Agrahari

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This article is an extract from

THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. By H.H. RISLEY, INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE. Ethnographic Glossary. CALCUTTA: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. .

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Agrahari

Agrahari, a trading and cultivating caste of Behar and Upper India, who are probably closely related to the Agarwals. Mr. Nesfield thinks that the two groups must originally have been "sections of one and the same caste, which quarrelled on some trifling question connected with cooking or eating and have remained separate ever since." Agraharis marry their daughters as infants, forbid widows to marry again, and do not recogni e divorce. Unlike the Agarwals, they allow polygamy; and on this account, saYR Mr. Sberring, they are believed to have lost the high position they formerly beld. Should this opinion be correct, it may supply the explanation of the divergence of the Agraharis from tl.Je Agarwals, whom they closely resemble in physical type.

It is curious to observe that the higher mercantile castes, such as Agarwals, Kbatris, and Oswllls, have a stronger repugnance to polygamy than Brahmans and Rajput~, both of whom incur no social reproach for their polygamous habits. In matters of food, Agraharis follow the regular practice of orthodox Hindus, and spirit-drinking is strictly forbidden.

It deserves notice that their women are not secluded, as among the Agarwals, but take part in the business of their husbands by selling rice-flour, etc. In point of social standing the caste, thongh reckoned among the Vaisyas and wearing the sacred thread, ranks below the Agarwals, and their business is generally on a smaller scale. They are, in fact, tradesmen rather than bankers. The proper home of the caste is in Hindustl1n, and their numbers in the lower provinces of Bengal are comparatively small.The following shows their distribution in 1872 and 1881-