Trader castes: Sholapur

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Trader castes: Sholapur

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

Traders

Traders include nine classes with a strength of 37,940 or 7.05 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are: Sholapur Traders, 1881.

Agarvals

Agarva'ls are returned as numbering seventeen and as found in Barsi, Pandharpur, and Sholapur. They believe they are called Agarvals because they make frankincense sticks or agarbattis. and think they came to Sholapur about three hundred years ago from the neighbourhood of Agra and Delhi. They are divided into Dasa and Visa Agarvals who eat together but do not intermarry. They have no surnames. The names in common use among men are Chandulal, Girdharlal, Motiram, Shankarlal, Shivdas, and Vithallal; and among women Bhagirthi, Dvarka, Jasoda, Kashibai, Lakshmi, and Munyabai. They are dark and stout and speak Marathi. They live in ill-kept and dirty middle class houses. Their staple food includes millet, pulse and vegetables, and they are specially fond of sweet and oily dishes. Both men and women dress like Marathas and are hardworking, even-tempered, thrifty, and hospitable, but neither clean nor neat. They are perfumers, seiling scents, frankincense sticks, powders, and oils, and spices, butter, sugar, wheat, millet, rice or pulse flour, and cloth both country-made and European. Some are husbandmen whose women help them in the field. They worship all Brahman gods and goddesses, and their family deities are Balaji of Giri, Bhavani of Tuliapur and Kalika of Delhi. Their priests are Gaud Brahmans. Their fasts and festivals are the same as those of Marathas and they believe in sorcery witchcraft and soothsaying. On the fifth day after a birth the midwife rubs five pebbles with redlead and laying them on the floor in the mother's room throws flowers and turmeric and redpowder over them, burns incense, and lays before them cooked rice, vegetables, wheat bread, and pulse. After the midwife has finished the mother makes a bow. They do not keep awake all night. The child's father's family remains impure for ten days. On the morning of the eleventh, the whole house is cowdunged, and the members of the family bathe, wash their clothes, and are pure. On the twelfth the mother sets five pebbles in a line outside of the house and does as the midwife did on the fifth day, throws flowers and turmeric and redpowder over them, burns incense, and lays before them cooked rice, vegetables, wheat bread, and pulse. On the evening of the twelfth if it is a boy and of the thirteenth if it is a girl, the child is cradled and named. Between its seventh month and its fifth year a child's hair is clipped for the first time. A girl is married between three and twelve, and a boy between five and twenty-five. The boy's father has to look for a wife for his son, and, when a girl is found, on a lucky day presents her with a robe and bodice and ornaments. On the turmeric rubbing day the boy and his parents are anointed with turmeric and oil and bathed in warm water, and the rest of the turmeric powder is sent to the girl's with a green robe and bodice. Next in the middle of the booth is set a wooden post called vatan khamb about five inches thick and three or four feet long.

On the top of the post is fixed a small wooden box in which are kept the following lucky articles, a comb, a mirror, a small wooden box containing red powder and another containing yellow powder, a few dry grapes, almonds, and dry dates, and some cocoa-kernel. At each corner of the lid of this box, is a wooden sparrow, and in the middle of the lid is a cocoanut tied on with cotton yarn. Below the box on the floor are five piles each of five earthen jars marked with red green and yellow lines and in the middle is placed a lighted oil lamp. This, which they term the marriage guardian or devak, is the same both at the boy's and at the girl's. Then at each house the family priest takes a piece of yellow cloth, and rolls in the cloth a blade of darbh or sacred grass and a piece of dry date and cocoa-kernel, and ties the cloth to the left wrist of the boy and to the right wrist of the girl. These are called the marriage wristlets or kankans. In the afternoon of the marriage day the bridegroom, dressed in rich clothes and wearing a paper coronet called mormarni is seated on a horse, and carried to the girl's accompanied by kinsfolk, friends, and musicians. At the girl's some elderly male or female relation of the girl waves a cocoanut round the boy's head, who alights from the horse and takes his seat on a low stool in the booth. The girl's family priest rubs his brow with redpowder, and the girl's father presents him with a new turban and a waistcloth, which he puts on and stands on the stool. The girl is brought from the house and stands facing the boy on another stool, with a cloth held between them by two men. Both family priests repeat marriage verses, and, as soon as the verses are ended, the guests throw red rice over the pair's heads and the musicians play. Then the girl followed by the boy goes six times round the post. At each turn the family priest asks the guests if they know anything against the marriage, Do the family stocks not suit, or have the boy's and girl's families committed any offence against caste discipline or been guilty of any other misdemeanour. If any thing is known against either family the seventh turn is not made until the offender has paid a fine, and if the offender refuses the marriage is stopped until he pays. Cases are known in which even at this seventh round marriages have been finally broken off. When the seventh turn has been taken, the boy and girl sit side by side on two low wooden stools and the sacred fire is lit and fed with sesamum seed, butter, and pieces of pimpal Ficus religiosa wood. Then, while the priests mutter verses, the girl's father pours water on the ground in front of the boy, and the girl-giving or kanyadan is over. The girl's relations draw near the boy, wave from 2s. to £1 (Rs. 1-10) each round his head and lay the money in a plate in front of him and this becomes his property. Betel is served and the guests retire. On the second day the girl's father gives a dinner to relations and friends, and on the third day a dinner is given at the boy's. On the evening of the third day the bridegroom's parents, relations, and friends with music go to the girl's, and present the girl with a suit of new clothes. Then a cot is set in a room in the house and the pair are seated on the cot. The family priest spreads a sheet before them on the ground and sets seven betelnuts in a line on the sheet.

The boy and girl set a lighted lamp close to the betelnuts, throw flowers and rice over them, wave the lighted lamp and camphor and frankincense round them and lay sweetmeats before them. As the boy and girl do this without leaving the cot the ceremony is called palangachar or the cot-rite. The priest unties the lucky wristlets and the devak or marriage guardian is removed. The boy and girl are then seated on a horse and carried in procession to the bridegroom's, where the bride is again presented with a robe and bodice and her lap filled with rice, fruit, and a cocoanut. The bride bows before all the elders in the house and before the guests, and presents all married women with turmeric and redpowder. The boy's marriage guardian or devak is bowed out and a feast on the next day ends the marriage festivities. When a girl comes of age they hold her impure for four days, and on any lucky day within the first sixteen, the boy and girl are presented with new clothes, and seated near each other on low wooden stools. The girl's lap is filled with grain and fruit, and the ceremony ends with a dinner to near relations. They burn the dead and mourn ten days, with almost the same rites as those of local Marathas. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling. They keep their boys at school till they are about fourteen years old, and are fairly off.

Bhatias

Bha'tia's are returned as numbering 143 and as found in Barsi and Sholapur. They have come from Cutch probably through Bombay since the beginning of British rule. They are stout and healthy and the men wear the top-knot and moustache. Their home tongue is Gujarati and out of doors they speak Marathi They live in houses of the better sort with metal vessels, and servants, cattle, and ponies. They are strict vegetarians, and among vegetables avoid onions and garlic, and spend on caste feasts about £5 (Rs. 50) for every hundred guests. Both men and women keep to the Gujarat dress the men wearing their peculiar double-peaked turban, and the women the petticoat, open-backed bodice, and upper scarf or odhni. They are sober, thrifty, hospitable, hardworking, and well-to-do. They used only to sell tobacco, now they are traders, dealing in grain, oil, and butter, and also acting as moneychangers and moneylenders. They are Vaishnavs, have images of their gods in their houses, and employ Gujarat Brahmans as priests. After childbirth a Bhatia woman remains impure for a month and a quarter if the child is a girl and for a month and a half if the child is a boy. On the sixth the priest draws a cradle on a piece of paper and pastes it to a wall in the lying-in room and offers it sandalpaste, flowers, and cooked food in the name of Chhati or Mother Sixth. In the evening the child is presented with clothes; and, when the guests leave, each is given 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.). They name their children on the sixteenth and cut their hair when they ate five years old. When seven years old the boy is taken to the priest's house and is there girt with the sacred thread. Their marriages are preceded by betrothals, they rub the boy and girl with turmeric at their houses, raise an earthen altar in the girl's marriage booth, set earthen jars at its four corners, and pass a thread round them.

A sacred fire is lit, and when the boy and girl have Walked four times round the fire they are husband and wife. They barn their dead, the corpse-bearers being helped on the way by other mourners. They mourn ten days, on the eleventh day wheat flour balls or pinds are offered to the deceased and thrown in a running stream. They feast Brahmans on the twelfth, and their castefellows On the thirteenth. They do not allow widow marriage and settle social disputes by a caste council. They send their boys to school and are a wealthy rising class.

Gujarat Vanis

Gujarat Va'nis are returned as numbering 2506 and as found Over the whole district. They are believed to have come into the district within the last two hundred years and are divided into Humbads, Khadaits, Lads, Mods, Nagars, Porvads, and Shrimalis, each of which is again divided into Dasas and Visas. The main divisions neither eat together nor intermarry, and the subdivisions eat together but do not intermarry. Their home tongue is Gujarati, but most of them can speak pure Marathi like Brahmans. It is sometimes difficult either from their look or their talk to tell a Gujarat Vani from a Maratha Brahman. Their houses are of the better sort and they have a variety of metal vessels. They are vegetarians, firing on rice, wheat, butter, pulse, vegetables, sugar, and milk, and they often prepare sweet dishes of wheat balls and cakes. They eat butter in large quantities, and their caste feasts cost them over £4 (RS. 40) the hundred guests. The men dress like Maratha Brahmans, and the women either like Maratha Brahman women in the full robe and backed bodice or in Gujarat fashion in a petticoat or lunga, an open-backed bodice, and an upper robe or odhni. They are clean, neat, sober, frugal, and hardworking, and are shopkeepers, moneylenders, merchants, and petty dealers. On the sixth day after the birth of a child they worship the goddess Chhati or Mother Sixth, name their children on the twelfth, and shave their heads when they are between one or two months old. They marry their girls before they are twelve, and, as they have to pay large sums to the girl's parents, they do not marry their boys till they are between fifteen and twenty-five. Widow marriage is forbidden. Their priests are Gujarat Brahmans and they have images of their gods in their houses. They settle social disputes at caste meetings and keep their boys at school till they learn to read and write a little and to cast accounts. They are a well-to-do class.

Kashikapdis

Ka'shikapdis are returned as numbering 105 and as found only in Barsi and Sholapur. They are wandering beggars and petty dealers of Telugu extraction but they cannot tell when and whence they came into the district. They have no subdivisions. They speak Telugu among themselves and broken Marathi with others. They are dark, tall, and regular featured, and their young women are pretty. They live in poor houses and their staple food is millet, pulse, and vegetables. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They dress like Marathas, the men in big loose turbans, coats, waistcoats, waist-cloths, and shoes; and the women in the full robe and backed bodice. They are a hardworking, thrifty, and orderly people. Besides begging they sell sacred threads, necklaces of basil and rudraksh beads, sandal grindstones, dolls, small metal and wooden boxes, looking glasses, metal ladles, and glass beads. They are religious worshipping all Hindu gods and goddesses. Their priests are Telang Brahmans to whom they show great respect. Their family deities are Balaji of Telangan, Bhavani, and Durga. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and festivals and believe in witchcraft soothsaying and sorcery. They marry their girls before they are ten, and their boys before they are twenty. They allow child and widow marriage and practise polygamy. They burn their dead and mourn ten days. They hold caste councils, send their boys to school for a short time, and are a poor people.

Komtis

Komtis [That several distinct classes are known by the name of Komti suggests that Komti is a country name corresponding to Gujar meaning a Gujarat Vani or to Marwari meaning a Marwar Vani. The home of the Komti Vanis must be in the Telugu country. The similarity in sound suggests Komometh about 120 miles east of Haidarabad. It seems probable that the name Kamathi is in origin the same as Komti.] are returned as numbering 2295 and as found over the whole district except in Sangola. They are said to have come for trade purposes within the last two or three hundred years from the Bombay Karnatak, Penguthpattan, and Telangan. They say they had once six hundred family stocks or gotras but that the number has dwindled to one hundred and one. The story of the decline in the number of family stocks is that once a lowcaste king wished to marry a beautiful Komti girl Kanika of the Labhshatti family. The girl refused his offer and the king sent an army to bring her by force. Kanika agreed to come but asked that she might worship her family goddess. Her wish was granted. She bathed, kindled a great fire, walked round it several times, and threw herself in. Men of a hundred and one families, each after offering a fruit or a vegetable to Nagareshvar the village god, leaped after her into the fire. The 499 other families joined the king's army and lost caste. The order in which the 101 devotees followed Kanika is preserved by the number of dough lamps which the members of the different family stocks burn when they worship Kanika, and a trace of the offering of a flower or a vegetable to Nagareshvar remains in the rule under which the use of some one fruit or vegetable is forbidden to the members of each family. The one hundred and one families are known by the name of Yaggin-vandlus or the injured and the remaining four hundred and ninety-nine by the name of Yagganvandlus or the disgraced. A section of the 499, found in Madras but not in Sholapur, are known as Repakvandlus who eat fish and drink liquor. Of the one hundred and one family-stocks only eight are found in Sholapur, Buchahkula, Chedkula, Dhankula, Gundkula, Masatkula, Midhankula, Pagadikula, and Pedkula. The members of these family stocks eat together but do not intermarry. The Labhshattis, Kanika's family, have die dout. Their memory is said to be preserved in Labh the traders' name for the first measure.

