Revision as of 10:54, 24 March 2015

Hindus

BRAHMANS

Bra'hmans [These accounts of Hindu castes have been compiled from materials collected by Mr. Shantaram Vinayak Kantak, L.M., Assistant Surgeon, Pandharpur; and Mr. K. Raghunathji of Bombay.] according to the 1881 census included thirteen classes with a strength of 26,979 or 5.01 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Deshasthas

Deshasths, or Desh that is either Plain or Local Brahmans, are returned as numbering 23,360 and as found over the whole district. They are old settlers in the district and have no tradition or memory of any earlier home. They are divided into Ashvalayans, Kanvs, and Yajusshakhis or Madhyandins, who eat together but do not intermarry. Among the members of the same section intermarriage cannot take place if the family stocks or gotras are the same. Their surnames are Aradhe, Dandvate, Deshpande, Gatade, Gore, Guljar, Kale, Kande, Konkne, Tathe, and Thite. Persons bearing the same surname cannot intermarry unless the surname is only an office or calling name. Thus a Deshpande of one village can give his daughter in marriage to a Deshpande of another village provided their family stocks are different. The names in common use among men are Anant, Bandoba, Bhagvant, Bindo, Gindo, Krishna. charya, Malhar, Narhari, Shamraj, Timaji, Venimadhav, and Yamaji; and among women, Gita,Koyna, Krishna, Lakshmi, Radha, Rahi, Sarasvati, and Satyabhama. They are generally dark with regular features, but are rougher, hardier, and less acute than Konkanasth Brahmans. The women, like themen, are dark and rough, and not so goodlooking as the Konkanasth women. They speak a broad-toned Marathi with a drawl and without the Konkanasth nasal twang. [For no, nahil, nahita is colloquially used; for haratat, bolatat, and jatat they say haratet, bolat, and jatet ; for balant jhali or is in childbed, kodani jhali; for ajari ahe or sick nijla ahe; for jvati, millet, dane ; for wheat bread, tukda; for sutak mourning gunta ; for over or sampk, udle; and for chikhal or filth, chikhol.] Deshasth Brahmans live in houses of the better sort one or more storeys high with walls of mud and stone and flat roofs.

Almost all the houses are built round an open square or chauk on one side of which in the upper storey is the kitchen and underneath if the cattle shed. In a niche in the wall hear the kitchen door are the house gods, near whom an oil lamp is kept constantly burning. Their house goods include copper and brass pots and pans, plates, ladles, and cups, also cots, bedding, and quilts. They generally have no servants, the women of the house doing all the work. Those who have fields keep cattle but families with fields and cattle are unusual. They have no pet animals or birds and are a thrifty careful people. They are vegetarians, whose staple food is millet bread, rice, pulse, and vegetables. They are extremely fond of spices and chillies. They are great eaters but are not skilful cooks. They serve their food without neatness or finish and have seldom any delicacies. They like coarse sugar better than fine sugar because coarse sugar is sweeter. Some use the charcoal of the castor oil plant and others use cow's urine as a spice. Their chief holiday dishes are gram cakes or puranpolis and sugared and spiced milk. Except the Shakts or worshippers of female energies they do not use liquor, and few of them either smoke tobacco or hemp, or drink hemp water. Snuff-taking and tobacco-chewing is common and betel-eating is universal. The men wear the topknot and the moustache, but neither the beard nor the whiskers. They dress in a waistcloth, a waistcoat or a coat, a headscarf or turban, a shouldercloth, and shoes or sandals. Except in public the shouldercloth takes the place of the coat and waistcoat. The women dress in the backed bodice and the full Maratha robe with the skirt drawn back between the feet and tucked in at the waist behind. They mark their brows with a large red circle and braid the hair into a coil like a scorpion's tail. They generally wear false hair but do not deck it with flowers. They do not dress with taste or show any liking for gay colours. They have rich clothes in store many of which have been handed down two or three generations. As a class they are indolent, and untidy, but thrifty and hospitable, and franker and less cunning than Konkanasths. Their slovenliness and dullness have given them the name of dhamyas or dhamgands, that is stay-at-homes. They are writers, bankers, moneylenders and changers, traders, medical practitioners, landholders, priests, and beggars. They claim to be superior to all Brahmans, professing to look down on the Konkanasths as Parashuram's creation or srishti. They associate freely with Konkanasths and Karhadas, and eat with them, but except in a few cases do not marry with them.

Some are Smarts or followers of the doctrine that the soul and the universe are the same, and others are Bhagvats who hold that the soul and universe are distinct. The members of both sects worship all Brahmanic gods and goddesses, and keep the ordinary fasts and festivals. Their priests belong to their own caste. They make pilgrimages to Alandi, Allahabad, Benares, Gaya, Jejuri, Mathura, Nasik, Pandharpur, Rameshvar, and Tuljapur. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. They always have their horoscopes cast, and when anything goes wrong they either consult their horoscopes or go to an astrologer. They have house gods and goddesses, goddesses being more frequently worshipped. Some of the goddesses Karamma, Sahadevi, Shakambari, and Yallamma, seem to point to a Dravidian that is an eastern or a southern origin. In social matters they belong to the great local community of Brahmans which includes the members of the Chitpavan, Deshasth, Devrukha, and Karhada castes. They send their boys to school and are a rising class.

Devrukhas

Devrukha Brahmans, of whom there is only one family of eight returned from Malsiras, are immigrants from Devrukh in Ratnagiri. They have no subdivisions and their family stocks or gotras are Atri, Jamadagnya, and Kashyap. Their surnames are Joshi, Mule, and Padval. Sameness of stock not sameness of surname bars marriage. In house, dress, food, and customs they do not differ from Deshasths. They are either Smarts or Bhagvats, keep all Brahmanic fasts and festivals, and go on pilgrimage to Benares, Jejuri, Nasik, and Pandharpur,. They believe in sorcery and witchcraft, and consult oracles. They form part of the great Brahman community, and settle social disputes at meetings of local Deshasths, Chitpavans, Kerhadas, and Devrukhas. They send their boys to school, and are in easy circumstances.

