and twelfth, name the child on the thirteenth, and mourn the dead three days. On the third day the mourners bathe and sip water in which a Jangam's toe has been washed and become pure. As a rule they bury the dead, but a lying-in woman who dies within fifteen days of childbirth is burnt. In all cases a Jangam walks before the body ringing'a bell. They have a caste council, a few send their boys to school, and they are a steady class.

Sonars

Sona'rs, or Goldsmiths, are returned as numbering 5092 and as found over the whole district. They are divided into Panchal Sonars and Lad Sonars, and Dasiputras or bastards, born of Panchal and Lad Sonars, who do not eat together or intermarry. The surnames of the Panchals are Dahale, Jojari, Kulthe, Dolge, Misal, Shahale, Tak, and Udvant, and the Panchal's family stocks are Abuvan, Pratan Sanag, and Suparn. They look like local Brahmans. The men wear the top-knot and moustache, and rub sandal on their brows. The men and still more the women speak incorrect Marathi. They live in substantial buildings and have metal and earth vessels and some have cattle. Panchals are vegetarians and Lads and Dasiputras eat fish or flesh and drink liquor. Panchals dress like Brahmans, and Lads and Dasiputras like Marathas, and their women, like Maratha women, do not pass the skirt of the robe back between the feet. They are hardworking, frugal, polite, and hospitable, but dirty, cunning, and dishonest. They make gold and silver ornaments, and set precious stones. Some of them are landholders and others are in Government service. They are skilled workmen but generally work to order as they have no capital. A few have shops in which they sell readymade ornaments. Their women and children help the men in their calling. Boys begin to work from eight or nine, and at fifteen or twenty have learned enough to earn 16s. to 30s. (Rs. 8-15) a month. They work from six or seven in the morning to twelve, and again from two or three to lamplight. They are fairly off. They get a fair amount of work and as they are a comparatively small community their earnings are enough to keep them in fair comfort. Their position in the local caste list is below Vaishyas, but they claim a place next to Brahmans and some even rank themselves above Deshasth Konkanasth and other Deccan Brahmans; Kshatriyas and Vaishyas hold aloof from them, only Shudras eat from their hands. Of late their efforts to imitate Brahmans have increased. Panchal Sonars have priests of their own caste, the others employ the ordinary village Brahmans. Their favourite deities are Bhavani, Ganpati, Mahadev, and Vyankatesh. They have images of their gods in their houses. They believe in sorcery witchcraft and soothsaying, and in times of difficulty and illness consult mediums and exorcists. They worship the goddess Satvai on the fifth day after childbirth and name their children on the thirteenth. Except the Panchals, Sonars do not gird their boys with the sacred thread. Their guardian or devak is the savana or pincers and the panchpalvis or the five-tree leaves. They marry their children standing on low wooden stools and holding cocoanuts in their hands. They burn the dead, and, except the Panchals who do not bathe the body, they pour warm water over the corpse before laying it on the bier. Panchals forbid and Lads and Dasiputras allow widow marriage. All have caste councils, and the Panchals give their priest the fines inflicted for breaches of caste rules. They send their boys to school and are a steady class.

