BRAHMANS.

Brahmans include thirteen classes with a strength of 29,446 or 3.84 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Brahmans, 1881.

Chitpavans.

Chitpavans, supposed to mean pure from the pyre, but who probably take their name from Chitapolan the Sanskrit form of Chiplun in Ratnagiri, are returned as numbering4106 and as found over the whole district. [Details of the mythical origin and customs of the Chitpavan Brahmans are given in the Poona Statistical Account. ] Most of them have come to Kolhapur during the last fifty or sixty years. They are fair and thrifty like Poona Chitpavans from whom they do not differ either in appearance or in religious or social customs. Most of them are State servants and a few are moneylenders, traders, priests, and beggars. They send their children to school and are well-to-do. They are a pushing class.

Deshasths.

Deshasths, generally supposed to mean Upland but more probably meaning Local Brahmans, are returned as numbering 18,116 and as found over the whole State. They form the largest section of Kolhäpur Brahmans and are settled both in towns and in villages. Almost all village accountants or kulkarnis are Deshasths. Except some Joshis or astrologers, Japes or bead-counters, and Pujaris or ministrants who say that about 700 years ago they came there to conduct the worship of Ambabai in Kolhäpur, they have no memory of any former settlement. Deshasths are of two main classes Rigvedis and Yajurvedis. Rigvedis are divided into Smarts and Vaishnavs and Yajurvedis into followers of the white and of the black Yajurved. These four classes of Deshasths and Yajurved Dravids and Telangs eat together, but families who follow different Veds do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Anant, Govind, Shankar, and Vitthal; and among women Bhavani, Durga, Ganga, Lakshmi, Rama, and Yamuna. Among men, such Compound names as Manohar, Gauri-Shankar, and Yajneshvar are not uncommon. When a woman loses several infants, to deceive the evil spirits and make them think the child is little e valued and is not worth carrying away, she calls her next child Dhondu that is stone or Keru that is rubbish. When a son is greatly wanted, if a girl is born she is called Thaki that is deceiver or Ambi that is sour. Men add rav, baba, tatya, kaka, and bhau to their names and women bai to theirs. Most Deshasth surnames are either office or calling names or place names, such as Deshmukh, Kulkarni, and Ajrekar. They belong to the Agasti, Angiras, Atri, Bhrigu, Kashyap, Vasishth, and Vishvamitra gotras or family stocks. Among members of the same section intermarriage cannot take place if the family stocks or gotras are the same, but persons bearing the same surname can intermarry if the surname is merely an office or calling name and the family stock is different. Their family gods are Ambabai of Kolhapur, Banshankari of Badami, Durga, Gajanan, Jogeshvari, Jotiba of Vadi-Ratnagiri in Kolhapur, Khandoba of Jejuri in Poona, Ram, Shiv, and Vishnu.

As a rule Deshasths are dark strong and regular featured, rougher harder and less acute than Chitpavans. The women like the men are dark rough and not so goodlooking as Chitpavan women. Both at home and abroad they speak less correct Marathi than the local Chitpavans and pronounce the words more like Kunbis. In their speech they add the termination ki to every verb and change the initial i to vi and vi to i. They speak a broad Marathi with a drawl and without the Chitpavan nasal twang. [Among peculiar Deshasth words and expressions may be noted: hata a key, mola a nail, gavari for govari a cowdung cake, haito for aheto he is, vhay for hoy yes, nhava for nahi no, astyata for astat are, java for ja go, phava for pohas beaten fried rice, tyaansni for tyana to them, vilaj for ilaj remedy, and istav for vistav fire.] Most Deshasths live in houses of the better class generally two storeys high with brick walls and tiled roofs. As a rule their houses are dark and badly aired. The rooms are low and the staircases steep and narrow. The privy is generally so close to the door that the entrance is most unsavoury. The houses of the rich are large and comfortable; but many of the poor are badly housed or plantains are reared in front of and behind the house where the dirty water is allowed to gather. Their house goods include copper and brass vessels, cots, bedding, and quilts. A few rich families have servants and pet animals and many have cows and buffaloes. They are strict vegetarians and good cooks, their staple food being millet bread, pulse, clarified butter, curds, milk, and condiments. They eat rice only on holidays and their special dishes are the same as those described in the account of the Poona Chitpavans. Except the Shakts or worshippers of female spirits, and some English-taught youths, they do not use liquor and few among them either smoke tobacco or hemp, or drink hempwater. Snuff-taking and tobacco-chewing are common and betel-eating is universal. The men shave the head except the topknot and the face except the moustache and sometimes the whiskers. The women dress their hair neatly, smooth it with oil, plait it in a braid which they wear at the back of the head in an open circular coil in shape like a scorpion's sting. They generally wear false hair but do not use flowers. The indoor dress of a Deshasth man is a waistcloth and a shouldercloth and sometimes a shirt. When he goes out he puts on a coat, a turban or headscarf, and a pair of sandals or shoes. While taking food or performing his twilight or sandhya worship he dresses in a silkcloth or mukta or freshwashed untouched cotton cloth and lays a small piece of cloth on his shoulder. Deshasth women dress in the long Maratha robe and bodice passing the skirt back between the feet. Married women as a rule mark the brow with vermilion and put on the lucky necklace and toerings or jodvis, while widows shave their heads and cover them with one end of their robes and never put on bodices. Children of less than six run naked about the house. A schoolboy on ordinary days wears a coat and a cap or headscarf and on holidays a small turban and waistcloth. When the thread-girding ceremony is performed he puts on a loincloth or a waistcloth. A girl before she is ten wears a petticoat or parkar and a bodice; after ten she wears a small robe or sadi without passing the end over her shoulder like a grown woman, and either leaves the bosom bare or covers it with a bodice. When she is married the husband draws the end of the robe over her shoulders and she then dresses like a grown woman. Women almost never wear shoes. The use of shoes and a parasol marks the courtezan. Both men and women have a store of rich clothes and ornaments [Details are given of Chitpavan customs in the Poona Statistical Account.] many of which have been handed down two or three generations. As a class Deshasths are indolent and untidy but thrifty and hospitable and franker and less cunning than Chitpavans. Their want of enterprise has given them the name of dhamyas or stay-at-homes and their slovenliness is so great that Deshasth disorder is a byeword. [The Marathi runs: Deshasth Va gairshist, Deshasth or disorder.] They are writers, bankers, moneylenders, moneychangers, traders, leeches, landholders, priests, and beggars. The priests and beggars are poor; the rest are well-to-do. Their daily life does not differ from that of Ahmadnagar Deshasths. They claim to be superior to all classes, and profess to look down on Chitpavans as new Brahmans or Parashuram srishti that is Purashuram's making. At the same time they freely associate and eat with Chitpavans and Karhadas, though, except in a few. cases, they do not marry with them. They are both Smarts and Bhagvats, worship all Brahmanic and local gods and goddesses, and keep all fasts and festivals of which the shimga or boundary festival in February-March is perhaps the chief. Their priests belong to their own caste and they make pilgrimages to all Brahmanic sacred places and rivers. Their high priest is Shankaracharya, the great Smart pontiff who lives at Sankeshvar. They worship all local and boundary gods, and believe in witchcraft and soothsaying and lucky and unlucky omens.