The commonest names among men are Bhumaya, Narayan, Narsaya, Sangaya, Viraya, and Vithu; and among women Ganga and Vitha. Men add appa or aya that is father, and women amma or mother to their names. Komtis are tall and thin and proverbially black; as black as a Komti is a common phrase for a dirty child. The men wear the top-knot and moustache and sometimes whiskers but never the beard. Their home tongue is Marathi, very few speak Telugu. Most live in houses of the better class one or two storeys high with walls of mud, stone, or bricks, and tiled or flat roofs. If there are cattle in the house a servant is kept and including food is paid 6s. to 10s. (Rs. 3-5) a month. He also serves as a shopboy. They own cows, bullocks, she-buffaloes, and horses. Their house goods include copper brass and wooden boxes, stools, corn bags, cradles, handmills and stones, dinner plates, cots, bedding, carpets, and blankets. They are vegetarians, and their staple food is millet, rice, pulse, and vegetables. Their holiday dishes are spiced milk and gram cakes. They employ Brahmans to cook their caste feasts, wear silk or woollen waistcloths when at their food, and dine from separate dishes. The ordinary monthly food expenses of a household of five, a man his wife, two children, and one relative or dependant, living well but not carelessly, would be £1 to £1 12s. (Rs. 10-16). [These and other estimates of monthly cost of living are framed on the basis that the family has to bay retail the grain and other articles it uses. The actual cash payments of the bulk of the middle and lower orders who either grow grain or are wholly or partly paid in grain must therefore be considerably less than the estimates. The figures mentioned in the text are not more than rough estimates of the value of the articles which under ordinary circumstances the different classes of the people consume.] Both men and women dress like Deccan Brahmans. The chief peculiarity is that the women wear a nosering adorned with a bunch of small pearls. Some women wear gold bead and pearl wristlets, and other head ornaments shaped like the sacred bel leaf, and rub their faces with turmeric. They keep rich clothes in store for great occasions. A family of five spends about £4 (Rs. 40) a year on clothes. As a class Komtis are hardworking, forbearing, sober, thrifty, even-tempered, and orderly. Most of them are grocers, dealing in spices, salt, grain, butter, oil, molasses, and sugar. They also trade in cotton, hemp, and oil seeds. A few are moneychangers and lenders, writers, and husbandmen. Their women, besides looking after the house, help their husbands both in the field and in the shop, and also grind and clean split pulse. Boys of ten or twelve and over help their fathers in their work. Those who have no capital serve as shopboys at £1 10s. to £2 (Rs. 15-20) a year, and in time either join their masters as partners or open new shops generally beginning by selling spices. Komtis complain that the railway has broken down their profits and made them poor. In spite of their complaints they are in easy circumstances, able to borrow at twelve per cent a year. They claim a higher position but rank with Vaishyas. They eat from Brahmans only, and say that they are Brahmans and have a right to perform the sixteen sacraments or sanskars according to the Veds. Deccan Brahmans do not admit their claim and say they are Shudras. The Komti trader rises early in the morning, opens his shop, and sits in it till late at night. The women, besides minding the house, help in the shop, and the children attend school. Komtis are a religious people, and worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses. Their family deities are Balaji, Kanyakadevi, Nagareshvar, Narsoba, Rajeshvar, and Virbhadra, all of whose chief shrines are in Telangan. All their ceremonies are conducted by Deshasth Brahmans. They keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and festivals and make pilgrimages to Benares, Nasik, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. Their goddess Kanika is or rather lives in a metal waterpot whose mouth is closed with a metal cup. In the waterpot are a betelnut and a piece of turmeric root, and the outside of the pot is marked with red and turmeric lines, and is stuck over with red rice. Each family should have one of such shrines of Kanika and worship her on the full-moons of Magh or January-February, Phalgun or February-March, Chaitra or March-April, Shravan or July-August, Ashvin or September-October, Kartik or October-November, and Paush or December-January. Those who have no Kanika jar in the house worship the god Virbhadra before beginning a marriage. In worshipping Virbhadra an earthen waterpot or chatti is divided into an upper and a lower half, and a piece of cloth is soaked in oil, twisted into a torch, lighted, and set in the lower half of the jar.

The lower half is then placed in the upper half and set on the head of the mother of the boy or of the girl or of both in case neither family has a Kanika jar in their house. With male and female relations they go to the temple of the village god, bow, and return in the same way as they went carrying the jar with the lighted torch on their heads. They then begin the marriage ceremony. Their religious guide or guru is the Shankaracharya Svami and Bhaskaracharya a pupil of his is also now acknowledged as a guru. They have a separate teacher known as Mokshguru literally the Sin-freeing teacher who repeats verses to the penitent to ensure his salvation. The sin-freeing teacher is by caste either a Brahman or a Vaishya. If he is a Brahman his disciples drink water in which his feet have been washed; if he is a Vaishya he pours a few drops of the water in which his feet have been washed on a pinch of cowdung ashes or bhasm which they eat. A teacher is generally succeeded by his eldest son. If a guru dies without heirs the leading Komtis of a town where at least one hundred family stocks are represented meet and choose a new teacher. The family god of some families is Nagareshvar or the city god a form of Mahadev who is found only in cities where there are Komtis of at least one hundred family stocks. His chief shrine is in the valley of the Kaveri. Some Komti men wear the sacred thread, others wear the ling, and others wear both the ling and the thread. The ling is worn as a purifying or diksha rite. A Jangam or Lingayat priest cannot claim a ling-wearing Komti as a Lingayat. A ling-wearing father may ask a Jangam to invest his child with a ling immediately after birth, but this is done without any ceremony. The child can at any time give up wearing the ling. The son of a ling-wearing father is not bound to follow his father's practice. Lately in Sholapur a ling-wearing Komti died; a Jangam claimed his body, but the other thread-wearing Komtis took it and burnt it with Brahmanic rites. So also Komtis assume the sacred thread without ceremony, even without calling a Brahman. A father can present his son with a sacred thread at any time before the boy's wedding. When a Komti father girds his son with a sacred thread the boy goes begging, beginning at his sister's house, and asking his first alms from his sister's daughter. Before he leaves their house his sister and her husband pour water over the boy's hands. Among Komtis a man must marry his sister's daughter however ugly or deformed she may be. So strict is the rule that if the sister is young the brother must wait until the sister gets a daughter and the daughter grows old enough to marry him. It sometimes happens that the parties do not agree, and a caste meeting is called to settle the dispute. Under no circumstances can the girl be given away without the consent of the boy's parents. Among Komtis a woman pregnant with her first child is sent for her confinement to her parents' house. When the child is born a bellmetal plate is beaten, and the midwife sprinkles the babe with a handful of water. The mother and child are washed in warm water, the child's navel cord is cut, the child is bound in swaddling clothes and laid beside the mother on the cot, and an old shoe is laid under its pillow to ward off evil spirits. Word is sent to the father's family, who, if the child is a boy, distribute sugar among their relations. The house where the child is born is considered impure for ten days, and that no evil spirit may enter it, a couple of Deshasth Brahmans are engaged to repeat verses every evening and are paid about a couple of rupees. Neighbouring Kunbi women, in the hope of getting a bodice or a robe, for ten days pour cold water in front of the house, or a water-carrier is employed to pour buckets full of water, and at the end of the ten days is given a turban. A flower girl hangs a flower garland to a peg near the outer door, and a Jingar pastes a paper and tinsel frame above the door. On the fifth or panchvi day the mother's room is cowdunged, the cot is washed, and marked with lines of cement and redlead. The mother and child are bathed and laid on the washed cot. At lamplight, a square is traced in the mother's room with redpowder and in the square the grindstone or pata is laid. On the grindstone a turmeric and redpowder square is traced, and, in the square, is set a silver or gold embossed plate or pratima of the goddess Panchvi.

A little lower than the plate are set packets of betel leaves and five kinds of cooked wheat, dishes of biscuits and fruit, a lamp, and two cakes. Oil and a wick are put in the lamp and lighted, and on the cakes, cooked rice, pulse, and vegetables are laid. The midwife seats the mother beside her in front of the grindstone, and worships the goddess Panchvi calling her to guard the child and its mother during the night. A washerwoman or partin is called, and as Komtis do not touch a washerwoman she is seated in an outer room, is given turmeric which she rubs on her face, and redpowder which she rubs on her brow, and is served with cooked food. The mother bows before her, and the washerwoman if she does not wish to eat the whole of the food, takes at least five mouthfuls and carries the rest to her home. The day ends with a feast. On the fifth day after a birth no married girl of the family is allowed to remain in the house. All are sent to their husband's or kept for the day and night at a neighbour's or near relation's. Any pregnant woman of the family is not allowed to remain in the house for twelve days after a birth. On the satvi or sixth the fifth day ceremony is repeated. On the tenth the whole house is cowdunged, the mother and child are bathed, and the cot is washed and marked with red and white lines, and the bath-water hole is filled, and five pounds or handfuls of rice wheat or jvari are laid in the midwife's lap, and she is paid five copper, silver, or gold coins. Orr the eleventh the whole of the father's house is cowdunged, sacred threads are changed, and a mixture of cowdung, cow's urine, water, curds, milk, and sugar are drunk by the whole household, and they and their whole family become pure. If the child is a girl she is named on the twelfth day and if a boy on the thirteenth. On the morning of the twelfth male and female relations and the midwife are called to the house. Each kinswoman brings a plate with a hooded cloak or kunchi, a bodice, a handful of wheat, and a betel packet. Seven elderly mothers among the guests have their faces and arms rubbed with turmeric and redpowder rubbed to their brow. In an outer room a cradle is hung to the rafters by ropes or chains, and clothes are spread in it. The mother is called and comes either carrying the child or followed by the midwife with the child in her arms, and takes her seat on a wooden stool near the cradle. Below the cradle a square is drawn and in the square five wheat flour cakes are placed on five flour dishes, five lamps, and five biscuits are placed one near each lamp. Oil and a wick are put on each lamp and they are touched with redpowder and lighted. Wet turmeric is handed to the mother who rubs it on her cheeks and rubs redpowder on her brow. Then each woman guest presents the mother with turmeric, daubs her brow with redpowder, and touching the hem of the bodice with redpowder hands it to the mother and puts the hooded cloak or kunchi on the child. When the presenting is over the midwife brings a stone rolling-pin or varvanta and taking one of the hoods puts it on the stone and holding the hooded stone in her arms stands near the cradle, A second woman stands on the other side of the cradle facing the midwife. The midwife says, Take Gopal, and hands her the hooded rolling-pin, passing it over the cradle. The woman in taking the rolling-pin answers, Give Govind. She then passes the rolling-pin back under the cradle and says, Take Madhav. The midwife in receiving the stone says, Give Krishna, and lays it in the cradle. The child is then taken from the mother's arm and treated in the same way as the rolling-pin. A song is sung by the women present and the plates of the women who brought presents are filled with sugar, betelnut, and baked jvari grains or ghugris which are also handed among children. Then all both men and women are feasted. The chief guest is the child's father, and the chief dish is gram cakes or paranpolis. Then money is given to the seven married women as well as to the Brahmans who repeated verses during the last ten days. The child is shown to its father and the guests retire. After three months have passed the father's mother takes to the mother's house a present of betelnut, dry cocoa-kernel, dig, godambas or sweet preserved mangoes, cloves, patri or mace, nutmeg, betelnut and leaves, bodices for the mother and the grandmother, and a hood for the child. She takes her seat with the grandmother in the mother's room. The mother with the child in her arms takes her seat on a wooden stool, and the father's mother presents the mother with turmeric and redpowder, throws rice over her and her child, and fills her lap with sweet smelling rice. She touches the hem of one of the two bodices and presents the bodice to her and makes over to her the plate of spices. The mother's mother is given turmeric and redpowder and presented with the other bodice. In return the mother's mother presents the father's mother with turmeric, redpowder, betel, and sugar or sweetmeats, and the father's mother goes home. Next day from the father's house kinswomen bring the mother and the mother's mother a present of a robe and bodice, and a hood, a small coat, and a cap for the child.