Golaks

Golaks are returned as numbering twenty-eight and as found only in Barsi and in Pandharpur. They say they are Govardhan Brahmans, and that they are considered degraded because their ancestors instead of rearing cows, sold them and lived on the proceeds. [Details of Govardhan Brahmans are given in the Nasik Statistical Account.] They say they came to Sholapur from Parali Vaijnath in the Konkan about fifty years ago in search of work. They are divided into Mund, Pund, and Rand Golaks who eat together but do not intermarry. Of these the Mund Golaks are said to be the offspring of widows whose heads have been shaved; the Punds the offspring of widows who became pregnant within a year of their husband's death, and the Rands of widows whose heads have not been shaved. The names of their family stocks or gotras are Bharadvaj, Bhargav, Kashyap, Kausik, Sankhyayan, Vasishth and Vats; and their surnames are Alate, te, Avte, Kakde, Kolsune, Mandvale, Nachne, Pachpore, Polade, Rishi, and Supnekar. Persons bearing the same stock name and the same surname cannot intermarry. They look like Deshasths, and differ little from Deshasths in speech house food or dress. They are hardworking, even-tempered, and hospitable, but neither neat nor clean. They are writers, moneychangers, cloth merchants, messengers, and husbandmen. Boys begin to work at fifteen and are thoroughly trained in three or five years. The women, besides looking after the house, help the men in the field, watching the crops and reaping at harvest.

The men do not work in the fields without the help of Kunbi servants or labourers. Those who keep cloth shops buy the cloth in Poona, Bombay, or Sholapur, and sell it at a profit of about six per cent (1 a. in the rupee). They generally sell country made cloth. Most of them have some small capital, and to increase their business take in partners. Their work is not steady and their income is doubtful. Many are in debt which they say is due to heavy marriage expenses. They have not much credit but can borrow up to £50 (Rs. 500) at eighteen to twenty per cent a year. They claim to be equal to Deshasth Brahmans, but Deshasths consider them inferior and neither eat nor drink with them. They worship the usual Brahman and local gods and goddesses, especially Bahiroba, Khandoba, and the Bhavanis of Aundh, Kolhapur, and Tuljapur. They keep all Hindu fasts and feasts and call Deshasth Brahmans to officiate at their houses. They go on pilgrimage to Alandi, Allahabad, Benares, Jejuri, Oudh, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. When a child is born, a midwife who is generally a Kunbi cuts its navel cord, puts the cord and the after-birth in an earthen jar along with a copper coin, a turmeric root, and a betelnut, and buries the whole in the lying-in room. The child and its mother are bathed in warm water and laid on the cot. For the first day the child is fed on castor oil, on the second on honey, and from the third on its mother's milk For the first five days the mother is fed on rice and clarified butter. In the evening of the fifth day an image of the goddess Satvai is placed on a grindstone in the lying-in room and surrounded with five to ten dough lamps. On the stone are laid a blank sheet of paper, a pen, and some ink and the knife with which the navel cord was cut. The midwife lights a brass hanging lamp, worships the stone and the articles on the stone, offers them cooked rice and butter, and begs them to be kind to the child and the mother. For ten days after the birth the mother and her family remain impure, and either on the twelfth or on the thirteenth the child is laid in the cradle and named. When the child is between a month and three years old its hair is clipped for the first time. It is seated on its maternal uncle's knee, has its hair cut by a barber, is bathed, dressed in new clothes, and taken to the village temple. A dinner is given to near relations the chief guests being a married woman and her husband. A Golak boy is girt with the sacred thread between his fifth and his eleventh year. A couple of days before the girding, the boy's parents and a few near relations accompanied by music start to ask neighbour relations and friends always beginning with the, village god. At the house a booth is made and an earthen altar raised facing the west. On the day before the day fixed for the girding the rice-pounding and god-installing are performed. On the thread-girding day the family barber shaves the boy's head and the boy eats from the same plate with his mother for the last time. His brow is decked with ornaments and flowers, he bows low before the house gods, his elders, and the learned Brahmans, and sits on the altar on a heap of rice in front of his father. Between the boy and his father two male relations hold a sheet of unbleached cotton cloth marked with red lines, and the family priest hands grains of red rice both to male and female guests.

The astrologer or in his absence the family priest repeats verses and when the lucky moment has come the cloth is pulled on one side, the musicians play, and the guests throw rice over the boy's head. The boy makes a low bow before his father, and the father takes him with both his hands and seats him on his knees. The priest kindles the sacred fire on the altar in front of the father and feeds it with firewood, cowdung cakes, and butter. The priest ties a cotton thread round the boy's waist and gives him a loincloth to wear. He rolls a piece of cloth round his waist and another round his shoulders. A piece of deer skin is hung on the boy's left shoulder in the same way as the sacred thread. A sacred thread is thrown round his left shoulder, and the boy walks between the fire and his father. The father whispers the sacred gayatri or sun-hymn into his right ear; a sacred grass or munj cord is tied round the boy's waist; a palas staff is given into his hands and his father advises him to behave with religions exactness or achur. In the evening accompanied by male and female relations and music, the boy is taken to the village temple, makes a low bow before the god, and is brought home. Instead of going into the house the boy sits in the booth and is given alms consisting of sweetmeat balls and money which become the priest's property. The priest rekindles the sacred fire and teaches the boy twilight prayers or sandhya. The boy makes over to the priest the staff, the deer skin, the loincloth, and the grass cord. A feast to Brahmans ends the thread-girding. Golak girls are married before they are twelve and boys before they are twenty or twenty-five. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling, and settle social disputes at meetings of adult castemen. They send their boys to school but are not prosperous.

Gujaratis

Gujara't Bra'hmans are returned as numbering 237 and as found over the whole district except in Malsiras. They come in search of work either as cooks or priests, stay for a few years, and go back to their native country. They are divided into Audichs, Nagars, and Shrimalis, who neither eat together nor intermarry. The names of their family, stocks are Bharadvaj, Kapil, and Vasishth, and persons belonging to the same family stock cannot intermarry. Their surnames are Achare, Bhat, Pandya, Raul, Thakur, and Vyas, and families bearing the same surname can intermarry provided the family stock or gotra is different both on the father's and on the mother's sides. The names in common use among men are Aditram, Atmaram, Shankar, Shivshankar, Umyashankar, Vallabhram, and Vithal; and among women Gulab, Jadav, Moti, Narbada, Reva, and Rukhmini. They are generally fair with regular features, and neither very strong nor tall. The men wear the moustache, whiskers, and beard. The top-knot covers three-fourths of the head, and the hair is black, and sometimes curly. The women are fairer than the men with delicate features, oval face, and small hands and feet. Their home tongue is Gujarati, but out of doors they speak Hindustani or Marathi mixed with Gujarati. They do not own houses, but live in houses of the middle sort one storey high with mud and stone walls and flat roofs. Their house goods include a wooden box or two, one or two cotton bags, a carpet, some pieces of sackcloth, woollen waistcloths, and a few metal vessels. They keep neither servants nor domestic animals. They are vegetarians, and their staple food is rice, wheat bread, pulse, butter, and sugar or molasses. Their favourite spices are black pepper, cloves, and cinnamon. They do not eat oil.