Under the head of customs come the sacraments or sanskars, which are of two kinds, nitya or usual and naimittik or special. The sixteen usual sacraments must be performed; the performance of the twenty-four special sacraments is a matter of choice. The sixteen sacraments are the garbhadhan or conception which is performed soon after a girl comes of age; the punsavan or son-giving that the child may be a boy; the anavalobhan or longing-satisfying during the seventh month of pregnancy when the juice of the sacred grass is dropped down the girl's left nostril that the unborn child may grow, the simantonnayan or carrying to the limit in the sixth or eighth month when the woman's hair is parted down the middle and a babhul thorn is drawn along her head and fixed into her hair behind; the Vishnu bali or Vishnu offering during the eighth month to free the child from sin and ensure a safe birth; the jatkarm or birth ceremony when before the navel-cord is cut, honey is dropped into the child's mouth; the namkaran or naming on the twelfth day when also the child is cradled; the suryavalokan or sun-showmg in the child's third month when the mother, holding a churning rod in her hand, shows the child to the sun; the nishkraman or going out in the third month when the child is taken to a temple and well-water is worshipped; the upaveshan or sitting in the fifth month when the child is first allowed to sit on the ground; the annaprashan or food-eating, the first feeding on solid food in the fifth or sixth month; the chaul or shaving in the fourth or fifth year; the upanayan or initiation also called the munj from the grass Saccharam munja; the girding with sacred thread in the boy's seventh or eighth year; the samavartan literally returning or freeing from being a brahmachari or unwed student on the twelfth day after the munj or thread-girding the vivah or marriage at any time after the eighth year; and the svargavrohan literally heaven-mounting that is death. The chief of these sacraments are those at birth, thread-girding, marriage, girl's coming of age, pregnancy, and death. During the first ten mornings after the birth of a child the father employs Kunbi women to pour water on the threshold of the house in honour of the birth. Sometimes the father is made to bathe in cold water, and clad in his wet clothes to drop a little honey from a gold ring into the child's mouth and then bathe in warm water. The midwife cuts the child's navel-cord, waves a silver coin round the cut cord and buries it outside of the house along with another copper or silver coin. The midwife is presented with the silver coin which was waved round the navel cord. She attends the mother ten to ninety days. Every evening at the mother's house the family priest recites soothing verses or shantipath over a pinch of ashes or angara and hands it to some elderly woman to be rubbed on the brow of the mother and child as a guard against attacks of the evil eye or of spirits. On the fifth night the maternal uncle lays a sickle washed with lime and covered with a piece of bodicecloth on a low stool in the lying-in room, and lays before the sickle sandal-paste, flowers, turmeric paste, vermilion, and food in the name of the Panchvi or Mother Fifth. A blank sheet of paper and a reed pen and ink are set before the goddess and the priest burns asafoetida or hing, repeats sacred verses over some ashes, and gives them to be rubbed on the child and the mother and on other young children in the house. On the sixth night the child's father worships Mother Sixth with the same rites as the maternal uncle used on the fifth night; a light is kept burning the whole night in the lying-in room, and the women of the house pass the two nights awake playing games of chance before the goddess and singing songs, for the fifth and sixth nights are a critical time to the newborn child. The family of the child's father is held impure for ten days after a birth.