Sutars

Suta'rs, or Carpenters, are returned as numbering 4824 and as found over the whole district. They are divided into Arya Kshatri Sutars, Brahman Sutars, Mhar Sutars, Mang Sutars, Maratha Sutars, Panchal Sutars, Shiv Brahma Sutars, and Vidur or Kadu that is Bastard Sutars. Most Sholapur Sutars are Vidur or Kadu and Shiv Brahma Sutars. KADU SUTARS say that other people call them Dasiputra Sutars, Akarmase Sutars, Sinde Sutars or Vidur Sutars, all words meaning bastards or of illegitimate birth.. They call themselves Maratha Sutars or simply Marathas, and eat and sometimes marry with cultivating Marathas. They say that the origin of the caste was a young goodlooking Maratha widow who had an only son, lived with a Sutar widower, and got the boy married to a bastard Maratha girl. Their surnames are Chavhan, Jadhav, Mise, and Povar; one of their family stocks is Kashyap. They are like Marathas in all respects. They are carpenters, husbandmen, labourers, and messengers. Their customs are the same as those of Marathas; they have a caste council; they send their boys to school and are a steady people. SHIV BRAHMA SUTARS belong to the Abhavany and Manujay family stocks or gotras and their surnames are Bamne, Kashikar, and Morajkar. They are said to belong to Sankhli Dicholi about fifty miles from Goa, and say that their ancestors came to Sholapur two or three hundred years ago to avoid the tyranny of the Portuguese. They have still relations near Goa and they still go there to get their children married. They are tall, dark, and thin, and look more like Shudras than Brahmans. The men wear the top-knot and moustache but no beard. Their home tongue is the dialect of Marathi known as Konkani. [ Among the peculiarities of their dialect are the use of manche for manushye men, ghodo for ghoda horse, ami for amhiwe, and gano for gelo hoto had gone.] Their houses are clean and neat, and they have metal and earth cooking vessels. They eat fish and the flesh of sheep, goats, hares, and wild hog, but not fowls, and, though they think it degrading, drink liquor. Their staple food is jvari,pulse, vegetables, and fish or flesh when they can afford it. Both men and women dress like Brahmans, the men in a waistcloth, coat, waistcoat, turban, and shoes; and the women in the full Maratha robe and bodice, passing the end of the robe back between the feet. The men wear a large gold ring in the upper part of the right ear like Konkan or Deccan Marathas, They are clean, neat, hardworking, thrifty, and orderly. They are good workers easily trained to handle European tools, and make tables, chairs, cots, chests of drawers, book-cases, sideboards, boxes, and rulers. They get their materials from Bombay and always work to order. Their work is constant, and their women give them no help. They work from six or half-past six to twelve, and again from two to lamplight. Their boys begin to help at twelve or fifteen and are skilled workers at eighteen. As unskilled workers boys are paid 4s. to 8s. (Rs. 2-4) a month, and as skilled workers 16s. (Rs. 8). The wages of an adult workman vary from £1 4s. to £l 10s. (Rs.12-15), and a skilled worker earns as much as £2 to £2 10s. (Rs. 20-25) and some who know to read and keep accounts earn as much as £5 (Rs. 50). They have no capital and borrow at twelve to eighteen per cent (Rs. 1 to 1½) a month, or, if they pledge ornaments, at six per cent (8 as. a month). As village carpenters they are usually paid in grain for making and mending field tools and in cash for house carpentry. Their chief deities are Kalamma and Mahadev and they keep house images of their gods. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans, and they keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts. They marry their girls before they are ten and their boys between fifteen and twenty. A marriage costs the girl's father about £2 10s. (Rs. 25) and the boy's father about £10 (Rs. 100). They have to borrow to meet their marriage expenses. They burn their dead, forbid widow marriage, and practise polygamy. Their social disputes are settled at caste meetings, they do not send their boys to school, and are a steady class.

Shimpis

Shimpis, or Tailors, are returned as numbering 6247 and as found all over the district. They are divided into Jain Shimpis, Namdev Shimpis and Rangari Shimpis, of whom Rangaris eat from Jains and Namdevs, Jains neither eat from Namdevs nor Rangaris, and Namdevs eat from Jains but not from Rangaris. They are a Marathi-speaking people, and live in mud and brick one-storeyed houses with tiled or flat roofs, and keep the front veranda as a workshop where men women and children sit sewing the whole day till a late hour in the evening. The Jains avoid flesh and liquor; the Namdevs and Rangaris eat flesh and drink liquor. They dress like cultivating Marathas, and, especially the women, are clean, neat, orderly, and hardworking. They sew and trade in cloth and their women and children help in their work. Their customs are the same as those of Marathas, and they allow widow marriage. Their house deities are Ambabai, Bahiroba, Khandoba, and Vithoba, and their priests are village Brahmans. They settle social disputes at caste meetings. Though sewing machines have greatly reduced the demand for their work they are a steady class, commanding a fair income. they seldom send their boys to school.