They generally eat once in the afternoon, but bathe twice in the morning and at three in the afternoon. They avoid onions, garlic, and masur pulse, and use no intoxicating drinks. Many drink hemp water at midday and in the afternoon, and eat opium often twice a day in the morning after bathing and in the afternoon. They neither chew nor smoke tobacco. The men dress in an irregular carelessly-folded turban with the end left dangling a foot or a foot and a half from the head. It is shorter and not half so broad as the Deccan turban and is called batti or the lamp because if twisted it would be no thicker than an ordinary lamp wick. They wear a fine white coat reaching to the knees with creases at the waist; the waistcloth which is twelve feet long is worn doubled as Kunbis wear it; the shouldercloth is an old waistcloth doubled to make it look short; and their shoes are not double-toed like Deccan Brahman shoes, and have a top to the heel. They generally wear a rudraksh bead rosary round their necks. Their women wear the hair in a braid which they afterwards either twist into a knot or leave hanging down the back. They do not wear false hair or deck their heads either with ornaments or flowers. Their dress includes a petticoat or a short robe, whose skirt they do not pass back between the feet; they draw a cloak or odhni over the head, and wear a short-sleeved open-backed bodice. The robe is twelve feet long or only half as long as a Deccan woman's robe. They sometimes buy a Deccan robe, cut it in two, and wear the cut end inside, and the bordered or ornamental end outside drawn from the left over the head, leaving the left arm bare. The left arm is loaded with ornaments while the right has no ornaments. Their ornaments are worth £20 to £100 (Rs. 200-1000) or more. These Gujarat Brahmans are extremely careful and frugal; they are neither neat nor clean, but sober, thrifty, and orderly. They are beggars, astrologers, family priests, and cooks. They are well paid by their Vani patrons, and are free from debt, and generally carry back considerable sums to their native country. They are a religious people. Their family deities are Ambabai and Balaji, and they worship all Brahman gods and goddesses and keep all fasts and festivals. Their priests belong to their own caste and they go on pilgrimage to Benares, Nasik, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling and settle social disputes at meetings of castemen and punish breaches of caste rules by fines varying from 2s. to. £5 (Rs. 1 - 50) which are spent on sweetmeats or in the repairs of their temples. They send their boys to school, but do not keep them there long. They take to no new pursuits and are in easy circumstances.

Kanaujs

Kanauj Bra'hmans are returned as numbering 279 and as found over the whole district except in Malsiras. They are an offset from the Kanya-Kubjas of North India, and are said to have come into the district as soldiers in Aurangzeb's army (1658-1707). They are divided into Kanaujs, Sanadhyas, and Sarvariyas, who eat together but do not intermarry. The names of their family stocks or gotras are Bharadvaj, Gargya, Kashyap, Lohit, and Maithun; and persons bearing the same family name cannot intermarry. Their surnames are Adrun, Ayarti, Chobe, Dube, Pande, Sukul, and Trivedi. The names in common use among men are, Beniram, Girdharlal, Kanyalal, Mohanlal, Prasad, and Ramchandra; and among women Balubai, Chhotibai, and Jamnabai. They are fair with regular features, tall, strong, and athletic. In dress and appearance the rich and well-to-do resemble Konkanasth Brahmans, and the poorer classes have a martial Rajput-like air. Since their settlement in the district the women, who are very fair and delicate-looking with small hands and feet, have taken to wear the Maratha women's dress. Their home tongue is Hindustani, but out of doors they speak Marathi and Kanarese. They live in houses of the better sort, one or more storeys high with walls of stone and mortar and flat roofs. Their houses are neatly kept and well cared for. Their house goods include carpets, mats, blankets, copper and brass cooking vessels, and silver drinking cups and plates, picture-frames, looking glasses, glass hanging globes, tables and chairs, swinging cots, bedding, and pillows. They keep servants and have cows, bullocks, she-buffaloes, horses, and parrots.

Their staple food is wheat bread, rice, pulse, vegetables, butter, and either sugar or molasses. They are great eaters and are specially fond of dishes in which butter and sugar are mixed. They do not mix salt, chillies, or spices in their vegetables and other dishes, but each person is served with a small quantity of salt chillies and spices pounded together, and adds them according to his taste. They are extremely fond of hemp water, and they also smoke hemp. The well-to-do dress like Maratha Brahmans and the poor like Rajputs. The men's top-knot covers the greater part of the crown of the head and all wear the moustache but neither the beard nor whiskers except those who have been in the army. Their women dress like Maratha women in a robe and bodice, but do not pass the skirt of the robe back between the feet. The women wear the hair in a knot behind the head and deck it neither with false hair nor with flowers. They are thrifty, hardworking, even-tempered, and hospitable. They are moneylenders and changers, writers, and soldiers in British regiments. Though their calling is neither steady nor flourishing, their thriftiness keeps them from debt. Some of the poorer may be indebted but as a class they have credit enough to borrow sums up to £100 (Rs. 1000) at six to twelve per cent a year. They are a religious people and worship all Brahmanic gods and goddesses. Their family deities are Bhavani of Calcutta, Mahadev of Benares, and Betrajmata of Upper India. Their priests belong to their own caste. They keep the regular Brahmanic fasts and feasts and go on pilgrimage to Dvarka, Jejuri, Kashi or Benares, Mathura, Pandharpur, Prayag or Allahabad, Rameshvar, and Tuljapur. Their religious teacher or guru is Ramanand Svami a Deshasth Brahman who goes about levying contributions. He does not settle their social disputes. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. Their customs do not differ from those of the Poona Kanaujs. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of the caste-men. Offences are punished by fines of 2s. to £1 (Rs. 1-10), which when recovered are spent on sweetmeats. They send their boys to school and are in fair condition.

