Maghaya

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Maghaya

This section has been extracted 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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A native of Mag-ha. (Magadha) or South Behar j a designation of numerous sub¬castes, such as Barai, Beldar, barber, Dhanuk, Dhobi, Gangota., Goala, Kandu, Nunia, Sunri and Teli castes in Behar a sub¬caste of Barhis in Behar who work in both wood and iron and do the rougher woodwork required for houses, as distin¬guished from the Kanauji::is, who are joiuers and cabinet-makers. Representatives of this sub-caste are found both in the town of Bhagalpur and in the north of the district, but intermarriage between the two groups is believed to be rare. The headman of the former is styled Satun, while the headman of the latter bears the usual title of Malljlian ; a sub-caste of Bhars in Man¬bhum, comprising the five sections of Mayur, Bel, Basrisi, K::isyab, and Brahmarshi, of which the first four are totemistic and the last appears to have been bor¬rowed from the Brahmans j a sub¬caste of Doms in Behar who play the dhol and turi a sub-caste of Halwais or coruActioners in Behar, who have to some extent aban¬doned their distinctive occupation and find employment as servants and petty shopkeepers dealing in miscellaneous articles. Many of them fry rice, chura, etc., and are called bhuja bhura; a sub-ca te of Koiris in Behar, which, though endogamous as regards the rest of the caste, intermarries with the chirme or chirmait sub-caste j a sub-caste of Kumhars in Behar and Western Bengal, which used formerly to be endogamous, but now intermarries with the Tirhutia sub-caste a sub-caste of Thathera or brass-chaser in Behar.