The mother's lap is filled with a cocoanut, a handful of rice, dates, almonds, a betelnut, and turmeric root, and she is taken to the village temple, and, after the god has been presented with a copper and a second copper waved round his head, the mother is placed before him, and with a long bow retires and walks to her husband's. Three, five, or twelve months after this the boy's hair is clipped. On the hair-clipping day, on a low wooden stool get in an outer room of the house a bodicecloth is spread and the boy's maternal uncle sits on the cloth with the child on his lap. The barber clips off the hair and musicians play sweet music that the child may not weep. They leave top-knot and ear tufts, and the barber is given the bodicecloth and some wheat, and a dinner. The child is presented with new clothes and ornaments, and is taken to the village temple accompanied by music, and a packet of betel and a copper are presented to the god. The hair-cutting ends with a feast to relations friends and a few Brahmans. The thread-girding now forms part of the wedding. They say they used to have a separate thread-girding ceremony and gave it up because of its costliness, as the rule was that all the boy made by begging which was sometimes over £10 (Rs. 100) had to be increased fourfold and given to the priests. Others say they gave up a separate thread ceremony because it was degrading for them as merchants to beg. According to a third account the thread-girding was given up because they rode on bullocks. The Brahmans said they must give up either the sacred thread-girding or the bullock-riding. They preferred to give up the sacred thread ceremony, Among Komtis girls are married between seven and ten and always before they come of age; boys are married between ten and fifteen. The child's marriage occupies the parent's thoughts from its earliest days. In families who have a young daughter the women, in consultation with the men, fix on some boy as a good match for the girl and either the girl's father or other near male relations are sent to the boy's house to see if they are willing to take the girl in marriage. The girl's relations do not go straight to the boy's house. They go to a neighbour and ask the people if their neighbours think of marrying their boy. The neighbour goes to the boy's, tells them that people with a marriageable daughter have come to his house, and ask if the boy's parents wish to get a wife for their son. The boy's father asks what is the stranger's name, his home, his calling, and how he is off. If he thinks the answers promising he asks the neighbour to bring his guest to his house to see the boy. The guest comes and is seated on a carpet in the house. The boy is called by his father, and either stands before them or sits beside his father. The neighbour, on behalf of the guest who sits quiet, asks the boy several questions What school he is at and what he learns, and makes him write, read a little, and cast some accounts. The girl's father retires to the neighbour's house where he waits till the neighbour brings word that the boy's father is anxious to see the girl. The girl's father thanks the neighbour for the trouble he has taken and goes home. The girl's father tells his house people that the boy is a good-looking youth fair, strong, and intelligent, that he reads and writes well, and that the boy's people are coming to see the girl. About a week after the boy's father, with a relation or two, goes to a house near the girl's and sends word by his host to the girl's father that the boy's relations have come and wish to see the girl. Either the girl's father or some one from his house goes to the neighbour and brings the boy's relations to the girl's. They are seated on a carpet and the girl is called by her father, and the neighbour asks her what her name is, her mother's name, how many brothers and sisters she has, makes her walk a little in front of them, and, when she has gone a little way off, calls her gently by her name to see if she is quick of hearing. Then if the girl is under seven she is stripped, if she is ten or more, her bodice is taken off and the hair on her back is examined, for if the hair grows in the form of a snake or gom the boy's father will die within a year of the wedding. When they have seen the girl they leave, saying they will let the girl s father know their intentions. After consulting the people of their house and other relations, the boy's father sends word in a week or so they will come to settle the marriage dates. On the day fixed the boy's maternal uncle is sent for, and with the boy's father and some elderly married women, goes to the girl's house taking a plate with a robe and bodice, redpowder, and a packet of sugar cakes. At the girl's the men are seated outside and the women go into the house. The girl's family priest who has by this time come, sits near the men. The two fathers hand the priest the boy's and girl's horoscopes and he examines them. If the horoscopes agree each of the fathers gives the priest a handful of betelnuts and a half-anna, and the priest calls the girl. When the girl comes, she takes her seat near the priest, and the boy's father touches the girl's brow with redpowder and hands her the robe and bodice. She goes into the house and puts on the clothes and comes and takes her seat as before near the priest. The boy's father hands her the packet of sugar cakes, and she bows first before the priest, then before the boy's father, and then to the rest of the guests. She walks into the house followed by the boy's maternal uncle, who asks the woman who came from the boy's house if she has seen the girl.

The woman looks closely at the girl and says, She looks a nice good girl who is certain to manage her husband's house well. The girl's mother then presents the woman with a handful of betel-nuts and she and the boy's father and uncle withdraw. Next day the girl's father and maternal uncle go to the boy's house to fix the marriage dates. When they are seated, the boy's father tells the neighbour, who serves as go-between, to ask the girl's father how much he will give in cash or hunda, how much in clothes or karni, and how much in metal vessels. The girl's father is taken outside and the neighbour tells him the boy's father wishes that his son should have £50 (Rs. 500) in money and as much in clothes. The girl's father says he cannot afford to give so much, but is willing to give £10 (Rs. 100) for each. The boy's father is told by the go-between that the girl's father will give £15 (Rs. 150) in cash and the same in clothes. The boy's father says No, the girl's father must give at least £40 (Rs. 400) under both heads. The girl's father says, I wish I could but am too poor. I will give £30 (Rs. 300) in all, if the boy's father does not agree to this I must put off my daughter's wedding. When the boy's father hears that the girl's father will give no more than £30 (Rs. 300) he comes to terms, and agrees to take £30 (Rs. 300), £15 (Rs. 150)in cash and £15 (Rs. 150) in clothes. The girl's father is told that the boy's father agrees to the terms, and he is called in and takes his seat as before. An elder calls on some one to bring a paper and pen and draw up a list. If the families and parents do not belong to the same village the question arises where the wedding is to be held. After some talk it is generally settled that the boy's party should go to the girl's village. Then the list is made out. At the top of the list comes the name of the family god, the names of the boy's and girl's fathers, their villages and the list of articles to be presented to the girl and her parents and relations. The ornaments generally include for the hair five gold flowers or phuls, two gold tassel cups or gondas, chandrakors or gold half moons, kevdas, helpans or gold bel leaf and rakhdis ; for the ears halts or earrings; for the nose a nath; for the neck saris, necklaces of putlis and jaremals; for the wrists patlis and kankans; for the ankles sankhlis or chains, valas, and painjans. The clothes include a silk robe or sadi, ten, small robes or chirdis, a gold-bordered bodice, a turban, a shela or shculderclotb, and a bodice and robe for the girl's mother and bodices for near relations. The number of feasts to be given to the girl's relations are generally two. They are entered in the list and the following presents which the girl's father has to give the boy, and the boy's parents and relations to the boy's father: £15 (Rs. 150) in cash, two turbans, a waistcloth, a gold-bordered silk waistcloth, a broadcloth coat, a turban, and shouldercloth, to his mother a robe and bodice, and bodices to female relations. Three feasts are entered to be given by the girl's parents to the boy's parents and relations. The list containing the girl's presents is signed by the boy's father and banded to the girl's, and the list with the boy's presents is signed by the girl's father and handed to the boy's. Betel is served and the meeting is over. At both houses stores of ornaments, clothes, supplies of grain, butter, sugar, betelnuts, and spices are laid in and a wedding booth is built. If the relations live in another village cards are sent to them, asking them to the marriage of their child at the place and time fixed. Not every one that is asked comes. Those who come arrive a day or two before the marriage. If the marriage is to take place on a Sunday, the guests come on. Friday evening. No special dish is prepared for that evening, but instead of jvari cakes they get wheat cakes or polis. If the boy's relations go to the girl's village for the marriage, they do not go straight to the village, but, halting two or three miles off, send word to the girl's father that the boy and his relations have come and have halted. The girl's father with music and kinspeople brings them to the village, and settles them in a lodging which he has hired for them. The day before the wedding from both houses a married girl, taking a plate with gram flour, turmeric, redpowder, and oil, goes to the houses of several married women whose husbands are alive, called tel-savasins, lays a little gram flour, turmeric, and redpowder, and pours a little oil on the threshold, and walking into the house and setting the plate before the woman to be asked, says ' To-day a feast of married women is held at our house. Be pleased to come.' The woman who is asked takes a pinch of the gram flour, turmeric, and redpowder out of the plate, to show she accepts the invitation, and the girl goes to another house. In this way she asks five married women. At the other houses she does not present the oil and turmeric or, tilkiska, but simply powders the doorway, and, going into the house, asks them to come for the feast. After going to all the houses she returns home. This is done both at the bride's and at the bridegroom's houses. The Brahman priest, the astrologer, and other Brahmans come and are seated on mats or blankets. Then either in the marriage hall or on the house verandah four stools are set, three in a line and the fourth for the priest close by at right angles to the three. The father comes dressed in a silk waistcloth and with a shawl either thrown round his shoulders or tucked under his right arm. The mother comes in a rich silk robe and bodice, and the child in the usual cotton clothes, and they seat themselves on the three stools, the father next the priest, the mother on the father's right, and the boy or girl beyond her.

The priest touches their brows with redpowder and repeats verses. Then in the name of, that is as a shrine for, Varun the water god a brass waterpot or kalash is filled with cold water, and in it are dropped a copper coin, some rice and a betelnut, five betel leaves are spread on the top, sandal lines are drawn on the outside, and flowers and rice, sugar, five packets of betelnuts and leaves, and a copper coin are laid before it. Then in the name of Ganpati, that is as a shrine for Ganpati, the priest takes a leaf plate, lays in the middle of it about a pound of rice, and sets a betelnut on the. rice, and lays before it flowers rice and sandal. In front of the betelnut are laid a dry cocoa-kernel filled with molasses or gulkhobre, five betel packets, and eleven coppers. After the worship is over, the astrologer takes away the betelnut Ganpati and, the priest takes away the waterpot Varun. Then a potter or Khumbhar comes bringing about twenty-six earthen pots all whitewashed and marked with red lines, of which six are lids or yelnis properly velnis. He places the twenty pots and five of the covers under a cover in a corner, and he places a pot and a cover near where the boy and his parents are sitting. The priest takes a new winnowing fan and places in it the earthen pot which as set near the boy and his parents. In the pot he places the betelnut and a piece of turmeric root rolled round with thread, and on the fan near the pot are laid a new bodice and robe, a cocoanut, and nine betel packets, and four copper coins are laid before the fan and worshipped. The hems of the mother's robe and of the father's shawl are knotted together; they rise from their seats, the father takes the earthen pot in his hands and the mother the fan, and they lay them near the family gods. A lighted brass lamp is set close by and fed with oil. The girl's maternal uncle unties the knot in the father's and mother's clothes, and they go and sit as before near the family priest. The five married women now go to the girl's parents and are seated on wooden stools. The girl's mother offers them turmeric and redpowder and the lap of each is filled with wheat or rice, a betelnut, and a copper coin. This ends the worship and the priest retires. Then two handmills are washed and rubbed with turmeric and redpowder. Round the neck of each of the grindstones a turmeric root and a few grains of rice are tied in a piece of cloth. Turmeric is put in one of the mills, ground into powder, and taken in a brass dish mixed with oil and wetted with cold water, and rubbed on the girl except on her head. Then the girl and her father and mother are made to stand in a line on wooden stools at one corner of the marriage hall and five waterpots are set round them and a thread is passed five turns round the pots. The five married women then bathe the girl and her parents and they go into the house. Some wet turmeric is put into a brass cup, and set in a plate along with a handful of chikni betelnut, and, with male and female relations and music, is taken to the boy's. As part of the procession two married women carry on their heads two copper waterpots or ghagars whitewashed, marked with red lines, and filled with cold water. At the boy's house they are seated on a carpet in the marriage hall, and the boy comes out and sits on a low wooden stool, and the turmeric powder brought by the girl's relations is rubbed on his body either by his sister or by the five married women or savasins. If a rupee is dropped in each of the water-pots brought by the girl's relations, the women who brought the pots on their heads keep the rupee and make over the pots to the boy's relations. If instead of a rupee, only two bodices are given, the pots are taken back with the bodices, after the water is poured out. The boy and his father and mother are bathed as at the girl's, and they go into the house and dress. When the bath is over, the girl's relations retire. The five married women and the guests all dine. When dinner is over, the girl's relations and friends start, accompanied by the family priest, to ask guests for the marriage. They first go to the village temple, and setting a few grains of rice mixed with redpowder, a copper, and a betelnut before the god ask him to attend the marriage. They then go to the houses of relations. When they enter a house, they call the house owner by name, and, when he comes, the family priest gives some grains out of the rice cup into his hands and he stands with joined hands, while the girl's father also with joined hands asks him to his house for the god-pleasing, and boundary worship, and for his daughter's marriage. The head of the house, whether he means to come or not, says Bare, Very good. When they have asked all the guests they return home. The same is done at both the bride's and the bridegroom's. Then the women, accompanied by the priest's wife, go round asking the women guests and with the same forms as the men. About lamplight time from the girl's house word is sent to the men and women guests that everything is ready for starting.