Karhadas

Karha'da Bra'hmans are returned as numbering 260 and as found over the whole district. Their original settlement is Karhad the sacred meeting of the Krishna and Koyna in Satara. They believe they came into the district from the Konkan, Kolhapur, and Satara during the last hundred years in search of work. They have no subdivisions, and the names of some of their family stocks are Atri, Bharadvaj, Gautam, Jamadagnya, Kashyap, Kaushik, and Lohitaksh. Persons belonging to the same family stock or gotra cannot intermarry. Their surnames are Agle, Amonkar, Athlekar, Buge, Chunekar, Devuskar, Gadre, Kelkar, Kirane and Kole. Sameness of surname is no bar to marriage. The names in common use both among men and among women are the same as those among Chitpavans. Their home Marathi differs little from the ordinary Sholapur Marathi, but it is more like the Chitpavans' dialect than any other. In their house, dress, and food they do not differ from Chitpavans. They are the best cooks of all Deccan or Konkan Brahmans. They are thrifty clean and neat in their habits, hospitable, and orderly. Most of them serve as writers or karkuns in the revenue, police, and judicial departments of Government service. Some are landholders letting their fields to husbandmen on the cropshare system; others ate beggars. Karhadas claim and hold an equal rank with Deccan Brahmans with whom they eat. Their customs from birth to death are the same as Konkanasth customs. They worship all Brahman gods and goddesses and more often worship goddesses than gods. The family goddess of almost all is the Kolhapur Bhavani though some have the Tuljapur Bhavani. Their priests belong to their own class. They keep all Brahmanic fasts and festivals and go on pilgrimage to Benares, Kolhapur, Nasik, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. They believe in spirit possession and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. They hold caste councils, send their boys to school, are free from debt, and live in fair comfort.

Konkanasths

Konkanasth Bra'hmans are returned as numbering 1627 and as found over the whole district. They are said to have come into the district during the time of the Peshwas (1714-1818). They are divided into Apasthambs or the followers of the Yajurved, and Ashvalayans or the followers of the Rigved. The members of both these branches eat together and intermarry. Their personal names stock names and surnames are the same as those of Poona Konkanasths. Both men and women are fair, many of them with gray eyes. They have an air of intelligence and superiority, and are always awake to their own interests. The women are delicate with small hands and feet and are the fairest Hindus in the district, though those who have been long in the district are somewhat darker and rougher than Ratnagiri Konkanasths. Their home Marathi differs from the Deshasth Brahman Marathi in being more nasal and in the use of some peculiar phrases. [For dilhe gave Konkanasths say dilan, for khalle ate khallan, for marle killed marlan, and for kele made kekan.] Most of them live in houses of the better sort one or two storeys high, with mud walls and flat roofs. Their houses are neat, clean, and well kept, and their house goods include metal vessels and earthen grain jars. Among the well-to-do the waterpots and cups, plates, and other vessels of worship are of silver. Their pet animals are cows and she-buffaloes, and in addition the well-to-do keep horses, bullocks, carriages, men and women servants, and Brahman cooks and water-carriers. Their staple food includes rice,, pulse, wheat, millet, curds, and pickles. They are good cooks, though compared with those of the Deshasths or Karhadas their dishes are somewhat insipid. They are very fond of curds and buttermilk, cocoa-nuts, and kokamb, and live almost entirely on rice. Like other Brahmans they are fond of clarified butter eating it chiefly with bajri bread. A favourite dish is sponge cake called khaparpoli eaten with cocoanut milk. Though strict vegetarians in ordinary life they keep to the old Brahman practice of eating flesh at the religious offerings called yajnas.

Their holiday dishes are spiced sweet milk and curds eaten with wheat cakes fried in butter, sweet spiced rice, wheat and pulse cakes eaten with clarified butter, milk, cocoanut milk, gram balls, and a variety of dishes. Sweet or hot and pungent mango, lemon, plum or karvand. green turmeric and chilly pickles are often used, and wafer biscuits of three kinds sandgas, kharvadis, and kurvadis. They both chew and smoke tobacco and eat betelnut and leaves. The men wear the top knot and the moustache, and sometimes the whiskers; and the women wear the hair in a peculiarly high, neat, and tightly coiled braid. They wear false hair and sometimes deck their heads with flowers. The men make a red or a white sandal brow mark, and the women apply a circle of redpower to the brow or draw a cross streak but make no imitation of the basil leaf. Both men and women dress in the same way as Deshasths but with much more taste and neatness. The men wear a waistcloth, a coat, a waistcoat, a shouldercloth, a turban or headscarf, and shoes. The women wear a robe and bodice the same as Deshasth women. Their intelligence, pride, cunning, and love of intrigue have combined to raise the Konkanasths to the first place among Deccan Brahmans. They are hardworking, sober, and wide-awake to heir own interests. They are thrifty and proverbially stingy. Konkanasths are landed proprietors, moneylenders, cloth and grain dealers, Government servants, and beggars. They are fond of parading their religiousness. They are either Smarts or Bhagvats and worship. all Brahmanic gods and goddesses. They keep the usual fasts and festivals and their priests belong to theireown caste. They make pilgrimages to Benares, Kolhapur, and Tuljapur, and believe in sorcery and witchcraft, and in the supernatural powers of magicians They have a full belief in astrology, referring all the good and the evil which happens to the conjunction of good and bad stars in their nativity. They have no headman. Their customs from birth to death are the same as those given in the Poona Chitpavan Brahman account. They form part of the Brahman community which includes Konkanasths, Karhadas, Deshasths, and Devrukhas Petty social disputes are settled by the adult male members of the subdivisions who live in the neighbourhood, and serious questions are referred to Shankaracharya the pontiff of Smart Brahmans whose headquarters are at Shringeri in north-west Maisur. All of them send their boys to school and most of them teach them English. They are a rising and prosperous class.