On the tenth day both the mother-in-law and the mother of the confined woman present her with sweet fried rice cakes or ghargas, lay in her lap wheat and a cocoanut and a robe and bodice cloth, give her turmeric paste and vermilion to rub on her face and brow and ware a light round her head. The mother takes her food, dips her fingers in a silver cup with milk, durva grass, and silver coin, and thrice touches her left ribs with her fingers. The mother's mother takes the silver coin and leaves the room. On the morning of the eleventh the child is bathed, the house is cowdunged, the mother's clothes are washed, and she is bathed in warm water. Besides by this bath the mother is cleansed from the impurity of childbirth by the priest dropping water from tulsi leaves on her head. The men of the house sip water mixed with the five products of the cow and renew their sacred threads. On the twelfth day a feast is given to Brahmans and married women and friends and kinsfolk are treated to a dinner. Women neighbours are asked to the house to attend the naming or barsa. The goldsmith comes to the house and pierces the child's ear lobes. Ornaments and clothes, especially a child's hood or kunchi and a small coat, are made ready for the child, and kinswomen drop in each with a bodicecloth for the mother and a hood or kunchi for the child. In the lying-in room a cradle is hung to the ceiling and a carpet is spread under it. Women neighbours and relations take their seats on the carpet, and the mother takes her seat on a low stool with the child in her arms. The women one by one fill the mother's lap with wheat and a cocoanut and bodicecloth and the hood for the child, mark her brow with vermilion, present her with turmeric paste which she rubs on her face, and arrange themselves in two groups one on either side of the cradle. They take a cocoanut clad in a child's hood or kunchi, cover the bottom of the cradle with a particoloured quilt, and pass the cocoanut over and below the cradle five times. A woman in one of the groups lays the cocoanut in the cradle and says, Take Govind, and a woman in the other group takes it saying, Give Govind. After they have done this five times some matron takes the child in her arms and lays it in the cradle bidding the mother repeat the child's name in its ear. In most cases the women consult the child's mother and settle among themselves what should be the name of the child. The mother then loudly repeats the name in the child's ear, ending with the meaningless sound kur-r-r. The guests then gently swing the cradle and sing a cradle song or palna lulling the child to sleep with a chorus, Sleep, my darling sleep. [The Marathi runs: Jo jo, re, nij bala, jo jo.] The cradling ends with the distribution of boiled gram and packets of sweetmeat, and the guests retire, after receiving from the houseowner vermilion and turmeric paste which they rub on their brows and cheeks. Widows are not allowed to take any part in a cradling.

When the child is a month old comes the ceremony of growth or vardhpan when the mother lays sandal-paste, flowers, and sweetmeat before a pillar in which dwells the deity who presides over the child's growth, bows before it with the child in her arms, and slides the child up the pillar. This is repeated at the end of every month till the child is a year old. The mother keeps her room for three full months. At the end of the third month the mother wears new bangles, dresses her hair, puts on a new robe and bodice, and visits the village temple with the child in her arms. She lays a bodicecloth and a cocoanut before the village god and bows to him with the child in her arms, offers the shashthi devi or Satvai another bodicecloth and cocoanut and returns home. Next comes the feeding or annaprashan when some priests, friends and kinsfolk, and married women are treated to a sumptuous dinner. The child's maternal uncle dips a gold ring in a cup holding khir or rice boiled in milk mixed with sugar, and lets a few drops of milk fall from the ring into the child's mouth. From this day the child is fed with cooked food. The anniversary of the birth is marked by a feast, and soon after the child is a year old, hair-clipping or chuda is performed because a second child may be coming on and it is a rule that no child should see its elder brother's first hair. On a lucky day, a plot in the veranda is cowdunged, on it a square is marked with wheat flour, and in the square is set a low stool covered with a bodicecloth which also is marked with a square of wheat. The boy is seated on the bodicecloth and the village barber shaves his hair leaving a lock on the crown and one above each ear and in return is given the bodicecloth and the wheat. The boy is bathed and dressed in new clothes; married women wave lights round his head and the hair-clipping ends with a feast to Brahmans and married women.

As a rule a boy is girt with the sacred thread in his eighth year-Before the lucky day chosen for the thread-girding the boy's friends and relations give feasts called gadganers or kelvans meaning merrymakings. The kinsman or friend visits the boy's house and puts a cocoanut into his hands as a sign that he is asked to the dinner. The boy goes to his relation's house, his brow is marked with vermilion, grains of rice are stuck on the vermilion, and he is feasted with a few of his friends. A day or two before the thread-girding an invitation procession consisting of the houseowner's friends and relations of both sexes starts in the evening with music and visits the local temple of Ganpati where the boy's father lays a cocoanut before the god and bows to him, and the priest prays to the god to be present at the ceremony together with his two wives Riddhi and Siddhi the goddesses of plenty and success, and by his holy presence remove obstacles which might come in the way of completing the ceremony. The priest lays yellow rice before the god as a sign of invitation and some married women do the same and ask his attendant goddesses. The procession moves from door to door, the boy's father folding his hands before every houseowner and the priest telling him the day and the hour, asks him with his family and attendants to attend the ceremony at his master's house. The married women who come to ask go into the house, are seated, and ask the women of the family to attend the ceremony. The mistress of the house lays a cocoanut and rice in the askers' laps and marks their brows with vermilion as a sign that the invitation is accepted. In token of accepting the invitation the houseowner presents the boy's father or his priest with a betelnut and the procession leaves the house. The askers do the same at every house, while by degrees the men and women who at first formed part of the procession steal away one by one until the boy's father and his family with the priest and musicians are alone left. To friends and relations who live in distant villages invitation cards are sent marked with vermilion, A Square of earth is raised in the booth built in front of the boy's house and adorned with a canopy. The front of the square is decked with plantain trees set upright at both ends and at each corner five earthen pots smeared with whitewash and red stripes are piled surrounded by sugarcanes. The raised square has an earthen back with steps rising one above the other and a cone of earth at the top. This raised mound or altar they call vedi or bahule. Then follows the guardian establishing or devak sthapana, which, among Rigvedi Smarts, is the same as among the other Brahmans. [Details are given in the Chitpavan Brahman customs in the Poona Statistical Account.] On the morning of the lucky day married kinswomen and neighbours meet at the boy's house, where the boy and his parents are dressed in their best and seated each on a low stool covered with a sheet and red cloth marked with a lucky cross or svastik strewn in wheat grains. Two pestles are tied together with a bodicecloth and a basket filled with wheat is set before the boy and his parents. The married women then wash the feet of the boy and his parents and wave lights round them. Wheat and fruit are laid in the mother's lap, betel is served to the boy's father, and a cocoanut is put in the boy's hands. Not less than five married women take the two pestles in their hands, set them upright in the basket, and move them up and down as if to pound the wheat in the basket. They sing songs and native music plays. A married woman takes a handful of corn and grinds it in a handmill to which a bodicecloth is tied. Fragrant oil is rubbed on the boy and his parents, and the business of the married women is over. The boy's head is shaved by the barber, he is bathed and taken to the dining hall where his mother seats him on her lap, and feeds him eating from the same plate. After this the boy is not allowed to eat from his mother's plate. The boy's head is again shaved, and he is bathed and taken to his father in the booth. As the lucky moment drawsnear, the friends and kinspeople asked to the ceremony meet at the house and take their seats in the booth. The father sits on a low stool placed on the altar or vedi with his face to the east, while the boy stands before him facing west, and the priests hold between them a curtain marked with a vermilion lucky cross or svastik. The boy's sister Stands behind the boy with a lighted lamp and a cocoanut in her hands. The priests repeat lucky verses and the guests throw red rice at the boy and his father. At the lucky moment the musicians redouble their noise, the curtain is drawn on one side, and the boy is girt with the sacred thread and dressed in a loin-cloth or langoti. The boy is given a deer skin to wear, a palas Butea frondosa staff is placed in his hands, and a triple sacred-grass cord or munj is wound round his waist.