When the guests come both men and women go in procession with the priest, his wife, and music to ask the god. They first go to the boy's house, and, standing at some distance, send word to the boy's party that the girl's father is waiting for them; the boy's party if they have not already started, start now, and, meeting the girl's party, both go to the village temple, lay red rice, a betelnut, and copper coins before the god, make a bow, and retire, the boy's party to the boy's house and the girl's party to the girl's house. About nine at night the girl's male and female relations, accompanied by their family priest and music, with a plate containing a turban, a waistcloth, flower garlands and a nosegay, a cocoanut, a little sugar and honey, a pot full of water, betelnut and leaves, cash and sandal and redpowder, go to some house or temple where there is a large empty space, and send a horse with music to the boy's house. The boy's father, taking betelnut, leaves, and cash seats the boy on horseback, and, with relations and friends, goes to the place where the girl's relations are assembled. The boy is first seated in the midst of the assembly and the other guests take their seats. Then the boy and the boy s priest move to where the girl's priest is seated. The girl's priest calls to the girl's parents, and the girl's father sits in front of the boy and the girl's mother stands to the left of her husband. The girl's father unwinds a couple of turns of his own turban, and hangs it round his neck, letting the gold end fall down his back. A pinch of rice is laid on the carpet before him and a betelnut is set on the rice, and the father worships it. Then a plate is laid before the boy, who puts his feet in the plate and the girl's mother pours water over his feet and the girl's father washes them. Then the girl's father pours milk, curds, honey, sugar and batter over the boy's feet, the mother pours water, the father rubs them, and the girl's Mother wipes them. The girl's mother traces a square with redpowder round the boy's feet and makes a round dot or thipka in the middle of the square. The girl's father rubs sandal on the boy's brow, worships him as the god Narayan, and gives him a rich waistcloth and turban to wear, throws flower garlands round his neck, sets a bunch of flowers in his turban so that they fall over his right cheek, offers him a pinch of sugar which he eats, and gives him the cash allowance or hunda. Then the girl's parents retire. The girl's and boy's father or their near relations distribute money among Brahmans and betel packets are handed both among male and female relations. If the boy's mother has come, her lap is filled by the girl's mother with rice and a cocoanut, and the other women are given half a dry cocoa-kernel filled with molasses. This is repeated by the boy's mother, and again the women guests are given dry cocoa-kernel and molasses. All prepare to start. Fireworks are let off, they return to their homes, and the day's ceremony is over. On the morning of the marriage day the boy's father and mother, with kinspeople, friends, and music, taking-with them a bodice and robe, rice, dry cocoa-kernel, turmeric roots, almonds, betelnuts, and dry dates, silver anklets, gold wristlets, and a necklace or sari, go to the girl's house, and are seated in the marriage hall. The boy's priest asks the girl's priest to bring the girl. When the girl comes, she is seated next to her own family priest. The boy's father, folds his turban round his neck letting the gold border fall down his back, sets a betelnut on a pinch of rice, and touching his eyelids with water worships the betelnut. The boy's father touches the girl's brow with redpowder and presents her with a robe and bodice, and she goes into the house, puts them on without passing the end of the robe back between her feet, comes out, and takes her seat. A goldsmith comes and decks the girl with ornaments and the boy's rather fills her lap with cocoanut, dry dates, almonds, and betelnuts, and the girl walks into the house. Betel is served and the ceremony is over. When the boy's father returns home, the girl's brother and other relations with music go to the boy's. The girl's sister carries in her hands a plate with two lighted lamps in it, and her brother carries a second plate with flower garlands. When they reach the boy's house, they are seated on carpets in the marriage hall. The boy is called, comes dressed, and takes his seat before them on wooden stool. The girl's brother throws the flower garland round the boy's neck and sets a bunch, of flowers in his turban. He is then offered a cup of sugared milk. After drinking the milk he starts on horseback for the girls' with a band of kinspeople and music. The boy's sister, who is called the karavli or best maid, walks behind the horse carrying a lighted brass lamp, whose wick is made of black cotton cloth and not like ordinary lamp wicks of cotton. The procession halts in front of the village temple, when the boy alights, and placing a copper and a packet of betelnut and leaves before the god, goes round the temple once, remounts, and the procession goes on. When it reaches the girl's house the girl's brother asks the bridegroom to alight, and he stands facing the door. The girl's mother takes a handful of cooked rice mixed with curds, waves it round the boy's head, and throws it to the boy's right. A servant from the girl's house takes a cocoanut and waving it round his head dashes it in pieces, and throws it to the boy's right and left. Then the girl's mother takes a copper waterpot marked with cement and red lines, fills it with cold water, pours a little of the water on the boy's feet, rubs some on his eyes, and throws the rest on one side. The boy's relations throw a robe over the pot and the girl's mother takes the robe.

The boy walks into the marriage hall and stands till the girl's brother asks him to sit on the carpet. Learned Brahmans and the clerk and headman of the village are sent for. Meanwhile the girl's father asks the boy to take off his turban, coat, and shouldercloth. When he has done this, the girl's father presents the boy with a rich silk gold-bordered waistcloth. The boy puts it on and sits on a low wooden stool. The priest goes into the house and brings out the girl who is dressed in a rich cotton robe and bodice and loaded with gold silver and pearl ornaments, and seats her on a low wooden stool on the boy's left. Then the priests of both houses sit near, and one of them, taking a sacred thread, repeats verses over it, and hands it to the boy who puts it over his left shoulder so as to fall on his right side. The boy and girl are then seated close to each other on low wooden stools on the earth altar, which is one span high and nine spans square having nine steps behind each step shorter than the step below it. On the top step a ball of earth is laid and in the bail a mango twig is stuck; and before the twig and the ball turmeric and redpowder are laid. Five bamboo or kalak sticks are set round the altar and four more on the top of it, and five millet stalks or kadba bundles are spread over it. Five plantain stems are tied to the five bamboo posts and three to the right of the altar. Three rows of five earthen pots and three covers in each row, are made to the right of the altar and two ranges of five pots each to the left with rice in all five rows. The girl's priest asks the girl's mother to bring fire from the house, and either she or some other married woman brings fire on a plate covered with a bunch of mango twigs and gives it to the priest. The priest gives her a redpowder box, and, she, touching her brow with the powder, takes away the. plate. The sacred fire is lit on the altar and the boy feeds it with clarified butter the girl touching his arm. Rice is cooked in a small metal pot over the fire, and the boy and girl leave their seats and go and sit as before in the marriage hall on the carpet. A little cooked rice, curds, and honey are put on the boy's and girl's right hands, and they sip them. This ceremony is called madhupark or the honey sipping. Their hands and mouths are washed, and the boy's father presents the girl with the ear ornaments called balls, necklaces or thushis; bracelets called kakans and valas, and anklets called paijans. She is given a rich gold-bordered robe, and she and the boy are made to stand opposite one another on the altar, with betel packets in their joined hands, and a cloth held between them with a red central square lucky cross or nandi The boy and girl stand touching the cloth with the tips of their fingers, and keeping their eyes fixed on the red lucky cross or nandi. Coloured rice is handed to guests and the priests begin chanting verses. As soon as the last verse is over, the guests throw rice over the couple, and they are husband and wife and the music ceases. The boy and girl are seated on the low wooden stools on which they were standing. Five castemen belonging to different family stooks or gotras from the boy and the boy's maternal uncle, and the girl's father and maternal uncle, are called and take their seats round the boy and girl. They hold a cotton thread in their thumb joints pass the thread five times round and again four times holding the thread a little below the thumb joints. The thread is cut in two bid in a metal plate, and worshipped by the boy and girl with curds, milk, honey, sugar, and butter. A copper coin, two turmeric roots called kombs or gadads, and two betelnuts are put over the threads and the two threads are taken and the thread of five strands along with a turmeric root is tied by the Brahman to the boy's right wrist and the thread of four strands round the girl's left wrist with the other turmeric root. These are called vivah kankans or wedding bracelets. Money from both houses is gathered and handed among Brahmans each of whom gets 1½d. to 1s. (1 -8 as.) and other beggars from 3/8 d. to ¾d. (¼-½ a.). After the money has been handed, the boy and girl take their seats on the carpet in the marriage hall. The boy and girl put on the clothes they were dressed in before the marriage, and amuse themselves by rubbing each other's faces with wet turmeric. They are then given betel-leaf rolls or surlis. The boy catches one end of the rolled leaf in his teeth and the girl bites off the other end. The girl in her turn catches one end of the rolled leaf in her teeth and the boy bites it off. In like manner dry cocoa-kernel or katli, and cloves are bitten. Then a few girls side with the girl and a few boys with the boy and play games of odds and evens or ekibeki. The boy holds a betelnut in his closed hands and the girl tries to take it from him, and the girl is given a betelnut which she holds fast in both her hands and the boy is told to take it from her. If the boy succeeds it is well, if not he is laughed at. The guests, including the boy's parents and relations, are given a handful of betelnuts and leaves and retire. The five men of five different family stocks and the five married women or tslsavasins, and male and female relations are feasted at both houses. When the guests begin to dine, the hems of the parents' clothes are tied together. The father takes a metal pot with clarified butter in it and goes pouring it in an unbroken line round the diners. Some Komtis instead of pouring butter, pour water and present the butter to the priest, with uncooked rice or shidha. In the presence of the guests the boy and girl dine from the same plate, and at times feed one another. After they and the guests have dined packets of betelnut are handed round. The boy is taken on horseback to his house by the girl's relations, the horse is left there, and the girl's relations return. This closes the marriage day. On the morning of the second day the girl's father and his priest, taking some boys with them and a silver cup containing red rice and a rupee, go to the boy's house with music. They are seated in the marriage hall on a carpet and the boy's father sends for his relations. When they have come and taken their seats, the girl's father taking wet redpowder daubs the brows of the boy's father's priests or mahajans, and of the other guests, A few grains of red rice from the silver cup and the rupee are given to the boy's father, and the cup is passed round, each guest taking out of it a couple or so of rice grains. When the cup has passed all round, the guests retire, including the girl's father who returns to his own house.

Women from the girl's house start accompanied by music, taking with them the metal waterpot, a dish, five brass boxes holding red and scented powders, a foot-cleaner or vajri, half a cocoa-kernel, and a bodice, and a high wooden stool. When they are seated they place the wooden stool near them and the boy is called and seated on it. The girl's mother takes a plate and holding the boy's feet over it, pours water over them, rubs them with the metal foot-cleaner, and wipes them dry with a bodice-cloth. The boy then retires. His mother is called and served in the same way as the boy, and she too in her turn retires. Then the girl's mother returns to her house, taking with her the boy's mother and his other kinswomen. The guests are seated in the marriage hall and the boy and girl are seated near them, and they play together rubbing turmeric and scented powders called haladutne on one another's faces. An invitation to dinner is sent to the boy's father, and he comes in company with those who have received red rice grains from the girl's father. When they come they are feasted and presented with betel and flowers; sweet smelling oil is rubbed on their hands, and redpowder is sprinkled over their bodies. A woman from the girl's house goes to invite women guests and returns with them. The boy and girl are seated on low wooden stools in the presence of the women guests, who dine and each party in turn sing bantering verses. The boy and girl feed one another at intervals. The inside is cut out of a cake and some of the bride's kinswomen, without letting her know, drops the rim round the boy's mother's neck either from behind or while she is serving cakes to the guests. If the boy's mother is a quiet woman, she sets the cake on the ground, if she is playful she takes it in her hands, and, leaving her seat, goes and drops it over the head of some one of the girl's relations. This feast lasts for over two hours. After dinner they are served with betel in the same way as the men after their dinner and retire with the boy. In the evening comes the rukhvat or boys' feast when the girl's relations with music bring on servants' and kinswomen's heads, metal plates filled with sweetmeats, toys, birds, and fruit, and a high paper stool or chaurang with paper cups fastened to it, holding sweetmeats, and, on the middle of the stool, a little stick with gold plumes and flowers. They leave these in the boy's house and retire. On the third day comes the sada or robe ceremony. In the early morning, the girl's father asks the boy's father to bring his kinspeople and friends for the sada or robe ceremony. When they come they are seated in the marriage hall, and the boy and girl play with turmeric and sweet smelling powders. They are then made to stand on low wooden stools in a corner of the marriage hall, five waterpots are set round them, and filled with hot water and redpowder. The five married women pour on the couple water from the five pots and the boy and girl are given dry cocoa-kernel to chew, which they throw on one another after they have chewed. Hot water is brought in a bathing tub and the boy and girl are bathed, rubbed, and presented with new clothes. Then the boy's father and other near relations stand and are bathed by the girl's mother, and after their bathing is over the girl's mother bathes her own kinswomen. The girl's parents are then bathed by the women of the house, and they, along with the boy and girl and the boy's parents, sit on low wooden stools in the veranda with their priests and other Brahmans. The girl's father presents the boy with a new dress, and the girl's mother and father, taking their daughter's right hand by the wrist, place it in the boy's hands, telling him to centre his love in her and to treat her kindly. The boy clasps the girl's hand in his and promises to treat her well. The girl is then in like manner made over to the boy's parents, who present her with some head ornaments called nag gondas or venicha saj. The boy's mother and near kinswomen are presented with bodices. Then the boy, seating the bride before him, mounts a horse, and, accompanied by kinspeople, goes to the village temple and from the temple to his house. Before they enter the house a cocoanut is waved round their heads and dashed to pieces. The boy and the girl are seated on a carpet in the house near each other, the girl to the left of the boy. The boy's priest makes a woman's face of wheat dough and sticks the back part of it on to a metal pot, or he sticks dough on to a metal pot and cuts a female face in the dough and covers the pot with a robe and bodice, and decks the face with a married woman's head and neck ornaments. He heaps rice in front of the face and hides the neck ornament called vajratika in the rice. The face is worshipped as the goddess Lakshmi. Before her are placed red and other powders, rice, betel, sugar, and 6d. to 10s. (Rs.¼-5) in cash, and, with a low bow, the boy and girl and the boy's parents leave their seats. The boy's father asks the boy what he has brought with him, he answers, the goddess Lakshmi. The girl is asked how she came; she answers, With gold and silver footprints bringing happiness, joy, and plenty to my husband's home. The girl is then told to see if there is anything in the heap of rice. She searches and says, Behold, I have brought wealth, and takes oat the gold ornament She shows it to the people. They ask what it is and she answers a gold necklace. They tell her to bind it round her neck and with the necklace to bind round her neck long life, happiness, and children. She puts on the necklace saying Tathastu, So be it. The boy and girl go before each person present, bow before them, and ask their blessing. Some do not allow them to bow down, some speak kind words, and others, especially the girl's kinswomen, sad at parting with her clasp her in their arms, weep, and shower blessings on her. The boy and girl return on horseback to the girl's. A cot is laid in the marriage hall and spread with a carpet. On the carpet are laid in a line twenty-six betel packets each packet holding thirteen leaves, thirteen betelnuts, and a pinch of turmeric. On the thirteenth and the fourteenth packets is laid a ball of wet turmeric. The boy and the girl sit on the cot in front of them, and, taking a piece of cotton thread about twenty feet long, fold it in a hank a foot and a half long, knot it thirteen times, lay two balls of turmeric in the middle of it, and offer it sandal paste, rice grains, and flowers. This thread is called the mujumdora.