Marwaris

Ma'rwa'r Bra'hmans are returned as numbering sixty-seven and as found over the whole district except in Madha, Pandharpur, and Sangola. They say they have come into the district from Marwar within the last thirty years. They are divided into Adigauds, Audichs, Dayamas, Gauds, Gujar Gauds, Parikhs, Purohits, Sanavadis, Sarasvats, Shri-Gauds, and Shrimalis. The names of some of their family stocks or gotras are Bharadvaj, Bhargav, Gautan, Kashyap, Sandsan, and Shandilya, and persons belonging to the same family stock or gotra do not intermarry. The surnames are Joshi, Mishar, Ojha, Pande, Pandit, Tivari, Upadhya, and Vyas; and persons bearing the same surname cannot intermarry. The names in common use among men are Bansilal, Bholaram, Girdharlal, Rupchand, and Shivlal, and among women Champa, Chhoti, Kasturi, Keshar, Rangu, Saku, and Thaki. They are fair, tall, and stout, the women fairer than the men. The men have notably hard greedy lines at the corners of their months and sharp twinkling eyes. Among themselves they speak Marwari, a mixture of Gujarati and Brij. They generally live in one-storeyed houses built of mud or mortar and stones and with flat mud roofs. Their house goods include wooden boxes, bedsteads, mirrors, glass globes, carpets or mats and cushions, copper and brass vessels, silver plate, and other articles. They keep cows and parrots but no servants. Their staple food includes wheat bread, pulse, rice, butter, and vegetables. They are fond of sweet dishes and butter, and dislike hot spicy dishes. They are generally good cooks, supplementing their food with a variety of pickles and fruit. They are careful to destroy no animal life in the water they drink. Marwar Brahmans never touch intoxicating liquor, except that those whose family deity is Ambabai drink wine on the Ashvin or September-October full-moon. They use opium, hemp water, and tobacco but not to excess. The men wear the waistcloth and a long fine tight-fitting white coat falling below the knee with sleeves cut so that the cuffs may be turned back. The coat is so tight that part of the right chest is left bare. They generally wear no waistcoat. Their turbans are either red or rose coloured and twisted and folded like Maratha turbans. They wear shoes and a shouldercloth and carry no handkerchief. The men wear the top-knot, beard, and moustache and keep a tuft of hair above each ear.

The women wear the hair in a braid at the back of the head, and the hair on either side of the forehead is also braided with red and yellow thread. The side braids are drawn behind the ears and all three braids are folded and tied in a knot, or are turned in an open coil on the head as is done by Deshasth and other Maratha Brahman women. The women wear a petticoat generally made of country bodicecloth and an open-backed bodice. They cover the upper part of the body with a sheet, one end of which they tuck into the waist in front or a little to the right side, and carry the other end over the head covering the back and shoulder. Some wear a coloured robe about twelve feet long instead of the sheet. They are hardworking, sober, and almost miserly in their thriftiness. They are writers, petty bankers, moneychangers, cooks, and beggars. They complain that their work is not steady and that they are not well-to-do. They believe in astrology, but profess to have no faith in witchcraft sorcery or oracles. Their customs are the same as those of Poona Marwari Brahmans. Child marriage and polygamy are allowed, widow marriage is forbidden, and polyandry is unknown. They are bound together by a strong caste-feeling and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. When an offence is proved the culprit is fined 2s. to £1 (Rs. 1-10), and is not considered a member of the caste until the fine is paid. The amount is spent in the service of Balaji. They send their boys to school until they know how to read, write, and cast accounts. They are not considered a thriving people.

Ramanujs

Ra'ma'nuj Bra'hmans are returned as numbering fourteen and as found only in Pandharpur. Ramanujs, or followers of Ramanuj the twelfth century reformer of Vaishnavism, belong to all high and middle class Hindus. Each marries with and keeps to the customs of his own caste. All the Pandharpur Ramanujs are Brahmans by caste and ascetics. Ramanuj the founder of the sect was it is said an incarnation of Shesh the cobra god, on whose coils and under whose open hood lies Narayan or Vishnu the universal spirit. Shesh played a leading part in some of Vishnu's later incarnations, appearing as Baliram the brother of Krishna and as Lakshman the brother of Ram. When, in spite of all his efforts, Vishnu saw that the world was growing worse, he about 1130 sent Shesh once more on earth to live in Ramanuj, the son of a Dravidian Brahman named Keshavacharya and of his wife Kantimati. After Ramanuj was invested with the sacred thread, he studied the Veds and other sacred books under his maternal uncle Yadavprakashat Kanchi or Kanjiveram. He generally lived at Shrirang near Trichinopoly and from this travelled over most of India, stopped a considerable time at Benares, Jagaunath, and Jaypur, disputing with the Shaivs and Jains. At Jaypur he not only overcame the Jains in argument, but made the king of Jaypur so hot a convert to his faith that he slaughtered numbers of Jains and established a Ramanuj monastery. Ramanuj went about reforming, establishing the worship of Vishnu, and reclaiming temples from the worship of other gods one of the most famous of which was the Shaiv temple of Tirupati in North Arkot, now one of the leading South Indian centres of Vaishnavism. Ramanuj belonged to the Vishishtadvait school which regards the Deity as one with the universe. The sect spread widely in Southern India, most of his followers being Dravidian Brahmans, though it also numbers many Northern India or Gaud Brahmans. His followers claim a high antiquity for the sect, but, as has been noticed,Ramanuj seems to have lived in the twelfth century.

The Ramanujs of Pandharpur are all Brahmans and are divided into Badagalai [ Badagalai is the Tamil badag north; and Tingolai is the Tamil tingol south.] or Badahah. meaning northerners and Tingolai meaning southerners who eat together and intermarry. Their family stocks or gotras are Atri,Bharadvj, Jamad-agnya, Kashyap, and Shandilya. Sameness of stock is a bar to marriage. A member of the Ramanuj sect, whether his caste be Brahman, Vani, Sonar, Sutar, or Kunbi, can be easily known by two upright yellow guardian-sandal or gopichandan marks which stretch from between the eyebrows to the root of the hair and are known as Vishun's feet. Between the two lines is a third, red or yellow, representing the goddess Lakshmi, Vishnu's spouse. A Tingolai or southerner in addition at the end of the curve between the eyebrows, draws the middle line half-way down the nose. The different members of the sect speak their mother tongue Hindustani, Gujarati, Marathi, or Telugu. The Pandharpur Ramanujs are unmarried ascetics who live in a strongly built math or religious house at Pandharpur well supplied with vessels and furniture and with cows, buffaloes, and parrots. Brahman Ramanujs are strict vegetarians. They are great eaters and fair cooks. Their staple food is jvari and wheat bread, pulse, and vegetables. They have several peculiar rules regarding their meals. Before they touch it they offer the whole of the cooked food to their gods. The dishes containing the cooked food are brought from the cook room and laid in front of the gods, a tulsi or holy basil leaf is laid on each, verses are said over them, and the men withdraw. After a few minutes during which the gods are supposed to dine, they carry the food back into the cook house. If the vessels containing the cooked food are too heavy to be removed, Shaligram, the bored stone in which Vishnu lives, is taken from the god house to the cook-room and the food is offered to it. They dine once a day each man from a separate dish. When dining they wear a silk waistcloth, do not allow their food to be seen by others, and do not sit in a line with persons who though Ramanuj Brahmans are not strict observers of rules. The men wear a loincloth and over it a waistcloth. When going out they dress in a coat a waistcoat and a headscarf or cap. They keep the top-knot but never wear the moustache. Among those who are not ascetics the Badagalai but not the Tingolai widows shave the head. The men wear the sacred thread unless they turn ascetics, mark their brow with the nam or two upright colour lines and brand their arms with the discus or chakra and other symbols of Vishnu. The Pandharpur Ramanujs are a quiet, hospitable, and harmless people, following no calling. They are in easy circumstances and appear to have large resources. During the 1876-77 famine they fed some hundreds of famished people daily at their own expense. They claim equality with Deshasth Brahmans, but will not eat or drink at their houses. Deccan Brahmans keep aloof from them and profess to look down on them.