Tambats

Ta'mbats, or Coppersmiths, are returned as numbering 314 and as found all over the district. They say they came into the district about forty years ago from the Konkan in search of work. They have no subdivisions. The names of their family stocks are Bharadvaj, Bhargav, and Kashyap, and their surnames are Bode, Dhamdhare, Gondle, Hajare Kadu, Pimple, Samle, and Vadke; families bearing the same gotra or family stock eat together but do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Govind, Lakshman, Pandurang, and Rama; and among women Chandra, Gita, Godavri, and Shita. They are dark, middle-sized, and hardy, and speak Marathi both at home and abroad. They live in middle-class houses, one storey high, with walls of mud and stone and flat roofs. Their furniture includes carpets, bedding, quilts, boxes, cots, metal and clay vessels, and cradles. They keep servants who do house work and help them in their shops, and their pet animals are cows, bullocks, and parrots. They are not great eaters neither do they use a variety of dishes. Their staple food is millet, rice, pulse, vegetables, and occasionally fish and flesh. They drink liquor smoke tobacco and both smoke and drink hemp. They bathe before eating, wear silk or woollen waistcloths at dinner, and worship their house gods. The men wear the top-knot, moustache, and whiskers but not the beard, and rub sandal on their brows. The women tie the hair in a knot behind, rub redpowder on the brow, use false hair, and deck their hair with flowers. Both men and women dress like Maratha Brahmans, the men in a waistcloth, waistcoat, coat, shouldercloth, scarf or turban, and shoes; and the women in the backed and short sleeved bodice, and in the full robe whose skirt they pass back between the feet. They are not neat or clean in their habits, but are hardworking, thrifty, orderly, sober, and hospitable. They make vessels of copper brass and tin and tin cooking vessels. They say the competition of European copper and brass sheets has taken from them much of their former trade and income. Still they are fairly comfortable, they say because they own land as well as work in brass and copper. They claim to be Brahmans, and avoid flesh and liquor. The Tambats are a religious class, worshipping the usual Hindu deities and keeping the regular fasts and festivals. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans who officiate at their houses. They go on pilgrimage to Benares, Jejuri, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. Their family deities are Narsoba of Narsingpur, Khandoba of Jejuri, Bhavani of Tuljapur, and Amjai, Mimjai, and Satvai in the Konkan. They believe in sorcery witchcraft and soothsaying, and consult oracles and numbers. A girl goes to her parents for her first confinement. When the child is born, the midwife cuts its navel cord and the child is laid beside its mother. For four days the child is fed on castor-oil and honey and the mother on cooked rice and butter. On the fifth day, a metal plate stamped with the image of Satvai is brought from a goldsmith and in the evening a fresh lump of cowdung is set on the ground near the mother's cot and on it are spread the leaves of five kinds of trees or panch palvis that is the leaves of mango, therui Calotropis gigantea, the jambhul Syzigium jambolanum, the halamb Nauclea cadamba, and the umbar Ficus glomerata. Over the leaves the metal plate of Satvai is placed. A lighted brass lamp is laid close by, and a blank sheet of paper and pen and ink, and the midwife worships the whole and offers them cooked rice, pulse, vegetables, and wheat flour. The house people and other women relations and friends watch all night, passing the time in singing songs, playing games, and trying one another's skill at riddles. Next day nothing is done till the evening when the fifth day ceremonies are repeated except the night watch. On the morning of the eighth, except the image of Satvai, the whole of the objects worshipped on the fifth are carried away by the midwife, who keeps for herself such articles as she needs and throws the rest in water. The mother's family is considered impure for ten days and on the eleventh the house is cowdunged, clothes are washed, the men change their sacred threads, drink the five cow gifts or panchgavya, say prayers or sandhya, and worship the house gods. On the twelfth morning the mother lays five pebbles by the roadside in front of the house and worships them, throws red and yellow powder over them, burns incense and camphor before them, and offers them cooked food and betel. A feast is held to which only near kinswomen are asked. In the evening the child is named with the usual ceremonies and the image of Satvai is tied round its neck with a silk thread. They clip the child's hair, whether it is a boy or a girl, between one and three years of age. The child is seated on the left knee of its maternal uncle who clips a lock of its hair and the rest is cut by the family barber. They gird their boys with the sacred thread between five and eleven and marry their girls between eight and twelve and their boys between twelve and twenty-five. Their thread-girding and marriage ceremonies are generally the same as those of Maratha Brahmans. A girl is considered impure for fifteen days after coming of age, and, on the morning of the sixteenth, is bathed and becomes pure. In the afternoon the husband and wife, helped by the family priest, light the sacrificial fire and feed it with cooked rice. The rest is laid on a leaf plate, sprinkled with redpowder, and a dough lamp is kept on the top of it. The husband carries the plate outside of the house and it is laid in the street in front of the house, and the wife follows sprinkling water after him. The plate is left at a street corner, and, after washing their hands and feet, the husband and wife walk in, and take their seats before the sacred fire. They are presented with clothes the husband with turbans and waistcloths and the wife with robes and bodices. A feast ends the day. They burn their dead, hold caste councils, send their boys to school for a short time, and are well-to-do.