Then the two wedding wristlets or kakans to which the turmeric roots are tied are taken off and laid near the mujumdora. Two small pieces of palm or tad leaf and five black glass beads are laid on each of the twenty-six betel packets and worshipped with sandal and rice. The boy's priest ties the mujumdora to the girl's right wrist, and, so long as her wedded life lasts, it remains on her wrist, and is renewed on every Sankrant in January. The boy and girl then leave their seats and the twenty-six betel packets, the turmeric powder, the tad leaves, and the black glass beads are sent to families of different family stocks, who hold it lucky and send it round to the members of their family stock. If there are not so many families in one village the betel and beads remain in the girl's house. The boy and girl go and stand on the altar, and worship the altar and the piles of earthen pots; the girl's brother presents the boy with a robe and pulls the boy by his shouldercloth, who takes hold of a bundle of millet stalks and jumps down from the altar. The maternal uncles of the boy and girl take them on their shoulders and dance and throw redpowder on one another. This is called dhendanachavine or the war-dance. When the dance is over the boy and girl are again seated on the altar. Then the girl comes down from the altar, and, sitting on horseback along with the boy, goes to the boy's house. The girl is given one or two kinds of sweet dishes called kanavlas and shingadas, and distributes them among her friends and relations. When they reach the boy's house his mother takes the girl by her hand and leads her over the whole house showing the stores and other rooms where pots, grain, oil, and ornaments are kept, stating, at the same time; what each pot or box contains. When this is over the boy's and girl's parents each at their own house bow out the guardian of the marriage hall and the other marriage gods by throwing red rice over them. The winnowing fan is given to the priest, and the boy's parents feast the girl's parents and her other relations. The girl's father is given a rupee and some rice, and they go to the boy's house where a feast is held. After they have dined and dressed red colour is prepared and sprinkled on both the men and women guests and they return to their homes. This finishes the marriage ceremony. About a couple of months after, on a lucky day, the boy and girl are presented with wood and metal toys. These toys are brought with music to the boy's and girl's houses by the kinswomen of the people who give them. At the toy-giving time the boy is also presented with a turban, and the girl with a robe and bodice. Their marriage expenses cost a boy's father £100 to £150 (Rs. 1000-1500) and the girl's father £50 to £60 (Rs. 500-600). When a girl comes of age a woman takes her to her parent's house. Then with her parents, relations, and friends she goes to her husband's house with music, and a plate filled with turmeric and redpowders, rice, betelnut and leaves, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and cardamoms, a bodice and robe, and a chaplet of flowers or jalidanda. When they reach the boy's house they are seated. The girl is seated on a low wooden stool, and the boy's mother, from a distance, throws on her wet turmeric and redpowder which the girl rubs on her cheeks and brow and offers to other married women present, who rub it on their cheeks and brows. The boy's mother lays before the girl a robe and bodice, and the girl goes into some room, and puts them on and again takes her seat. She ties the chaplet of flowers to her brow, and holds in her right hand a sandalwood doll which has a baby doll in its arms. The girl's lap is filled with about half a pound of rice, betelnuts, almonds, dry dates, and dry cocoa-kernel, and she is given a packet of betel and spices to chew. Other women are offered betel packets, and the girl's mother and kinswomen go and return with plates full of sweetmeats to the boy's house. At the boy's the girl is seated on a low wooden stool in a wooden frame. The guests take their seats and betel is served to them. The girl rubs her palms with wet turmeric, and, without looking behind, plants them on the wall. The guests all retire. The girl's mother cooks at her house rice, pulse, pickles, wafer biscuits, sugared milk, and sweetmeats, and putting on silk woollen or fresh washed cotton clothes takes the dishes on the heads of married women to the boy's house. At the boy's the girl's mother and kinswomen serve these dishes to the boy's family and their near relations and friends offer them betel and retire. At night, except that the girl sleeps on a carpet or blanket apart from the other members of the family, nothing special is done. On the second morning the girl's mother goes to the boy's with sweet milk, wafer biscuits and pickles, and a fresh flower chaplet or jalidanda, turmeric, redpowder, almonds, dry dates, rice, cocoa-kernel, and music. When she reaches the boy's, she calls the girl and seating her in the wooden frame presents her with the three dishes, which she eats with one or two children from the house. When she has eaten the dishes, the girl washes her hands and mouth and sits in the frame. She is given turmeric and red powders, and the flower brow-chaplet, and her lap is filled. The girl ties her old chaplet to the doll's brow and fills her lap and rubs turmeric and red powder on her cheeks and brow. The mother retires without music and the players go to their homes. On the third day the second day ceremony is repeated. On the morning of the fourth day a plantain stem is tied to each of the four posts of the wooden frame, the girl and her doll are bathed in the morning early by the boy's kins-women, and she is dressed in a new robe and bodice. The girl's mother father and kinspeople bring to the boy's, with music, a turban, robe, bodice, rice, five specimens of fruit, five turmeric roots, redpowder, five betelnuts, five dry dates, and almonds. The boy and girl are seated in the frame on low wooden stools, and the boy's mother taking rice and fruit fills the laps of the girl and of her relations. The girl's mother, going in front of the boy and girl, throws rice over their heads and the musicians play. The girl's father, touching the hem of the turban with redpowder, gives it into the boy's hands. He rolls it round his head, and the girl's mother, touching the hems of the robe and bodice with vermilion, presents them to the girl who retires, puts them on, and again takes her seat.

The mother throws flower garlands round the boy's neck, sets a bunch of flowers in his turban, and tying the flower chaplet round the girl's brow fills her lap with fruit. A cocoanut is given to the boy and he lays it in the girl's lap. The guests retire. A few Brahmans and men and women guests are feasted. On the fifth day a few Brahmans are asked to kindle the sacrificial fire and to dine at the boy's house. When the Brahmans come the boy and girl bathe and sit on low wooden stools, and the sacred fire is lit the Brahmans and priests repeating verses. When the verses are over the boy and girl are seated near each other on low wooden stools, and their bodies are rubbed with sweet smelling oils and powders, and they are bathed with hot water. Then they are dried and dress in their usual clothes. Then the girl's parents and kinspeople arrive with music, bringing a plate with a turban and a pair of waistcloths, a bodice, and a robe and flowers, including garlands, chaplets, a nosegay, fruit, turmeric and redpowders, dates, and almonds and rice. The men sit in the veranda with the plate before them, and the women go into the house. The boy and girl are called and they sit near each other in the middle of the assembly. The girl's father takes a few grains of rice from the plate, sticks them on the boy's and girl's brows, and throws them over their heads. The girl is handed a little turmeric and redpowder. She rubs the turmeric between her eyebrows and the redpowder a little above in the middle of her brow. The girl's father gives the boy a waistcloth which he puts on, and a turban which the boy rolls round his head. The girl is given a robe and bodice and she retires, puts them on, and again seats herself. A flower garland is thrown round the boy's neck, a nosegay is given in his hands, a bunch of flowers is hung from his turban, and the chaplet of flowers is tied round the girl's brow and her lap is filled. He hands the boy a cocoanut, which he lays in the girl's lap. Then, with a party of kinspeople, the boy and girl go and bow before the village god. The musicians walk first, behind them comes the boy on whose right and left walk two men holding state umbrellas over his head, and a few kinsmen follow. A few paces behind them, also with two umbrellas held over her, timidly walks the young girl partly hiding her face. From the village temple they go to the girl's, and bow before her family gods and the elders of the house. They are given a feast and return to the boy's where a second feast is held. At this feast the girl serves a few of her caste people with butter, and, after they have dined, retires with a packet of betelnut and leaves. About eight at night the girl's relations go to the boy's house with a cot, bedding, pillows, a white sheet, a quilt, and a plate with spice boxes and bags and flowers. [These boxes are one for cement, one for catechu, one called chauphula with several holes in which catechu cloves nutmeg nutmace and cardamoms are kept, and a fourth, called panpuda, in which betel leaves are kept. There are also five cotton or silk bags called pishvin in which betelnut, cloves, nutmeg, nutmace, and cardamoms are kept; a waterpot and panchpatra, a foot-cleaner or vajri, a spittoon, a lamp, a washing pot or tast, sweet-smelling flower garlands and nosegays and five peculiarly folded betel packets with spices and small bits of betelnut, and a cup of sugared milk.] On reaching the boy's, the women are seated on carpets, and the cot is laid and bedding is spread in the room prepared for the couple. The boy's sister calls to him and he comes with a turban on his head. A low wooden stool is set near the cot and the boy is seated on the stool. The washing pot or tast is placed in front of the boy and he holds his feet over it. The girl comes near, pours water over his feet, and rubs them with the foot scraper or vajri, dries them, marks his brow with redpowder, and sticks rice over the powder. She throws flower garlands round his neck, hands him a nosegay, and offers him sweet milk. He sips a little and sets it on the ground, and afterwards offers it to his wife when they are left alone. She offers him a betel packet, the women withdraw and the boy shuts the door. For some time, often for hours after, the pair are not left in quiet, young married women and children knocking at the door and telling them to open. Next day the boy and girl are taken to the girl's house, a feast is held, and the boy is presented with a waistcloth. Every day from the fourth to the sixteenth a song is sung especially by the priest's wife in the hearing of the girl. In the third month of a woman's first pregnancy comes the hidden bodice or chorcholi when the girl's mother rubs her arms with sandal, her cheeks with turmeric, and her brow with redpowder, and presents her with a new green bodice which she puts on.

This is done stealthily without telling even the women of the house, so that it may not be noised abroad that the girl is pregnant. She is then treated to a sweet dish. In the fifth month of her pregnancy the ceremony is repealed at the boy's house but this time she is openly presented with a green bodice, new glass bangles are put on her wrists, and a feast is held to which near married kinswomen are called. In the seventh month of her pregnancy the ceremony is repeated for the third time. On this occasion she is presented with a new robe bodice and bangles, and with music and in the company of a few near kinswomen goes to the temple of the village god, makes a low bow, and returns home. On her return home a grand feast is given to both kinsmen and kinswomen. From the next day till the ninth month the girl is feasted by turns by both her mother's and her husband's relations, and is sometimes presented with robes or bodices. This is called the dohlejevan or longing-dinner and costs £2 10s. to £5 (Rs. 25-50). Every day the married women of the house sing a song in the pregnant woman's hearing. When sickness takes a deadly turn the family priest brings a cow with a calf, a miniature silver cow if a live cow is not available. The eldest son or other nearest kinsman lays sandal, rice grains and flowers before the cow, and a ladle full of cold water in which her tail is dipped is dropped into the dying person's mouth. The priest is given 10s. (Rs. 5) as the price of the cow, and a Brahman, in a rather loud voice reads some sacred book so as to make the dying person hear what he reads. Presents of grain and coppers are made to Brahmans and other beggars, and, on a spot on the ground floor, a blanket is spread. On the blanket the dying person is laid with his face towards the north, and a few drops of sacred water, either water from a holy river or water in which a Brahman's toe has been washed, is poured into his mouth. The name of some god is shouted in his right ear, and he is told to repeat it. The eldest son sits by his father, takes his dying head on his lap, and until he draws his last breath, near relations comfort the dying man promising to take care of the children and wife. After death the body is covered with a sheet, and the women sit round weeping and wailing. The men go out and sit on the veranda bareheaded, and one starts to tell relations of the death. The chief mourner hands money to a friend who goes to market and buys what is wanted. [The details are: Wooden poles and sticks, cotton cloth, a silk waistcloth, rope, millet straw, basil leaves, flowers, red and scented powder, earthen pots, sandalwood, firewood, 5000 cowdung cakes, clarified butter, a copper coin, a water-pot, a cup and dish, wheat flour, rice, and a leaf plate together worth £1 to £1 10s. (Rs. 10-15).] When the messenger comes back the mourners busy themselves in making the body ready spreading millet stalks on it. A fire is lit outside of the house where the bier is made ready, and water is heated in an earthen pot. The body is brought out through the regular door by the four nearest kinsmen, and laid on the ground in front of the house. While this is going on the women are not allowed to leave the house. If the deceased leaves a widow, one of the four bearers goes into the house, and tears off her marriage string and wrist cords, takes them away, and burns them with the dead. But it often happens that the widow sees him coming and herself tears them off and throws them at him. If the deceased is a married woman one of her husband's sacred threads is touched with the redpowder from his dead wife's brow, and the other is torn off the husband and carried with the body to the funeral ground. One of the four bearers rubs butter on the dead bead and pours hot water over the body. The body is dressed in a silk waistcloth and laid on the bier with crossed hands and feet, and red and scented powder is rubbed on the brow. It is then rolled in cloth and tied all round with twine. If the dead leaves a son the face is left open, if he has no son it is covered. On the body red and scented powder is sprinkled. To one of the hems of the bodycloth the marriage string and mujumdora cord are tied, and to the other end rice and a copper coin. Live coal is put in an earthen jar which is slung in a string and given to the chief mourner who is told to walk in front of the body without once looking back. Of the men who have come from the house, some follow the body bareheaded repeating Ram Ram in a loud voice, and others go back to their houses. Except the men who belong to the same family stock or gotra, and have to observe mourning, the mourners follow the body in their ordinary dress including turbans and shoes and are careful not to touch any of the chief mourners.