Except Panchals other Hindus eat at their houses. They are religious and believe Vishnu to be the Supreme Being who exists from before the creation and will for ever remain. Their leading gods are the incarnations of Vishnu, Krishna, Ram, and Vithoba. Their chief religious books are the Bhargavpuran, Vishnupuran, and Ramanujbhashya. Their chief monastery is in Northern India and they also have shrines in South India. They are the priests of Balaji's temple at Giri or Tirupati in North Arkot. Their head priest or guru belongs to their own community and is married. They believe in witchcraft sorcery and soothsaying. Except their initiation their customs are the same as those of the caste to which they belong. When a person wishes to become a Ramanuj he goes to the head or guru of the religious house and makes known his wish. In the morning of a lucky day which is fixed by an astrologer the novice bathes in a pond or river, takes some milk, curds, honey, sugar, flowers, sesamum, and barley, and goes to the religious house. The guru bathes, washes his gods with milk, curds, butter, sugar, and honey, rubs them dry and puts scented and redpowders sandal and flowers over them, burns frankincense before them, and offers them sweetmeats. He lights the sacred fire and feeds it with pimpal Ficus religiosa sticks, butter, barley, and sesamum. He heats metal symbols or nam on the fire and when they are red-hot stamps the novice's right and left arms with them. He makes the mark on his brow, gives him two pieces of cloth one to wear between his legs as a loincloth and one to tie round his waist as a waistcord. The guru seats him near himself, and covering them both with a sheet or shawl, whispers in his ears the mystic verse, Om Ramay namas Salutation to Rama. To drown the guru's words the other ascetics keep chanting Vedic verses in a load tone. The novice takes the sheet or shawl off himself and the teacher lays before the house gods money varying according to his means from a few shillings to some hundred pounds. The novice fasts during that day and remains by himself in the religious house. Next day a feast is given to the brotherhood and the novice either remains in the religious house or dresses in his usual clothes and goes back to his family.

Shenvis

Shenvis are returned as numbering 165 and as found over the whole district except in Karmala and Sangola. The sholapur Shenvis say that they take their name from Shahannavi or ninety-six villages over which they had authority. They are also called Sarasvats which they derive from the founder of their caste, Sarasvat by name the son of Sarasvati, a tributary of the Ganges. According to their account Parashuram, the sixth incarnation of Vishnu the destroyer of the Kshatriyas, brought three families of Sarasvats from a town called Trihotrapur supposed to be Tirhut and settled them and their family gods in Goa; the original settlers were afterwards joined by seven more families. The Sholapur Shenvis are said to have been settled in the district for four or five generations and to have originally come in search of work from Gwalior, Kolhapur, and the Konkan. They are divided into Bardeskars, Kudaldeskars, Rajapurkars, and Shenvis proper. These divisions do not intermarry and used not to eat together though lately the Shenvis proper, who are the highest of the four classes have begun to employ Rajapurkars as cooks. The men are generally middle-sized, and the women taller than the men fair and regular featured. The men shave the head except the top-knot and the face except the moustache. The men rub their brows with sandal paste and the women with redpowder, and tie the hair in a knot behind. They speak Marathi both at home and abroad. They have forgotten the Konkani dialect which Goa, Malvan, and Savantvadi Shenvis speak, though their speech has still traces of the Konkan twang. Most live in houses of the better sort one or two storeys high with walls of mud and stone and flat mud roofs. A few have servants, and almost all have cows buffaloes and horses. Their house furniture includes metal and earthen vessels, bedsteads, boxes, and lamps, and a few have tables, chairs, sofas, argand lamps, glass hanging globes, and framed pictures. Their staple food includes rice, pulse, vegetables, pickles, and wheat or jvari bread, curds, milk, whey, butter, and spices. Their holiday dish is gram cakes or puranpolis. They stealthily eat fish or flesh, but, during the four sacred months or chaturmas, July, August, September, and October they do not eat even onions, garlic, or brinjals. They do not use spirituous liquor. Many smoke, several chew, and a few snuff tobacco. Both men and women dress like Brahmans. They are a neat, clean, sober, hospitable, and orderly people. They are landholders and in Government service as writers. They are a well-to-do class seldom in debt and able to raise money at nine to twelve per cent a year. They hold themselves equal to Deshasth Konkanasth and Karhada Brahmans and have the same privileges as other Maratha Brahmans.