Tambolis

Ta'mbolis, or Betel-Sellers, are returned as numbering eight, and as found in the town of Sholapur. In appearance, speech, house, food, and dress they do not differ from cultivating Marathas. They grow betel leaves, and sell them retail and their women help in their calling. They are shopkeepers, selling betelnut, catechu, and lime which people chew along with the betel leaves. They open their shops at six in the morning and shut them about eight at night. Their boys help from twelve or fifteen. They sell the leaves from twenty to thirty-two for ⅜d. or ¼a. and make 3d. to 4½d. (2-3 as.) a day, and, as they can hardly live on this, they cultivate and serve as labourers. When asked they say they are Kunbis rather than Tambolis. They worship all Hindu gods and godesses and keep the regular fasts and festivals. They allow and practise child and widow marriage and polygamy, and their customs social and religious are the same as Maratha customs. They burn their dead and mourn ten days. They have a caste council, They do not send their boys to school and at present are poor.

Telis

Telis, or Oil-Pressers, are returned as numbering 6750 and as found all over the district. They are divided into Lads, Lingdas or Lingayats, Mirjis, Pardeshis, and Tuljapuris, who neither eat together nor intermarry. The Tuljapuris. look like Marathas and their home tongue is Marathi. Their houses are like those of ordinary middle class Hindus, with a front verandah which serves as a shop. They have a bullock or two and sometimes a servant. They do not eat fish or flesh. Both men and women dress like Marathas, the women without drawing the end of the robe back between the feet. They are proverbially dirty but hardworking and thrifty. They press sesamum seed, kardai seed, and groundnuts, and their women and children help the men in their work. They sell the oil in their houses and have shops, but do not hawk the oil. They worship the ordinary Hindu gods, and their house deities are Ambabai, Jotiba, and Khandoba. Their priests are the ordinary village Brahmans and Lingdas in addition employ Jangams. Except that the Lingda women after childbirth become impure for five days and tie a ling to the child's neck on the fifth, their ceremonies are the same as Maratha ceremonies. Besides the ling ceremony the Lingdas worship Satvai on the fifth day like other Telis and name their children on the twelfth. Except that theirdevak or guardian is the iron bar or pahar and the stone oil-mill or ghana, their customs are the same as those of Marathas. The marriage priests of all Telis are the ordinary village Deshasth Brahmans. The Lingdas carry their dead in a bag or jholi behind a Jangam who blows a conch shell. The Telis bury their dead, mourn three days, and offer no balls. They allow widow marriage and practise polygamy. Their headman or mhetar settles social disputes in presence of the council or panch. They do not send their boys to school. Though the competition of kerosine oil has lowered the price of the local oil the Telis' oil commands a good sale and as a class' they are well-to-do.