Among the mourners are the village astrologer or joshi, the family priest or upadhya, and a barber, all of whom wear their usual clothes. The body is carried at a quick pace, the chief mourner keeping very close in front. Except the wife of the deceased, women follow the body to the burning ground. On nearing the burning ground the bier is lowered and the men rest and change places. They take from the hem of the bodycloth the rice grains and the copper coin and lay them near the roadside and again move on. The chief mourner does not stop but keeps on very slowly without looking behind. At the burning ground a few verses or mantras are repeated and the priest tells the chief mourner to ask the astrologer for leave to shave. The Joshi orders the shaving and the barber, with his clothes on, shaves the chief mourner's bead and moustache. After the shaving is over the mourner bathes and offers wheat flour balls and throws them into the river. The chief mourner again bathes and a funeral pile is raised. First a layer of about a hundred cowdung cakes is made, over it are ranged billets of wood, and firewood, and over the firewood another thick layer of cowdung cakes, and on it the four bearers lay the bier with the corpse. Another layer of cowdung cakes is heaped about the body and the chief mourner, pouring the fire from the earthen jar on the ground, puts pieces of cowdung cakes and stalks of dry jvari over it, kindles them, and puts the lighted fuel in several places below the pyre. Women mourners go and sit at some distance, and the men stay near the body. The body takes about three hours to burn. When the skull bursts the chief mourner walks round the pyre thrice, beats his mouth with the back of his hand, and calls aloud. After the body is completely burnt, such of the male and female mourners as have touched the body or the four bearers, bathe, and then the four bearers take nimb branches and go to the chief mourner's. At the house of mourning, after the body is taken to the burning ground, the children and the wife of the deceased are bathed by neighbour women and the spot where the deceased breathed his last is cowdunged. When the funeral party returns, the four bearers pluck nimb leaves from the branches in their hands, and spread them on the spot where the deceased breathed his last, and return to their houses. When they reach their home if they have not touched the body, the bearers, or the members of the mourning family they go into their houses. Those who touched the dead or the chief mourners stop in the veranda of their house, and receive from their wives, on the palm of the right hand, a little curds milk and rice-flour which they touch with their tongues and throw away. They do not enter their houses or eat anything until they have seen a star in the evening, when they dine. At the mourner's house near relations bringing cooked food serve it on a leaf plate and leave it covered with a bamboo basket on the spot where the deceased breathed his last. Food is served to the mourners and after they have eaten the relations return to their houses. In the same evening the leaf plate is removed from the spot by some people of the house, and given to Mhars or Mangs. The spot is cowdunged and small stones are laid, and in the middle of the stones an iron lighted lamp, covered with a bamboo basket or durdi, is allowed to remain for ten days. On the second day the chief mourner accompanied by the priest goes to the river bank where the dead was burnt with a handful of wheat flour and rice, and a leaf plate folded in a hanging cloth. At the river bank they buy cowdung cakes worth about 3/8 d. (¼ a.) and the chief mourner bathes, kindles a fire, and cooks rice. He makes a dough ball, and offers it with the cooked rice, bathes, and returns home with the metal plate duly folded in cloth and held as before. When he comes home, a near relation cooks food, and he dines if well-to-do along with a few relations. After dinner, instead of the usual betel packets, the guests are offered only a piece of betelnut to chew and retire.

This is repeated till the ninth day. On the tenth, the mourner, accompanied by near relations, goes to the river bank, and after bathing offers as usual wheat-flour balls and rice. The crow is prayed to take the offering. If the crow comes and takes it the deceased is believed to have died happy; if the crow does not come the deceased had some trouble on his mind. With much bowing the dead is told not to fret himself, that his family and goods will be taken care of, or if the ceremony was not rightly done, the fault will be mended. They promise that a number of Brahmans will be fed, or that his name will be given to his grandchild. If in spite of all these appeals, the crow does not come till evening, the chief mourner with a blade of sacred grass, himself touches the ball and the cooked rice; the rest of his companions bathe and all retire. On the eleventh day, the whole house is cowdunged, and the vessels are cleaned, clothes washed, sacred threads and women's marriage strings are changed, and a wheat flour ball is offered. Presents of shoes, an umbrella, a staff, a turban, a shouldercloth, a waist-cloth, lamps, and a waterpot are made to the Brahman, and two castemen of different family stocks or gotras are feasted and dismissed with a present of 6d. (4 as.) each. On the twelfth day the shraddh ceremony is performed when three wheat flour balls or pinds are offered, and the four bier bearers and two castefellows belonging to different family stocks are feasted. Brahmans are presented with the deceased's bedding and metal lamp and money varying from 6d. to 8s. (Rs.¼-4). On the thirteenth day the chief mourner has his head shaved, a dish of sugar cakes is prepared, and relations and friends are feasted. A cow is presented to a Brahman, the mourner marks his brow and the brows of Brahmans with red sandal, and they retire to their homes. Their funeral ceremonies cost them £5 to £20 (Rs. 50-200). They are bound together as a body and their social disputes are settled at caste meetings, under their hereditary headman or mahajan. Important questions are referred to their chief religious head or guru Bhaskaracharya a Yajurvedi Apastambh. Brahman the deputy of Shankaracharya. He has four monasteries at Bodhan and Nander in the Nizam's country, near Hampi thirty-six miles north-west of Belari, and near Pendgaon Pattan in Maisur. He occasionally visits his followers in Sholapur. The penalty of breach of caste rules is a heavy fine and the sipping of water in which the teacher's toe has been washed. The fine goes to the guru. They send their children both boys and girls to school, and, when able to read and write and keep Marathi accounts, they apprentice them to shopkeepers. They are in easy circumstances.

Lingayats

Linga'yat Va'nis are returned as numbering 21,308 and as found all over the district but chiefly in Sholapur. They seem to have come into the district about two hundred years ago. According to the Nandikeshvar Puran, Basveshvar, the founder of the Lingayat sect, was born of a Brahman woman at Bagevadi in Kaladgi, and claiming divine inspiration, founded the Lingayat faith. He established his religion about the middle of the twelfth century at Kalyan in the Nizam's dominions, and he, or rather one of his apostles, is said to have gone to Marwar, and brought back 196,000 converts from Marwar and spread them all over the Panch Dravid country or Southern India. [In connection with this story it is worthy of note that Ujain in Malwa is one of the five chief or lion seats of the Lingayats. At the same time the story of converts brought from Marwar seems unlikely. Perhaps the foundation of the story was the conversion of local Jains who were afterwards confused with Marwaris as most modern Jains come from Marwar.] The earliest Sholapur settlements of these Marwari converts are said to have been Kasegaon a village three miles to the south of Pandharpur, Mohol, and Malikpeth in Madha. These towns are now greatly declined and Kasegaon and Malikpeth are in ruins. Their second great centre was Vairag in Barsi which remained a prosperous place until the railway centred trade at Sholapur. Their chief family stocks or gotras are Bhringi, Nandi, Skand, Vir, and Vrishabh. They lay little count on family stocks. Many people do not know their stock, and intermarriage takes place among families belonging to the same gotra so long as the surname is different. The names in common use among men are Basling-appa, Chanbasappa, Gopalshet, Hariba, Kalappa, Krishnappa, Malkarjun, Maruti, Rajaram, Ramshet, Shivappa, Shivlingappa, Vishvanath, and Vithoba; and among women Basava, Bhagirthi, Chandrabhaga, Janki, Kashibai, Lakshmi, Lingava, Malava, Rakhumai, and Vithai. Their commonest surnames are Ainapure, Barge, Bodhke, Galakatu, Karanje, Kare, Korpe, Lokhande, Mahalshet, Raj mane, Samshet, and Shilavant. The surnames have their rise in distinctions of trade, calling, residence, or any notable family event or exploit. Thus Galakatu, or cut-throat, arose from the fact that years ago some member of the family had his throat cat by highwaymen. Whatever their surnames all Lingayat Vanis eat together but do not intermarry. They are a dark, thin, and middle-sized people, healthy and long-lived. They can be easily known from other Hindus by the ash-mark on the brow and by the ling case which they wear. Most speak Marathi both at home and abroad, and some speak Kanarese at home. All speak Hindustani and a few English. Most live in houses of the better sort one or two storeys high with walls of mud and stone and flat mud roofs built round an open quadrangle which acts as a shaft for air and light. In the veranda of a well-to do house is a raised earthen seat or ota large enough for one man to sit on. On this a blanket is spread and the Jangam or Lingayat priest is seated when his feet are washed and the holy water or tirth is drunk by the house people. The house goods include cots, bedding, blankets, metal and earthen vessels, stools, lamps, cradles, grindstones, and handmills. Few have servants as Lingayat Vanis seldom take service with any one.

They keep cows, bullocks, she-buffaloes, and a few carts and ponies. Their staple food is millet, rice, wheat, pulse, vegetables, and curds. They like hot dishes, and eat chillies as freely as if they were common pot herbs. One of their pet dishes is cooked jvari mixed with curds and kept fermenting for three or four days. This they eat with much relish adding a little salt to lessen the acidity and using chillies and oil as condiments. Their caste dinners cost about £2 10s. (Rs. 25) the hundred guests. The special dish is a kanji or gruel prepared by cooking wheat in water until the grain bursts through the skin, adding molasses and butter, and again boiling for a short time. They dine sitting on the floor and eat from plates set in front of them on iron tripods or on wooden stools. At their meals they wear cotton or silk waistcloths and do not leave the dining-room till they have chewed betelnut and leaves. They do not allow strangers to see their food and are careful to prevent the sun shining on their drinking water, and to leave no scraps of food after their meals. After every scrap has been eaten they wash the plate and drink the water. Men and women eat off separate dishes and neither a wife nor a husband eats another's leavings This is because no Lingayat can offer to another's ling the remains of food which has already been offered to his own. To avoid this Lingayats do not allow a particle of food to remain on the plate. Lingayats are strict in avoiding flesh and liquor. They both chew and smoke tobacco. Some use opium and a few drink hemp-water or bhang and smoke hempflower or ganja. The men dress in a waistcloth, a waistcoat, coat, headscarf, and shouldercloth, and occasionally a Brahman turban, and shoes. They wear the moustache, whiskers, and top-knot but not the beard. The women dress in the full Maratha robe and bodice, wear the hair either in a knot behind or allow it to hang in braids down the back. Married women rub redpowder on their brows, use false hair, and deck their heads with flowers. Both men and women mark their brows with ashes carry the ling in a small metal box, or roll it in an ochre-coloured cloth, tied either in the headscarf, round the neck, round the upper left arm or right wrist, or hanging from the neck down to near the heart, or the navel. They are hardworking, sober, thrifty and hospitable, but hot-tempered, overbearing, and impatient. They term themselves Virshaivs that is fighting Shaivs. They greet one another with the words Sharanarth or I submit or prostrate. They are mostly traders dealing in grain, spices, salt, oil, butter, and molasses or sugar. They are cloth-sellers, bankers, moneylenders, brokers, and husbandmen. They apprentice their boys to shopkeepers, the time and pay of the apprenticeship varying according to the trade or calling. An apprentice in a rich firm is paid as much as £1 10s. (Rs. 15) a month, but the general monthly rate of pay is 8s. to 10s. (Rs. 4-5), and some well-to-do persons have their boys apprenticed to bankers and well-to-do brokers without receiving any pay. The apprenticeship begins between twelve and fifteen and lasts six months to two years. Unless he has his father's shop to enter after completing his apprenticeship elsewhere, the youth prefers working as an assistant in the shop where he was apprenticed. An assistant is paid £1 to £1 10s. (Rs. 10-15) a month, and besides his pay gets valuable experience. He learns the little tricks by which customers are beguiled, the vigilance with which inferior articles should be palmed off on customers, and gains an insight into the intricacies of trade. At the end of three or four years he has learned much and probably has laid by a considerable sum.