The priests kindle the sacred fire on the altar and throw into the fire offerings of clarified butter sesame and seven kinds of wood. [These seven kinds are, palas Butea frondosa, khair Acacia catechu, rui Calotropis gigantea, ashvatth Ficus religiosa, umbar Ficus glomerata, dghäda Achyran-thes aspera, and shami Prosopis spicegera.] Money presents are given to the priests, and cocoanuts, betel leaves and nuts, flowers, and perfumes are handed among the assembled guests, who take their leave. At noon Brahmans and married women are feasted. In the evening the bhikshala or begging procession goes to the temple of Maruti as he is said to be the great bachelor or brahmachari, the boy attended by his priest bows before the god, and the procession returns home with music and Company. Fire-works are let off. On returning home the boy is seated on the altar or vedi, the priest sits near him, and places a bamboo basket or a winnowing fan before him. The mother of the boy comes and Stands before him on the altar. The boy says to her in Sanskrit Bhavati bhiksham dehi, Lady, give me alms, and holds the bamboo basket before her. The mother blesses him and puts sweet balls, rice, and cocoa-kernel into the basket. Other married women follow her example; the boy repeats the same words to euch, and each presents him with sweet balls or money. The Contents of the bamboo basket go to the priest who gives part of the sweetmeats to the boy and keeps the rest for himself. The ceremony ends on the fourth day, when, as on the first day, the betelnut Ganpati and the metalpot Varun are invoked and at the end laid on a bamboo winnowing fan and bowed out and the back of the fan is beaten with a stick to show that the ceremony is over, and it is time for friends and kinsfolk to leave. This practice has given rise to the Marathi phrase Sup vajle or the winnowing fan has been Struck that is All is over. The boy is now called a brahmachari that is an unwed or religious student. Widows and married women lay sandal-paste, flowers, and sweetmeats before him, present him with money, and sip the water in which his feet have been washed. Every morning and evening the boy is taught Vedic texts. After some months the samavartan or returning ceremony is performed. The boy puts off the triple sacred-grass waistcord or munj and his loincloth or langoti, puts on a silk-bordered waistcloth, a coat, a shouldercloth, a turban, and a pair of shoes, takes an umbrella, and sets out as if on a journey to Benares. The priest meets him on the way and promises to give him his daughter in marriage so that the boy may marry and become a grihasth or householder. Until after the samavartan or return ceremony is performed the boy is not affected by birth or death impurities but after the return ceremony is performed he has to remain apart for some days if any of his family had died or given birth to a child between the thread-girding and the samavartan or returning. After the return ceremony the boy may marry of not, and is subject to the rules of impurity observed by married Brahman family men.