The daily life of a man varies according to his occupation. The landholders do not work in the fields and have much leisure. A Shenvi landlord rises early, washes, stands facing the east, and joining his hand bows to the sun repeating verses. If he has no servants he goes to market to buy vegetables and other articles of daily use. On his return he either sits gossipping with a friend or acquaintance or bathes and spends an hour or two in praying or worshipping his house gods, he then dines generally about noon, and, after dinner, sleeps for an hour or two. In the afternoon he writes letters or attends business or he goes out and gossips with friends till evening when he visits a temple on his way home. On his return he washes his hands and feet, says his evening prayers, worships the house gods, sups, and goes to bed. Shenvi women are quiet, forbearing, and hardworking. A rich man's wife leads an easy life generally with a servant to do the heavy and unpleasant parts of the housework. The wife of a poor Shenvi is always busy. She is early at work, grinding grain, often singing as she grinds. If she has young children she has to prepare an early breakfast of bread and chatni. After the children have breakfasted she has to attend to the chief morning meal; she bathes early and goes to the hearth and takes advantage of any rest in her cooking to worship the tulsi plant or tell her beads. When the midday meal is ready she serves it to the men of the house and the little children. After they are done, with any female relation who may be in the house, she takes her dinner and makes over the rest to the servants. If there is a servant he cleans the pots and washes the clothes, if not the wife has to do the cleaning and washing. When this is over she either looks to her children or their clothes, sits sifting rice for the next day's meal, or goes to the temple where sacred books are read, or to her mother's house if it is in the village. In the evening she has again to cook and serve supper, sups, and cowdungs the hearth. Both boy sand girls attend school both in the morning and afternoon. They are religious and Worship all Hindu gods and goddesses. The shrines of their family gods are chiefly in Goa, They are either Smarts or Bhagvats and their priests are Deshasth Brahmans. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts and go on pilgrimage to Alandi, Benares, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. They have three religious teachers or Svamis two of them Bhagvats and the third a Smart. The two Bhagvat religious houses are in Gokarn in North Kanara and in Cochin, and the religious house of the Smart teacher is in Goa. They travel in state accompanied by a number of disciples gathering money presents., They do not try to make fresh converts and are not much respected by the educated and leading members of the caste. The sacraments or' sanskars observed by Shenvis are puberty, pregnancy, birth, naming, first feeding, keeping of the top-knot, thread-girding, marriage, and death. The Shenvis hardly ever meet to settle social disputes. In case of a serious broach of caste rules the Svami is asked, but the members are indifferent and seldom notice breaches of rules. They send their children to school and are a rising and prosperous people.

Telangs

Telang Bra'hmans are returned as numbering fifty-six and as found in Barsi, Pandharpur, and Sholapur. They do not always live in the district but come once every two or three years, gather money by begging, and go back to Telangan in the south. They have no subdivisions, and the names of their family stocks are Angiras, Bharadvaj, Kaundanya, Kashyap, Kaushik, and Strivats. Their surnames are Chalavaru, Chalbatavaru, Pidalbatalavaru, and Rantachantalavaru, and persons having either the same family name or the same surname do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Govindanna, Rachaya, Ramaya, Ramanna, and Shripatanna; and among women Kashibai, Mariamma, and Shitamma. The men are dark, tall, and stout, and besmear their face and hair with cocoanut oil. They wear long thick top-knots, and grow the moustache and beard but shave the whiskers. Their home tongue is Telugu, but abroad they speak an incorrect Marathi. They have no houses of their own. Their house goods are blanket mats, and a couple of sheets, a few metal or earth cooking vessels, and a couple of water pots and cups. They are greedy eaters and fond of sour dishes. Their staple food is rice and curry with a large share of tamarind pulp. They are fond of whey and curds and will fast for a day or even, two days in advance if they hear of a dinner party where they think they will succeed in securing a plate. The Telang Brahman is proverbially the unbidden guest. When a dinner is given to Brahmans the Telangs come unasked, clamour for a share, and if they get no share load the host with hearty curses. Both men and women dress like Deshasth Brahmans. But the men prefer going bareheaded and with a short waistcloth either held under the armpit or rolled round the shoulders. They are clean but idle and hot-tempered. They are beggars and some make and sell sacred threads. They are religious and are chiefly Smarts or followers of Sankaracharya the apostle of the doctrine that the soul and the universe are one. They worship all Brahman gods and goddesses, and their family gods are Jagadamba and Vyankoba whose shrines are in the Telangan country. They keep the ordinary fasts and feasts, and their priests belong to their own caste. They have great faith in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days and consult oracles. When a Telang woman is brought to bed she sends for a Kunbi midwife When the child is born, the midwife cuts the navel cord and buries it with a copper coin, a betelnut, and a turmeric root in at earthen vessel at the back of the house. The child is bathed in warm water and laid on the cot beside its mother. For the first three days the child is fed on honey and after that on it mother's milk. The mother is washed for the first time on the fourth day and fed on rice and batter. On the evening of the fifth day the midwife lays the knife with which the child's navel cord was cut on a grindstone in the mother's room and worships it, offering it flowers and burning incense before it. The mother's family is. impure for ten days after the birth, and the child is named on the twelfth or thirteenth.

If the child is a boy his head is shaved on a lucky day between his first and third year. A boy is girt with the sacred thread between five and eleven. The day before the girding an invitation goes round accompanied by music, and a feast is given to near relations and friends. On the thread-girding day the sacrificial fire is kindled on the altar and the sacred thread is put round the boy's neck and right arm. The ceremony ends with a dinner to Brahmans. Telangs marry their girls between eight and twelve, and their boys before they are twenty-five. If both fathers are well-to-do no money payment is made. If the girl's father is poor the boy's father pays him £5 to £30 (Rs. 50-300). When the parents agree, relations and friends are asked to witness the settlement. On the marriage day the boy goes in procession to the girl's house on horseback, and stands facing the girl on a wooden stool. Two near relations hold a sheet between them and the priests and other Brahmans present repeat marriage verses. At the end grains of rice are thrown over their heads and they are husband and wife. Presents of clothes are made and dinners are given by the two families and the marriage is over. The Telang's puberty, pregnancy, and death ceremonies are generally the same as those of Deshasth Brahmans of Dharwar. They hold caste meetings, send their boys to school, and are poor.

Tirguls

Tirguls are returned as numbering 359 and as found over the whole district except in Karmala and Sangola. According to Sholapur Brahmans, apparently a play on the words tin gul or gol, Tirguls are those whose ancestors for three generations have been Golaks. The local history is that during the time of the Peshwas Brahman widows and wives who were pregnant by men who were not their husbands were sent on a pilgrimage to Pandharpur, to present them committing abortion and infanticide. The women lay in at Pandharpur and the infant with or without money presents was made over to any one who would take it. This is said to be the reason why so many Tirguls are found in and about Pandharpur. Their family stocks are Angiras Bharadvaj; Haritasya, Kashyap, Lohit, and Shrivats, and their sub-stocks or pravars are Bhargav, Chavan, Jamadagni, and Shrivats. They look and speak like Maratha Brahmans, are betel-vine growers, cultivators, grain dealers, moneylenders and changers, bankers, and Government servants. Their house, food, and dress do not differ from those of Maratha Brahmans. They are well-to-do but other Brahmans do not eat with them and look down on them because in growing the betel vine they kill insects. They are either Smarts or Bhagvats and worship all Brahman gods and goddesses and keep the usual fasts and festivals. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans. They go on pilgrimage to Alandi, Benares, Nasik, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur, and believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. Among Tirguls a lighted lamp is kept burning in the lying-in room for three months after child-birth. For the first ten days the family priest every evening repeats sacred verses at the mother's house, and, at the end of the verses, throws grains of red rice over the mother and rubs ashes on the mother's and child's brows. On the fifth day in the mother's room, on a grindstone, are placed a rolling pin, a blank sheet of paper, a pen, and some ink, the penknife with which the child's navel cord was cut, thirty-two kinds of medicines, a bamboo stick, a hoe, a brass water pot filled with water, betelnuts, dry cocoa kernel, a turmeric root, and a Copper coin, and over the whole flower garlands are hung from the ceiling. To the left of the grindstone is a lighted lamp which is allowed to burn ten days. The midwife sits in front of the stone and worships it, sprinkles red and turmeric powder over it, waves a lighted lamp and frankincense before it, and offers it dishes of rice, vegetables, and sweetmeats. She places a handful of wheat grains and a betelnut in front of the whole which is considered to mean filling the goddess' lap. The midwife's lap is filled with wheat and a betelnut, and she dines that evening at the mother's house. After the midwife is done, the guests and the house people dine. From eight in the evening to five next morning, four Brahmans sit in the house repeating sacred verses, and are dismissed with a packet of betelnut and leaves and 6d. (4 as.) each.