He then begins as a grocer on a small scale with a capital of £20 to £30 (Rs. 200 - 300) of his own or borrows money from a banker at nine to twelve per cent a year. He deals first in assafoetida, black pepper, cummin seed, pulse of different kinds, oil, coarse sugar, sugar, butter, turmeric, chillies, onions, and garlic. He buys his stock himself in the town from wholesale dealers and sells retail renewing his stock at least two or three times a month. A shopkeeper of this kind with a capital of £20 to £30 (Rs. 200 - 300) makes about £10 (Rs. 100) a year. As he enlarges his capital he increases his stock and takes to dealing in grain and advancing money to landholders on the security of crops. Some act as brokers a business which does not require capital Unless the broker acts as shroff or moneychanger, making purchases on account of orders from outside customers. A good broker earns £100 to £150 (Rs. 1000-1500) a year and more if he has a fairly large capital. As husbandmen some are over-holders but most take fields from others paying a certain yearly acre cash rent. Their women help them in watching the fields and bringing their meals to their husbands. Though they abuse railways for lowering their profits, they are a prosperous and well-to-do people and have considerable power over the local market. They have credit and at any time can borrow at three to nine per cent. They have no regular position in the local caste list. They eat from no one not even from Brahmans. LINGAYAT VANIS are a religious people and worship all Hindu gods and goddesses, calling them forms of Shiv. Their family deities are Ambabai of Tuljapur, Banali and Danammai in Jat, Dhanai in the Konkan, Esai, Janai, and Jotiba of Kolhapur, Khandoba of Jejuri, Mahadev, Malikarjun near Vyankoba in Tirupati, Nesai, Rachotivir-bhadra in Griri, Revansiddheshvar in Satara, Shakambari in Badami, Siddheshvar of Sholapur, Yallamma of Saundatti in Bijapur, Vyankoba and Virbhadra, to all which places they go on pilgrimage. Their worship is the same as that of Brahmanic Hindus except that they offer their gods neither red flowers nor kevda Pandanus odoratissimus. Their family priest is a Jangam of the rank of a Mathapati or beadle. He is the general manager of all their ceremonies. He issues invitations, walks at the head of processions, blows the conch shell, and is the man of all work in their social and religious gatherings. A strict Lingayat Vani does not respect Brahmans and never calls them to conduct his weddings so long as he can find a Jangam to conduct them. Still in practice they tolerate Brahmans, and, after the Jangam is done, allow a Brahman to repeat verses and throw grains of red rice or mantrakshada over the boy and girl. The only use they make of a Brahman is in finding out lucky days for the performance of ceremonies, and also on the day when turmeric is rubbed on the boy and girl on which occasion he chooses women to rub the turmeric. A Lingayat has no horoscope based on the time of his birth, but of late Jangams have learned enough to act the astrologer's part and thus the occasions on which Brahmans are needed are becoming fewer. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and festivals, and believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, lucky and unlucky days, and oracles. Lingayats marry their girls between eight and sixteen, and their boys between twelve and twenty-five. For the redpowder rubbing or kunkulavne that is the public announcement that a match has been made, the boy's father, accompanied by kinspeople and friends and a Jangam goes to the girl's, and, rubbing her brow with redpowder, presents her with a robe and bodice, and the Jangam fills her lap either with a handful of sugar or a cocoanut. If the girl's father is rich he presents the boy's father with a turban and a dinner closes the day. The next of the marriage observances is the magni or public asking. On a lucky day the boy's kinspeople, with a Lingayat beadle or mathapati, go to the girl's and present her with a robe, bodice and ornaments. The girl's mother is presented with another robe and bodice and five of her kniswomen with bodices. The girl's lap is filled with five pounds of rice, five dry dates, turmeric roots, betelnuts, plantains, five half-dry cocoa-kernels, and a cocoanut. A dinner and a service of betel packets closes the day. Next day the girl's kinspeople and friends go to the boy's and present him with a turban, and, if well-to-do, with robes and bodices for the boy's mother and kinswomen. The day closes with a dinner. This ceremony is not performed if the boy and the girl belong to the same village.

A marriage generally takes place within a couple of years of the asking, and on any day in Magh or January - February, Phalgun or February - March, Vaishakh or April-May, Jyeshth or May-June, Kartik or October - November, and Margashirsh or November-December. A few months before the wedding the boy's relations go to the girl's and fix a month for the marriage. At least five days before the marriage the boy's relations go to the girl's and presenting her and her mother with a robe and bodice, fill the girl's lap with rice, dry dates, a cocoanut, turmeric roots, and betelnut and leaves, and retire. The village Brahman is called in and gives the names of five married women who should rub the girl with turmeric. The girl is seated on a low wooden stool and round her are set four metal waterpots. Cotton thread is passed five times round the pots, and the girl is anointed with sweet smelling oil, turmeric powder is rubbed on her body, and her brow is marked with redpowder by the five women. She is bathed and dressed in a new robe and bodice and her lap is filled with rice, and dry cocoa kernel and redpowder are rubbed on her brow. The cotton thread is taken off the four waterpots, a turmeric root is tied to the thread, and it is then fastened round the girl's right wrist. Besides the tying of the turmeric root to the wrist, for five days the girl is anointed, bathed, and her lap filled by the five chosen women. During these days the girl is taken to the houses of near relations and friends and feasted. A couple of days before the wedding day two girls go to the houses of relations and friends with a brass plate containing an oil jar and some turmeric and redpowder. They go to a house, pour a spoonful of oil on the threshold, drop a pinch of the powder over the oil and ask the women of the house to dine with them. On their return they lay on a winnowing fan an allowance enough for one man, and, going to the potter's, make over the contents of the fan to him and receive from him twelve to seventeen big and small earthen jars, which have already been bargained for on promise of a money present or a secondhand robe, return to the girl's and lay the pots in the booth. A couple of men with music go to the forest lands and bring a branch or two of mango, shami, pimpal, and vad, and of other trees if others can be bad though if the four trees are not to be had any one of these is enough. They take an earthen jar from those brought from the potter's, fill it with ashes from the oven, and cover it with gram cake. Over the cake is set a lighted dough or clay lamp and it is hung in the booth. The hems of the clothes of a married man and his wife are knotted together, and they sit opposite the ash jar, and with the help of the matkapati or beadle worship the jar by throwing flowers and sandal at it, by waving frankincense and a lighted lamp round it, and by offering it cooked food. The tree branches are hung round the jar. A dinner is given and the parts of the ceremony common to both houses are at an end. A marriage always takes place in the evening or at any time of the night, never after daybreak or before lamplight. The marriage time is fixed either by a Jangam or by the village Brahman astrologer. On the marriage day the boy is seated in a litter or on horse or bullock back, and is taken in procession to the village temple of the god Maruti with a party of kinspeople and friends with music. A marriage ornament is tied to the boy's brow. He is met by the girl's relations and the two parties throw red and scented powders on each other and are led to the girl's house. At the girl's a woman of her family waves a cake and water round the boy's head and throws the cake on one side to satisfy evil spirits. In the booth is raised an earthen altar covered with a rich carpet on which the Jangam sits and in front of him on another carpet sits the boy. Near the Jangam are laid two trays, one from the girl's house Containing a waist and shouldercloth and a turban, the other from the boy's with a robe, a bodice, and ornaments for the girl. The Jangam touches the hems of the different clothes with redpowder and gives them to the boy and the girl. The girl walks with them into the house and comes back dressed in them, and the boy puts them on in the booth. The Jangam or the village Brahman fills the girl's lap with grains of rice and with fruit and both take their seats as before facing the Jangam. One end of a piece of five Stands of gray cotton thread is held by the Jangam under his feet and the other end by the boy with both his hands, and the boy's hands are held by the girl with both her hands. An enclosure is formed with a sheet in which are the Jangam and the boy and the girl. The hems of the couple's garments are knotted together and the mathapati repeats verses over their joined hands, pours a little water over them, and rubs them with ashes. He throws sandal, grains of rice and flowers over them, burns incense camphor and a lamp before them, and puts a little sugar into the boy's and the girl's mouths. He repeats verses, and, at the end, throws grains of rice over their heads, pulls the threads from their hands, throws them on the ground, and orders the curtain to be pulled aside. The couple now turn their faces towards the guests, and the Brahmans repeat marriage verses or mangalastaks and at the end throw rice over the boy's and the girl's heads and the musicians play. Money is given to Jangams and Brahmans and the guests retire each with a packet of betelnut and leaves. The ceremony of giving away the bride or dharghalne is now performed. The hems of the boy's and the girl's clothes are knotted together, and the father taking in his hands a metal pot of red water and the mother a plate, sit in front of the boy and girl. The girl's mother holds the boy's feet in both her hands over the plate, the father pours water over them from the pot, and the mother rubs them with both her hands and wipes them dry. The pot and the plate are now the property of the boy and the ceremony is over. The boy's father presents the girl's mother with a robe and bodice and her father with a turban and shouldercloth.

The ceremony of sheshbharne comes next when women by turns draw near the couple, and each standing in front of them with both hands throws pinches of coloured rice over the boy's and girl's knees, thighs, shoulders, and heads. Some in addition wave a copper coin over the couple's heads and give the coin to a Jangam. The couple are now taken before the house gods, make a low bow to them, and retire. Then as a sign of friendliness and good feeling they perform the bhum or earth offering ceremony, when a large tray filled with various dishes is set in the middle and the boy and girl and their kinsmen sit round it and take a few morsels. Sometimes the men merely touch the tray with their fingers and give the food to children to eat. On the third day comes the rukhvat or boy's feast when the girl's kinswomen take several cooked dishes to the boy's on the heads of servants, empty them, and return with the empty pots and baskets. The boy and girl rub one another's body with turmeric powder and wash one another with warm water. They then play games of odds and evens with betelnuts and bite off rolls of betel leaves from one another's mouths. Either on the fourth or the fifth evening the boy's relations are asked to dine at the girl's. On their way cloths are spread for them to walk on. The girl's relations carry with them a large jar filled with water, a dish, and strings of onions, and carrots, rags, old brooms, and a broken piece of a whitewashed jar. At times on the way the boy's mother takes offence and refuses to go further. A wooden stool is set in the street and she is seated on it and the girl's mother washes her feet, gives her clothes, and asks her to walk on. On the way one of the party takes one of the pieces of the whitewashed earthen jar and asks the boy s mother to look at her face in the looking-glass. Some hold old brooms over her head, and hang strings of onions carrots and rags round her neck. When they reach the girl's house, the women are bathed, new glass bangles are put round their wrists, or, if they are well-to-do, they are presented with robes and bodices. Next day conies the robe or sada ceremony when the boy's relations and friends go with music to the girl's house and present her with a new robe and bodice. The girl's parents present the boy with a new waistcloth and turban and the pair dress in the new clothes. Either the Jangam or the Brahman priest fills the girl's lap with grains of rice and the boy and girl are seated on a horse or bullock or in a palanquin and with kinsfolk and music go in procession to the boy's. At the boy's they are seated on low wooden stools, and the boy's mother, approaching the girl with a wooden rolling-pin wound in a bodicecloth and smeared with redpowder, calls it a child and lays it in the girl's lap. The girl asks the boy to take it saying she is going to look after the house. She then looks to her father and mother-in-law and husband and says she must have good clothes for her child, and putting the bodiced rolling-pin into her husband's hands, says she is going to sweep the house. After this the boy's parents present the girl's parents with clothes and one of the boy's relations, taking a winnowing fan or a basket, beats it with a stick crying: The wedding is over it is time the guests were taking their leave. Every year on Sankrant Day in January and on Nagpanchmi Day in August the boy's father sends a robe and a bodice to the girl at her parent's house, and the girl's father presents the man who brings the clothes with a turban and gives him a dinner. This goes on so long as the girl remains with her parents. When she is grown up, a few months before she comes of age, the ceremony of ovasa that is home-taking takes place, and from that time the girl lives at her husband's. On the afternoon of a lucky day a party of the boy's kinspeople go to the girl's with robes and bodices for the girl and her mother, and a turban and shouldercloth for the girl's father. They also take rice, wheat, gram, sugar, cocoanuts, and butter with them and go to the girl's house with music. The guests spend the day at the girl's. At night the girl is gaily dressed, and early next morning presents of clothes and grain are made to the girl's parents. The girl is dressed in the new robe and bodice and her lap filled with fruit and grain by the Jangam or the village Brahman. She is seated on a horse or bullock, and is taken first to the math or monastery, then to the houses of the great men, and then to those of relations and friends. At each house the Jangam leaves a piece of cocoa kernel filled with sugar, and, on being questioned, the Jangam tells them that the girl is going to her husband's house. They then return to the girl's house where a feast is held, at which gram cakes are prepared. After dinner return presents are made to the boy's relations about the same in quantity and quality a those received by the girl's. A feast is held in honour of the girl and sweetmeats are sent round the villagers' houses. When the girl comes of age she sits apart for three days, on the first of which her parents present the boy and the girl with clothes. On the fourth morning the girl is bathed and the family Jangam throws the dust off his feet on her body and she becomes pure. A bamboo frame is made in the house in which two low wooden stools are set near each other, and, at about eight in the evening, the boy and girl are dressed in new clothes and sit-on the stools. The Jangam draws near the girl, fills her lap with fruit and grain, and withdraws. A nuptial room is made ready in which is a cot and bedding, a spittoon, betel boxes, and a lamp. The boy goes in first and takes his seat on the cot, and the girl is pushed in and throws a flower garland round the boy's neck, places a nosegay and a spiced betel packet in his hands, and the women retire leaving the couple alone. Daring the first three or four months of a girl's pregnancy a dinner is given by her husband's father to which near kinswomen are asked.