Boys are married between eight and twenty-five and girls generally before they are twelve. As soon as a girl is live years old, her parents begin to look out for a suitable husband for her. Whenever the mother meets other women either at home or abroad her chief talk is regarding her daughter's husband and widows who move more abroad than married women are consulted as to the merits of the different boys. When a boy is chosen, the girl's horoscope is put into the hands of the boy's father either by the girl's father or through some common friend. The boy's father hands the girl's and his son's horoscopes to an astrologer, who, from his almanac teils him whether the boy's and girl's stars are in harmony and if the marriage will be lucky. The custom of Consulting and comparing horoscopes is gradually  falling into disuse as the parents of the couple hold that consideratious of dowry or good looks are more important than the agreement of stars, and settle the marriage according to the priti vivah or love form in which no consultation of horoscopes is required. Thus at present a girl is sometimes chosen for her good looks or for money and sometimes friendship determines the choice irrespective either of money or beauty. The father or some near relation of the boy is asked to the girl's house to see the girl and is welcomed by the girl's father. If any of the boy's kinswomen comes with the father she goes into the house and is received by the girl's mother. The boy's father and his friends are seated on a carpet in the veranda and the girl is called by her father. She comes out dressed in her best and sits near the boy's father with her head hung nearly between her knees through modesty and fear. One of the guests asks her, What her name is, How many brothers she has, How old she is, Whether she goes to school, What her place in the class is, and she is sometimes asked to read a piece from her book. They then tell her to look up and walk away. The boy's kinswoman strips the girl if she is under eight, or takes her bodice off if she is ten or more and examines her closely to see if she is healthy and has no bodily or mental defect. Beauty is specially attended to as it is difficult at so early an ago to conjecture what the mental attainments of the girl will be. Betel is served to the boy's father and his relations and they withdraw. As soon as the girl is fixed, the fathers of both the girl and the boy draw up an agreement regarding what money the girl's father should pay to the boy and what ornaments and dresses the boy's father should present to the girl. The lucky day for the wedding is fixed and both the families busy themselves with the wedding preparations raising booths before their houses and buying or procuring rice, pulse, and other provisions. Invitations are sent to friends and relations as before a thread-girding and the boy and girl are foasted by their kinspeople. Two or three days before the wedding day the girl's parents are treated to a dinner at the boy's as they are not to take food at their daughter's unless she is blessed with a son. A day or two before the marriage the guardian-pleasing is performed at the houses of both the boy and the girl when a betelnut Ganpati and a metalpot Varun are worshipped in a winnowing fan with sandal-paste, flowers, turmeric paste, and vermilion and the fan is set before the house gods. Friends and kinspeople meet at the houses of the boy and the girl and are treated to a dinner.

On the marriage eve the bridegroom goes with music and Company to the girl's village and halts at the local temple, lays a cocoanut before the god and bows to him. The girl's father meets him at the place with music and a band of friends and both the fathers present each other with cocoanuts. The bridegroom is seated at the temple or taken to the house of some friend of the girl's father. The guests are welcomed to a seat on the carpet and the bridegroom is worshipped by the girl's father attended by his priest, with sandal-paste, flowers, sweetmeats, and clothes. This  they call simant pujan or boundary worship. The guests are Dethasths. treated to betel, flowers, and perfumes. The women of the girl's house especially the girl's mother wash the boy's mother's feet and mark her brow with vermilion, laying in her Jap a cocoanut and bodicecloth with wheat. Other women guests are given cocoanuts and betel and the girl's party escorts the boy's party to some house in the girl's neighbourhood and return home. On the morning of the marriage, married women pound some wheat in a basket and rub the girl with turmeric paste. The married women take part of the paste that remains to the boy with music and a band of friends and rub him with it. After the turmeric-rubbing the boy is bathed and dressed in new clothes. As the lucky hour draws near the girl's friends and kinspeople, accompanied by a band of kinswomen, visit the bridegroom with music. The bridegroom is dressed in a rich suit, his brow is decked with a marriage Coronet, and he and his friends are fed with sweetmeats. The girl's mother gives him a packet of betel leaves and nut which he chews and spits into a dining dish. He mounts the wedding horse and is escorted by the bride's party to the girl's with music and a Company of friends and kinsfolk. His mother and her friends and relations follow attended by the girl's mother. On the way cocoanuts are broken and thrown away as offerings to evil spirits. On reaching the bride's the boy dismounts and his feet are washed by one of the women servants of the house. He enters the booth and is led by the bride's father to the raised earth altar or vedi. At this time the bridegroom's mother, as she must not see her future daughter-in-law till a particular mornent, feigns anger and goes to a neighbouring house. The bridegroom takes off his turban and coat but keeps his marriage Coronet on his brow and Stands near the raised altar with his face to the east. The bride is clad in a yellow waistcloth called ashtaputri and a shortsleeved backless bodice and with folded hands is seated before Gauri-har that is an image of Shiv and his wife Gauri whom she prays to give her a good husband. As the lucky moment draws near her maternal uncle takes the bride to the altar and sets her facing the bridegroom with a curtain marked with the lucky cross or svastik held between them. The bridegroom's sister Stands behind the bridegroom and the bride's sister stands behind the bride as the maids of the pair each with a lighted lamp and a cocoanut. The priest repeats lucky texts, and the guests throw red rice over the pair. The astrologer teils when the lucky moment comes, the musicians play, the curtain is drawn to the north and the couple who up to this time have been silently looking at the lucky cross or svastik, throw garlands of flowers and sweet basil or tulsi leaves round each other's necks. Thus the pair are husband and wife and the guests are given betel and flowers. The bridegroom's party retire to their place, taking stealthily with them the metal pots used in worshipping Gauri-har. The priest then hands the lucky necklace to the bridegroom who ties it round the bride's neck. This lucky necklace is of two small trinkets and green glass beads strung together by a courtezan who is called janma savashin or the unwidowed till death. After this the bride's mother prays the bridegroom's mother to go back to the bride's presenting her with a robe and sweetmeats; and the bridegroom's father and his relations are asked to dine at the bride's by the bride's father attended by music and friends. The bride's father is seated and the priest asks the bridegroom's party one by one who, in token of accepting the invitation take a pinch of red rice from the cup which the priest holds before them.