On the sixth or seventh the thirty-two medicines which were worshipped on the fifth are pounded together, divided into three equal parts, and a third taken daily for three days. On the tenth day the mother's bedding and clothes and cot are washed and the whole house is cowdunged. Six dough lamp are made and set each on a cowdung cake. Of the six four are placed one near each of the four feet of the cot, the fifth on the spot where the child was born, and the sixth on the spot where the navel cord was buried. The midwife lays red and turmeric powder before each lamp and afterwards takes the lamps to her house. This day again the lap of the midwife is filled with wheat and a packet of betelnut and leaves, and she dines at the mother's house. On the morning of the eleventh day the mother and child are bathed and cow's urine is sprinkled on the cot and over the whole house. Five married women are called and seated on a mat or carpet in the mother's room. Another carpet is spread and a rice figure of a child is made on the carpet with its head to the south and its feet to the north The mother, sitting in front of it, worships the image by sprinkling turmeric and redpowder over it and offering it a pounded mixture, of ginger, sugar, and dry cocoa kernel. The five married women are presented with turmeric and redpowder, packets of betelnut and leaves, dry cocoakernel, and the ginger mixture and retire. The rice figure is taken away by some married childless woman, who cooks and eats it in the hope that the figure will take birth in her womb in the form of a child. On the twelfth day five pebbles are arranged in a line in front of the house and are worshipped by the mother, who sprinkles red turmeric and sweet scented powder over them, burns frankincense in front of them, and offers them cooked rice, curds, and sweetmeats. A Tirgul girl is named on the twelfth and a boy on the thirteenth, the naming is the same as among Deshasth Brahmans. Three months after childbirth the mother is taken to her husband's. A couple of days before she moves the father's mother sends word to the child's mother's parents that she is going to take the child and its mother home on a particular day. On the day named the child's grandmother and a few near relations start for the mother's, taking in a tray a couple of robes and bodices, a frock, a cap, a hooded cloak, a cocoanut, about two pounds of sweet smelling rice, half a pound of betelnuts, one hundred betel leaves, a handful of cardamoms and mace, and about five pounds of sugar and butter. On reaching the mother's they are seated on carpets or mats. One robe and bodice are presented to the child's grandmother and the other to the child's mother, and the child is dressed in the frock cap and cloak. They empty the tray and walk home with the child and its mother. When the child is between one and three years old if it is a boy the barber clips its hair with the same details as at a Deshasth Brahman's hairclipping. A boy is girt with the sacred thread before he is ten years old. They marry their girls before they are eleven and their boys before they are twenty-five. Their customs are generally the same as Deshasth Brahman customs. They have a caste council, send their boys to school, and are in easy circumstances.

Vidurs

Vidurs are returned as numbering 280 and as found only Barsi and Sholapur. They are said to be illegitimate, born of a Brahman father and a Maratha mother. They say they cannot tell when and whence they came into the district. The names of their family stocks or gotras are Kashyap, Govardhan, and Kaundanya, and their surnames are Dagade, Devle, Londhe, and Parmale. Persons whose surname and family name are the same cannot intermarry. They look like Deshasth Brahmans, and are healthy and strong. They speak a Marathi closely like that spoken by Marathas and cultivating Kunbis. They live in middle class houses with walls of mud and stone and flat roofs. They keep their houses clean, and own cows, buffaloes, bullocks, and parrots. Their house furniture includes metal and earthen vessels, carpets, blankets, bedding and cots, and stools. They have no servants. Their staple food includes rice and jvari bread, pulse, and vegetables. They say they do not eat fish or flesh and do not drink liquor. Both men and women dress like Deshasth Brahmans, but, unlike all other Maratha Brahmans, their widows never shave their heads. They are hardworking, sober, thrifty, and hospitable. They are landholders, moneychangers, clothsellers, and writers, and some are beggars. They are either Smarts or Bhagvats, worship all Brahman gods and goddesses and keep the usual fasts and festivals. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans. They go on pilgrimage to Alandi, Benares, Jejuri, Nasik, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur, and believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, lucky and unlucky days, and oracles. When a person is possessed his relations call a spirit-scarer called janta that is the knowing man or devrushi. The spirit-scarer burns vishesh or the sap of Boswellia serrata before the patient and the spirit or bhut in the patient begins to sway him to and fro and begins to speak through the patient's voice. The scarer waves three lemons round the patient's head. Two of them he cuts in half over the patient's head when they turn red and he orders them to be thrown outside the house in four directions.

The third lemon he orders to be laid under the patient's pillow until he recovers. Cooked rice sprinkled with redpowder is waved round the patient's head and laid in the corner of the street, where spirits are known to haunt. Sometimes the seer after examining the patient says he has offended Khandoba, Maruti, or some other god, and that he should take a journey to some holy shrine or send to the seer's house uncooked food enough to feed thirty to fifty Brahmans. These orders are carefully followed. Their customs from birth to death are the same as those of Deshasths. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. The offender is fined by being ordered to give a dinner to from five children to twenty-five adults. They send their boys to school and keep them at school until they are able to read write and cast accounts. They seldom send their girls to school. When a girl is sent to school the reason generally is that she is troublesome at home. They take to new callings opening grocer's shops or tilling land, and are in easy circumstances.