In the seventh month of her pregnancy another dinner is given and the boy's parents present the girl with a robe and bodice, and the girl's parents present the boy with a shouldercloth and turban. The girl's brow is marked with redpowder and her lap is filled with fruit by a kinswoman or a Jangam. Lingayat Vanis allow widows and divorced women to marry. For a widow's marriage the widow's consent is necessary and for a divorced woman's marriage both her and her husband's consent is wanted. If a man wishes to marry a divorced woman he applies to the headman of the caste who is called Shetya, who summons both the woman and her husband, and, in the presence of some of the castemen, asks them whether they are willing to separate. If the husband is willing he gives his consent in writing. Then on a dark night the man goes to the woman's with a few friends among them perhaps a widow or two, as no married woman attends these marriages, and there the couple sit in a room on a bullock's harness. The Jangam who officiates sits in front of the couple on a blanket or wooden stool. He partly shuts the door, as except the priest and the couple no one should see the ceremony. The Jangam mixes a little milk in butter in a cup and asks the man to drink half of it, which he does, and asks the woman to drink the rest. As soon as they have drunk the mixture the Jangam leaves the room and joins the guests. The guests chew betel and leaves and retire without looking at the couple, who remain indoors and do not let any one see them. Next morning they bathe, rub themselves with ashes, and mix in society as before. For her first confinement a young wife goes to her parents'. When the child is born its navel cord is cut by a Lingayat midwife. If the midwife belongs to another caste, the mother is purified by drinking water in which a Jangam's feet have been washed. They name their children on the twelfth day after childbirth. In the morning the mother is bathed and dressed in a new robe and bodice. In the afternoon, when the women guests have come, a cradle is hung from the roof in the women's hall and under it on a handful of rice grains is placed a waterpot. The mother walks with the child in her arms and sits with it on a low wooden stool in front of the cradle. One of the female guests worships the waterpot by the name of the goddess Satvai, throws sandal, redpowder, and flowers over it, waves lighted camphor and frankincense before it, and offers it sugar. After the worship is over such of the female guests as have brought presents of clothes present them to the child and mother. A few women sit on either side of the cradle and one of them taking the child in her bands passes it under the cradle to the woman on the other side repeating, Take Gopiehand or Govind, if the child is a boy, and Take Ganga or Bhagirthi, if the child is a girl. The women on the other side take the child without saying anything and in their turn pass it from above the cradle saying, Take Harichandra or Ramchandra. This is repeated three or four times and in the end the child is laid in the cradle. With the consent of the child's parents the name generally of some deceased relation is chosen and repeated three or four times in the child's right ear ending each time with a kur-r-r-r. As soon as the last word is uttered the other women guests slap the woman's back or give her some blows. Several of the married women are given red and turmeric powder which they rub on their brows and cheeks, get a handful of boiled or soaked wheat or gram, and retire. Before they go the door is closed, and, before she is allowed to leave, each woman has to introduce her husband's name into a couplet. The day ends with a feast to near relations. The ling-girding or Lingdharna, takes place on the fifth day after a child's birth. In a ling-girding the Mathapati or beadle, the Sthavar resident, the Deshantari, the Math Ganacharya or manager, and the Guru or teacher should take part. But as the Lingayat -Vanis cannot keep up all these priests the Mathapati or beadle and the Deshantari or head of a religious house serve the purpose. On the morning of the fifth the whole house is cowdunged, and the mother's bedding and clothes are washed. The Mathapati and Deshantari bring a ling, and, after rubbing it with a mixture of molasses and cement, place it in a metal plate, and bathe it first with the five nectars or panchamrits milk curds honey sugar and butter, and again with the five cow gifts or panchgavya urine dung curds milk and butter, then with water, again with lime and sugar, and once more with water. It is marked with sandalpaste, rice tulsi leaves and flowers are laid on it, camphor and frankincense are waved round it, a few drops of water in which a Deshantari's feet have been washed are poured over it, and a mixture of sugar, sugarcandy, dates, cocoa-kernel, almonds, and dry grapes are laid before it. The ling is folded in a piece of white cloth and tied round the child's neck. The fee charged for the performance of the ceremony is either 4⅛ d. or 8¼d. (2¾-5½ as.) for a boy, and 1 7/8d. or 4⅛d. (1¼-2¾ as.) for a girl, and this fee is divided in the proportion of six to five the larger share going to the Mathapati. When a Lingayat Vani is on the point of death money is distributed among Jangams. After death the body is bathed in cold water, wiped dry, and rubbed with ashes. Earth is heaped in the veranda into a raised seat and the dead is seated on it leaning against the wall, with his head tied to a string hung from a peg in the wall or to the ceiling. The body is dressed in its every-day clothes, and the Mathapati, sitting in front of it, lays sandal paste flowers and burnt frankincense before it, and the ling which hangs from the neck. Over the body and the ling the Mathapati throws bel leaves, flowers, sandal, water, and ashes, and burns incense and camphor before them. Then with a low bow, the Mathapati gives the Jangams who are present, pieces of cloth about a foot and a half square to the end of which are tied bel leaves, ashes, and a couple of coppers. The Mathapati then calls forward four men from among the mourners and rubs them with ashes as a sign that they are to lift the body. If the family is well-to-do the body is carried in a bamboo frame, if poor it is carried in a blanket slung from two bamboos, and the head is held behind by the chief mourner. In front of the body musicians play and a Jangam blows the conch shell. Behind the body walk the male mourners and after them the female mourners, all repeating Har Har, Shiv Shiv. When they reach the outskirts of the village, the bearers change places those behind going in front and those in front coming behind. Then the body is borne to the burial ground. A grave is dug and in the grave a second hole fife panda or the dead man's five feet long broad and deep, and, in front of it, facing either east or north, a niche is dug three and a half feet deep and four square with an arched top.

The whole is either cowdunged or whitewashed and the dust of the Jangam's feet is thrown into it. The body is seated in the hole, and, except the loincloth, all the clothes are stripped off. The Mathapati takes the ling worn by the deceased, lays it on the dead man's left hand, and places the palm on the left thigh. He then lays before the body rice, flowers, sandal, and ashes, and round it waves burning incense and camphor. The ling is tied with a string to the hand and it is lifted up and laid in the niche in front. Bel leaves, cowdung ashes, salt, and earth are thrown in, and, when the earth is filled as high as the face, a piece of gold is laid in the dead mouth and the chief mourner, touching the dead lips with water, strikes his mouth, and covers the dead mouth with a cloth. The hole is filled with earth and stones, and a small mound of earth and stone is raised over it. The Mathapati stands on the mound repeating verses and the mourners stand with bel leaves, and, as soon as the verses are over, the mourners throw the leaves on the grave and cry Har Har, Mahadev. A clay bullock is set on the ground and sprinkled with redpowder. The mourners go to the river or stream and wash their hands and feet, the chief mourner gives each of the Jangams present a copper, and all go to the mourner's house. The spot where the dead breathed his last is cowdunged and a pot of water and ashes are set on it, and each mourner drawing near to it takes a little ashes, rubs them on his brow, and goes home. The Lingayats keep no mourning except that a few of the nearest relations and friends send the family presents of cooked dishes. On the third day the chief mourner, Jangams, and the four corpse-bearers go to the burial ground, pour a little milk and butter on the grave, return to the deceased's house, and dine. Money presents are made to the Jangams and the deceased's clothes and other personal effects are made over to the Mathapati or to the deceased's guru. Lingayat Vanis are bound together as a body and settle social disputes at meetings of the Shetya, the Mathapati, and the caste men. If the chief guru is present he presides. The Shetya is the most influential hereditary headman. He had formerly privileges and rights equal to those of a police patil. What a patil is, to a village a Shetya is to the Lingayat peth or ward of a town. The chief offences to punish which meetings are called are eating fish and flesh, drinking liquor, drinking water with people who are not Lingayats, and cohabiting with a woman who is not a Lingayat. The minor offences are many as they are most strict in observing the rules of their faith. Caste meetings are held in religious houses or maths. The Mathapati opens the proceedings by stating the object of the meeting. The question is discussed and the majority of votes carries the day. The offender is fined, and, until the fine is paid, is put out of caste. If he is to be let back he has to pay a certain sum to the different religious houses in the town, gifts to Jangams, and in rare cases he has to give a caste feast. The power of caste shows no signs of failing. Lingayat Vanis send their children to school but do not keep them at school for any length of time. The boys learn to read and write Marathi and to cast accounts, and the girls learn to read Marathi and Kanarese at home. They are a prosperous people.

Lohanas

Loha'na's, or Cutch traders apparently of Afghan origin, are returned as numbering six. Probably they were pilgrims on their way to Pandharpur as no Lohanas are settled in the district.

Marwar Vanis

Ma'rwa'r Va'nis are returned as numbering 7234 and as found in all the towns and leading villages in the districts. They are tall, dark, hardy, and vigorous with sharp eyes and hollow cheeks. The men shave the head leaving three patches of hair, a top-knot, and a lock over each ear. All wear the moustache, and some whiskers and beards dividing the beard down the chin. They speak Marwari among themselves and an incorrect Marathi with others. When they come from their native country they bring nothing except a brass drinking pot, tattered clothes, and a long stick. By degrees they come to own good houses with a store of brass and copper vessels, and gold silver or pearl ornaments. They keep cattle, ponies, and carts, and eat jvari, wheat, split pulse, butter, and vegetables. Their feasts are dinners of rice, split pulse, and sweetmeats called shirapuri, lapsi, bundi, jilbi, dalya, besan, and basundi They cost £2 10s. (Rs. 25) for a hundred guests. The men wear a Hindu waistcloth waistcoat and coat, a small flat Marwari or Deccan Brahman turban, and a shirt and shouldercloth wound round the waist. They let their hair show outside of the turban behind and on both sides. Their women dress in openbacked bodices and petticoats ghagras and veil their faces with a cloth or odhni. Both men and women wear ornaments, the men wearing gold and pearl ornaments in the ears and on the neck and fingers, silver or gold waistchains, and silver toe-rings. The women's arms are covered to the elbow with thick ivory bracelets, and they have rich gold and silver ornaments and silk clothes and shawls. They also wear necklaces made of lac and gold beads; bangles of lac, glass, coral, and gold ; and a gold bead on the head having a coloured cotton or silk cord entwined in the hair and worn in three plaits, two in front one on each side near the eyes and one in the middle from the hair-parting or bhang. They colour their teeth and nails with henna called mendi or alita meaning lac dye, and have a number of rings on their fingers with mirrors in them and joined to each other with silver chains. They have lately taken to wearing ornaments like those wornby Deccan Brahman women. They are sober and orderly, but dirty, cunning, and miserly, and in their dealings greedy and unscrupulous. They trade in cloth, yarn, metal, and grain, and keep shops, and sell tobacco, cocoanuts, parched grain, sweetmeats, sugar, molasses, oil, and salt. When they first come they begin by serving as shopboys in Marwari shops or go hawking parched gram, crying out Kach bangdi phutane meaning that parched grain will be exchanged for broken glass and bangles. They begin with a capital of 3d. to 6d. (2-4 as.), buying parched grain and receiving in exchange, not copper or silver coin, but pieces of glass and glass-bangles, old iron, and other articles, which a needy daughter-in-law or daughter gives away stealthily. These the hawker gathers and sells to bangle-makers and blacksmiths. Marwaris also sell balls of parched jvari or bhus ladus at one ball for two handfuls of grain, a rate which yields a fourfold profit. They also keep eating houses or khanavals, serve as shroffs or moneychangers, moneylenders, and bankers, and are a wealthy class. They worship Parasnath, and their priests are Marwari Brahmans. Social disputes are settled at caste meetings. Their women are impure for ten days after childbirth, they worship the goddess Pachvi on the fifth, and name the child on the twelfth. They have betrothals and marry their girls before they come of age. Eight days before marriage, each at their own house, the boy and girl are seated on a horse, dressed in rich clothes, and paraded through the town with music and a party of kinspeople. This is called the horse parade or ghoda miravni. During their monthly sickness their women sit by themselves for four days, and they mourn the dead for ten days. They do not allow widow-marriage. They teach their boys first at home, and then send them to school to learn Marathi and Modi and to cast accounts. They are a well to-do class.

Vaishya vanis

Vaishya Va'nls are returned as numbering 4326 souls and are found mostly in Barsi, Madha, and Sholapur. They are rather tall thin and dark, and the men wear the moustache and top-knot. Their women are fair but not goodlooking. Their home speech is Marathi. They own one-storeyed mud and stone houses with flat or tiled roofs and keep cattle, and sometimes have a shopboy belonging to their own caste. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. The monthly food charges of a family of five vary from 14s. to 18s. (Rs. 7- 9) The men dress in a waistcloth, a coat, a shoulder cloth, and. a scarf or turban folded in Brahman fashion and shoes. The women dress in the ordinary Maratha robe and bodice. They are hardworking and thrifty, but not enterprising. They are husbandmen traders and petty shopkeepers. They worship the usual Hindu gods, have images in their houses, and keep all the Hindu fasts and feasts. Their priests are the ordinary Maratha Brahmans generally Deshasths. Their social disputes are settled at caste meetings. They send their boys to school for a short time and are in easy circumstances.