Every day during the ceremony the bride's mother presents the bridegroom's mother with uncooked provisions usually called ambon properly Sanskrit amodan or gladdening. On the marriage-feast day the marriage booth is cowdunged and low stools are set in a row, Squares of wheat flour and redpowder are traced about the low stools, and plantain leaves are laid one before each low stool with two leaf cups or droits one for clarified butter and the other for sauce or curry. When all is ready, the bridegroom's party is brought with friends and music and welcomed by the houseowner. All wash their hands and feet at a place prepared for the purpose, put on their sacred waistcloths, and take their seats on the low stools according to their rank. The bridegroom is seated at the head of the party close to his father or some relation. The bridegroom's mother goes into the house and is seated by the bride's mother on a low stool along with other married women belonging to the bridegroom's party. When all are seated a place is reserved for the bride in front of the bridegroom and frankincense sticks are burnt in the hall. The pair are told to feed each other and all begin to eat. The musicians play and the host moves through the hall praying his guests to pardon the slowness with which the feast is served. When the guests are half done the boys sing verses and the Company ends them with a chorus Sitakant smaran, or Har har Mahadev. The bridegroom after numerous entreaties from the bride's father, brothers, and other kinsmen has to recite a poem and his mother-in-law Stands anxiously behind the door of the hall to applaud him. When the dinner is over, betel is served, and the party of the bridegroom leave, a few of the women remaining at the bride's. In the women's hall, to eat the various dainties the bride's mother constantly presses the bridegroom's mother who is most difficult to please, being ready to take offence at the slightest neglect or want of attention on the part of the bride's mother. The bride is made to eat from the same plate with her mother-in-law who, as a rule, takes two to four hours to finish her meal. The bridegroom's women claiming superiority over the bride's party point out the faults of the girl's household in rhyming couplets called ukhanas, and the young girls of the bride's house answer them. The musicians play and at last the bridegroom's mother finishes her meal. She is given sugar to rub on her hands and cloves to cleanse her teeth, and after the service of betel and perfumes she leaves. Every morning during the ceremony the bridegroom and bride are seated face to face in the hall attended by the sisters and friends of each. The bride puts a roll or vidi of betel leaf between the teeth of the bridegroom who holds it fast, and the bride tries to bite it off. Some one of the bridegroom's friends gives him a push and the bride fails and is laughed at. Then the bridegroom's turn comes. Pieces of cocoa-kernel and cloves are substituted for rolls of betel leaf and the pair are facetiously warned to take care not to bite off each other's lips. The bridegroom holds fast a betelnut in his left hand and the bride tries to wrest it from him. The bride then holds a betelnut between her two hands and the bridegroom takes it from her using only his left hand. Then follows hide and seek. The bride hides a betelnut in her clothes and the bridegroom tries to find it out. If the bridegroom finds it all is well. If he fails the mischievous girls twit him and advise him to pray his wife to be good enough to give it back. Then the husband hides and the wife seeks it. If the wife finds she is applauded and if she fails she is excused. The pair then put on their bathing dress, and the sisters of each rub turmeric and fragrant oil on them. The pair go to the bathing place and are bathed, first in red water or kalasavni from four cups that are specially placed there, and then in warm water. Music plays and the pair are dressed in dry clothes. Then the bridegroom's sister goes home, and the bride's sister goes with her and asks the bridegroom's kinswomen to breakfast at the bride's. They attend and eat with the pair who feed each other from the same dish.

In the evening the bridegroom feigns anger and goes away stealthily to a neighbouring house. The bride's brother or father goes in search of him, presents him with a metal pot and sweetmeats or ladu gadus, and brings him back. He sits before the house gods and Gauri-har, and the bride, richly dressed and decked with Ornaments Stands by him with her left foot on his lap. Saffron water is sprinkled over the mango twigs near the god, and the bridegroom takes one of the images of the house gods, puts it into his pocket, and leaves the place. The pair bow before the house gods and elders and the bridegroom rnounts his horse seating the bride before him. Music plays and the procession moves from the girl's to the local temple, bows before the god, and starts for the bridegroom's. Cocoanuts are broken as before in offering to evil spirits, and fireworks are let off. When they reach the bridegroom's, the pair dismount near the door of the booth. The musicians step forward and bar the entry and go on beating their drums until, in addition to their regular wages, they exact a money present from the bridegroom's father. Then the maid who Stands at the door with an earthen pot full of water empties it at- the feet of the pair who enter the house followed by friends and relations. A measure of corn filled with wheat is placed at the door and the bride oversets it with her foot. The priest conducts the pair through the naming at which the bridegroom gives his wife a new name by which she is hereafter known in his house. Sugar is distributed among the guests, and they are told the bride's new name. The bride is given a cup of milk and the bridegroom drinks what is left from the same pot. Meanwhile his sister has tied the skirts of their garments, and refuses to unto the knot until the pair utter each other's names. The bridegroom at once says his wife's name but the bride hides it in some such couplet, The sweet basil plant lay at the door and I watered it ; first I was the darling of my parents, now I am the queen of Ramrav. [The Marathi runs: Dari hoti tulas, tila ghatil hote pani ; Pratham hote aibapachi tanhi, ata jhale Ramravachi rani.] The other married women present are not allowed to leave the place until they repeat their husbands' names. A wooden measure or a metal pot is brought from the store room. The bridegroom's mother tries to empty it and the bride to keep it full till at last she lays her hand on an ornament which has been hidden in the grain. The bride's mother leaves one of her relations with the bride because she is very young and a stranger said in jest to be living sasurvas that is in the midst of six knives, the father and mother-in-law, the brother and sister-in-law, the husband's sister, and the husband. Next day the couple are bathed at the bridegroom's and the friends and relations of the bride are feasted.

