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=Khatik=
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This article is an extract from <br/>

THE CASTES AND TRIBES <br/>

OF <br/>

H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS <br/>

BY <br/>

SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN <br/>

Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and <br/>

Middle Temple, London. <br/>

One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court <br/>

of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. <br/>

BOMBAY <br/>

THE TlMES PRESS <br/>

1920<br/>
*****<br/>
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the Facebook page, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com]. <br/> ''All information used will be duly acknowledged.'' 
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[[Category:India|K]]
[[Category:Communities|K]]
Khatik, Sultankar, Alitkar — the tanner caste, supposed to have 
come from Nagar in Marwar more than t\^o hundred years ago. 
According to the traditions current among the people, they are des- 
cended from Dharmaraja, the eldest of the Pandav brothers. The 
members of the caste are tall, strong, with an alert expression, and 
speak Hindustani with a mixture of Marwari. They have no endo- 
gamous divisions. They say they have got eighty-four exogamous 
sections, but only a few of these are known, as shown below — 
[[File: kaya.PNG ||frame|500px]]
A man is forbidden to marry a woman belonging to his own 
section. No other section is a bar to marriage, provided that he does 
not marry any of his first cousins. This rule of exogamy is further 
supplemented by prohibited degrees, calculated to three generations 
in the descending line. 

==Marriage==

Both adult and infant marriage are recognised by 
the caste, but the latter is deemed the more respectable. The 
marriage ceremony is of the orthodox type. On the wedding day, 
the bridegroom goes to the bride's house where, on arrival, he is con- 
ducted to a seat under a wedding canopy or mandap. There the 
bride joins him and is seated on his left hand. A sacred fire is 
kindled before them by the priest and the bride's maternal uncle puts 
her left hand into the bridegroom's right hand. After the clothes 
of the bridal pair have been knotted together by the officiating 
Brahman, they walk seven times round the milk post (mani khamh). 
This is followed by Kanyadan, or the giving away of the bride by 
her parents and the bridegroom's acceptance of her. The seven 
circuits, taken by the bridal pair round the milk post and the sacred 
fire, are deemed to be the binding portion of the ceremony. Poly- 
gamy is permitted and there is no positive rule fixing any limit to the 
number of wives a man may have. Most Khatiks, however, are too 
poor to keep more than one wife, and a man only takes a second wife 
when the first is barren. A widow may marry again, but she is not 
required to marry her late husband's younger brother. Divorce is 
permitted with the sanction of the Pancha\)at and divorced wives may 
marry again by the form in use at the remaniage of widows. 

==Religion==

By religion, the Khatiks are orthodox Hindus and 
employ Maratha Brahmans for religious and ceremonial purposes. 
Their chief deities are Bhairoba of Nagar, in Marwar, and Amba 
Bhavani of Tuljapur, who are worshipped at their weddings. A goat 
is sacrificed in the name of Bhavani on the Dassera, or the tenth of the 
light half of Aswin (September). If smallpox breaks out in the 
family, they appease the goddess Sitala with offerings of goats and 
fowls. The dead are usually burnt, but recourse is had to burial 
if the deceased is an unmarried person. When the body is burned, 
the ashes are collected on the third day after death and thrown into 
a river. Smdha is performed on the tenth day when pmdas, or balls 
of rice, are offered for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. On 
the eleventh day, the chief mourner shaves and becomes purified. 
The funeral ceremony is closed by a feast to the members of the caste. 

==Occupation==

The characteristic occupation of the caste is the 
tanning of leather. They buy hides from the neighbouring villages 
and sell them, after dressing, to Chammars and Bohoras. In tan- 
ning, they use the red lac dye, math (a kind of bean), salt, and the 
bark of the taroar {Cassia amiculata). Socially, the Khatiks rank 
very low. They will eat fish and fowl and the flesh of hare, deer 
and goat, but abstain from beef and pork. They indulge freely m 
spirituous and fermented liquors.