The next is the last day of the ceremony when the bride's mother asks the bridegroom's mother and sisters to her house and bathes them. The married women of the bridegroom's house dress in white and with music and a band of friends go to the bride's accompanied by the bride's mother. As they leave the house, the washerman spreads his cloth or payghadi on the road and the bridegroom's mother and relations walk over it. A long round about way is chosen, and, on the way, low stools are placed in order that the bridegroom's mother and her party may rest if weary. If they halt they are given turmeric powder and redpowder to rub on their bodies and cocoanuts and wheat are laid in their laps. Now and then redpowder is thrown over them, and, before reaching the bride's house they are red from head to foot. On reaching the house they are bathed in warm water and new glass bangles are put on their wrists. A piece of silver is put in the metal pot, the water in the pot is boiled, and the coin goes to the servant. All bathe and go home. Sometimes the bridegroom's mother is seated on a swing which is gently swung. As it moves women servants standing on either side pour water over her. She then sings a song with the chorus, The desires of the heart are not fulfilled, oh friend. [The Marathi runs: Nahi manichi haus purali, sakhi ga.] On that day the bridegroom's party are feasted with stuffed wheat cakes or karanjas and patvadis or rolls of gram flour. After dinner the guests dress in rich clothes and seat themselves on carpets. Betel is served and saffron water sprinkled on their shouldercloths. The pair remove each other's marriage-threads and put them in a pot filled with milk. The women take away the earthen pots round the altar or vedi and also the canopy over it. The earth altar or vedi remains and seeds and creepers are planted on it at the beginning of the rains that the family of the bride and bridegroom may grow and spread like the creepers. Bathings and dinners continue at the bridegroom's on the eighth and sixteenth and at the bride's on the tenth and thirteenth. On the anniversary of the marriage the bride's father gives a dinner to the bridegroom and presents him with a gold ring or a waistcloth. Early marriage and polygamy are allowed and practised among Deshasth Brahmans, polyandry is unknown, and widow marriage is forbidden on pain of loss of caste.

On the morning of the first Fig Tree or Jyeshth that is June-July full-moon after the wedding, when all married women worship the fig tree or vat to secure long life to their husbands, the newly married couple are bathed and seated on low stools. The priest attends and music plays. The young wife lays sandal, flowers, turmeric, and vermilion before a picture of the banian drawn on the wall, burns frankincense, presents five special offerings or vayans to five unwidowed women, each offering including a wooden comb, two small turmeric and vermilion boxes, a pair of glass bangles, a piece of bodicecloth, and some wheat or rice, all laid in a bamboo tray. If the young wife is at her mother's she has to distribute to Brahmans five more special offerings or vayans given to her by her mother-in-law. In the evening she has to listen to a Brahman puranik or reader who reads the tale of Savitri and her husband Satyavan, at the house of some rich lady or at the village temple. The young wife has to eat nothing on that day but light food or pharal and next morning after bathing breaks her fast with ordinary food. In the month of Ashadh and Shravan or July and August the pair interchange presents of toys. On every Tuesday in Shravan the new wife and her husband worship the goddess of luck or Mangalagauri and Gauri's husband Shiv whom she invokes on the previous day, offering him a handful of gram called shivmuth or Shiv's handful. If the young wife meets any unforeseen obstacles, as illness or mourning on the first Monday in Shravan, she puts off the worship till the next Shravan. In the morning, with girl friends she goes to fetch flowers and leaves or patris, and a silver image of the goddess Annapurna or the food-supplier is brought from the goldsmith and laid on a low stool. The pair are bathed and seated on two low stools, the girl to the right of the boy in front of the goddess before whom they lay sandal paste, flowers, leaves, and food, burn frankincense, and wave lights. Other married girls join the newly married pair and worship the goddess and are treated to a dinner at the girl's. Before dinner the girls exchange copper coins and plates and remain strictly silent during dinner. Mischievous boys keep Coming in and with numberless questions and devices try to make the girls break the golden rule of silence. After the meal is over the girls chew tulsi or basil leaves and begin to talk as usual. In the evening the young wife does not eat her usual food but takes a light repast or pharal with other girls who are asked to the house and with whom she passes the night repeating the tale or kahani of Mangalagauri and playing games. At dawn all bathe, lay flowers, vermilion, and food before the goddess and bow her out, take a slight breakfast, and sleep. Every girl worships Mangalagauri in Shravan or July-August for five years after her marriage.

On the third day of Bhadrapad or August- September, the newly married wife worships Hartalika, fasts the whole day and night from all food but fruit, passes the night with other girls in playing games, and breaks her fast early next morning. When the sun enters the thirteenth constellation of the Zodiac called Hast or the Elephant, newly married girls fasten on a wall in the house a piece of paper marked with pictures of elephants facing each other with garlands in their trunks and with men and women dressed as kings and queens in cars on their backs. As long as the sun is in the Elephant or Hast, married girls meet and sing and dance before a low stool in the hall, marked with wheat or rice figures of elephants. Some day a light feast or bhatukali ia given to the girl by her friends and relations. On the eighth of Ashvin during the first five years after her wedding the young wife has to worship Mahalakshmi. Married girls who are asked to the house meet and worship an embossed image of Annapurna or the food-supplier at noon, and at night a large sitting or standing female figure of dough is made, set in the hall, and decked with gold and silver Ornaments. Flowers, vermilion, and food are laid before the goddess, and the girls taking small metal or earthen jars make music by blowing across the jar mouths and dance in a circle before the goddess. During the dance, one of the girls begins to blow the jar and dances better than the rest, a sure sign that the goddess has entered into her. She presently sways her hands and is seized with the power of the goddess. Her friends ply her with questions and for some time the goddess in the girl answers the questions. Then the goddess leaves her and the girl falls in a swoon. On the bright tenth of Ashvin or September-October, the newly married girl's husband is asked to dine at the girl's father's and presents the girl's family with apta Bauhinia racemosa leaves which on that day are called gold. On his return from crossing the boundary or simollanghan the girl waves a light round her husband who presents her with gold Ornaments and apta leaves. On Divali in October-November the new son-in-law is asked to bathe and dine at his father-in-law's. On the bright first or padva before or after the meal, the young wife waves a light round her husband and is presented with gold Ornaments. Next day he calls his wife's brother to dine at his house, his wife waves a light round her brother, and is presented with a robe and bodice and some money called ovalni or the waving gift. On the day of Makar Sankrant or the twelth of January, for the first five years after her wedding, a newly married girl presents her friends with pieces of sugarcane and sweetmeat called halva. Brähman unwidowed women are asked to the house and each is given an earthen jar or sugad covered with a bodicecloth. For nine years after the age-coming ceremony a girl presents five married pairs with five rolls of betel leaves, each roll of nine leaves nine betelnuts nine cloves nine cardamoms nine pieces of mace and nine nutmegs. Next day or Kinkrant seven rolls of betel leaves are served to seven married Brahman women. On this day all married women meet at the village temple or at the house of some rich lady and present each other with turmeric-paste and vermilion or halad kunku. Their laps are filled with wet gram and collyrium is rubbed on their eyes. In the month of Chaitra or April, married women hold the ceremony of halad kunku, or turmeric and vermilion when a female figure or mask is set in the women's hall and called Annapurna or the food-supplier. It is decked with flowers and lights are set before it. Women neighbours and friends are asked and presented with vermilion and turmeric, and wet gram and fruit are aid in their laps. This is done at every house. During the whole month women are busy paying visits to neighbours and relations followed by Kunbi maidservants loaded with wet gram. To women vermilion or kunku is very sacred. If the supply in the vermilion box is finished instead of saying it is done they say it has increased. [The Marathi is, Kunku dabit vadhale ahe.] The bright third of Vaishakh or May is the last day of the halad Kunku or turmeric and vermilion ceremony when the goddess Deshasths. Gauri is said to go to her mother's house or maher. On this day a married woman is feasted at every house and women friends and neighbours are presented with turmeric, vermilion, and betel. Next day the goddess is said to go to her husband's and remain there till New Year's Day or Varsh Padva 'in Chaitra or April.

When a girl comes of age, a man-servant with a dish filled with packets of sugar is sent to the houses of friends and relations. He visits every house, hands the head of the house one of the sugar packets, and teils him the glad news that the girl has come of age. If the girl is at her father's, a servant carries the news to her husband's with a packet of sugar and a cocoanut and is presented with a turban or waistcloth or some money. As soon as the good news is spread among the girl's husband's friends they tease him with demands of sweetmeats or pedhas in honour of the birth of a dumb son or muka mulga as the wife's coming of age is generally called. A gaily decked wooden frame is prepared, a square is mark-ed in it, and a low stool set in the Square; the girl is decked with jewels and seated in the Square, and a Maratha woman attends her day and night, Every morning she is given turmeric and vermilion, music plays, and a cocoanut and wheat are laid in her lap. Women friends and neighbours feed the girl with sweet dishes which they prepare at their homes, and lay a bodicecloth, wheat, and a cocoanut in her lap presenting her with turmeric and vermilion. The girl is rubbed with sweet-scented oil and turmeric and bathed on the morning of the fourth day and is pure. The marriage consummation or garbhadhan is performed on a lucky day before the sixteenth day after the age-coming. On the morning of the lucky day, to the sound of music, the pair are rubbed with turmeric and oil and bathed by married women. Both go to the god-room and lay a cocoanut, bow before the gods and the elders, and ask their Messing. Married friends and neighbours are asked to the house. The pair are seated on two low stools the girl to the right of the boy, and by the aid of the priest they lay sandal, flowers, and sweetmeats before the metal-pot Varun and the betelnut Ganpati, and kindle the sacred fire. If the girl's sickness begins at an unlucky time, to remove calamities and troubles, the quieting of Bhuvaneshvari or Bhuvaneshvari shanti [Details are given in the Chitpavan customs in the Poona Statistical Account.] is performed, and a sacred fire is lit. The pair then make a cooked rice ball, offer it to the spirit, and bathe in water poured by the priest through a sieve or rovali from Bhuvaneshvari's pot. They dress in fresh clothes and perform the holy-day blessing or punyahavachan with the same details as before the marriage, bow to the house gods and elders, and are seated before the sacred fire. The fire is kindled and rice cooked over it, and the boy places the rice with a few mango leaves on his right. The boy feeds the sacred fire with rice and the girl pours clarified butter over it. When the Service of the sacred fire is over they wash their hands and sit on the low stools as before. The boy's sister hands the boy a quantity of bent grass or durva pounded, wetted, and tied in a piece of white cotton, and he, standing behind the girl and drawing back her head between his knees, with his left hand gently lifts herchin and with his right hand squeezes into her right nostril enough bent grass juice to pass into her throat. The girl leaves her seat, washes her hands and feet, and takes her seat as before to the right of her husband. The boy then touches either her breast or one of her Shoulders and lays in her lap a cocoanut, some wheat, a betelnut, and a turmeric root. Women friends and neighbours lay articles in her lap and present her with clothes and Ornaments. When the lap-filling is over the boy whispers his name into the girl's right ear, money is presented to the priest who leaves with a blessing on the heads of the pair, and the pair with the hems of their garments knotted together, bow before the house gods and eiders. Married men and women are asked to dine at the house at noon. The girl who is considered to be pure, dresses in a silk cloth called mukta which she is to wear thenceforth at her every-day meals, is given a cup of butter, and serves its contents to the guests. At night friends and kinspeople meet at the house after supper, and a room is lighted and furnished with cushions and carpets for the guests to sit on. Both the boy and the girl are presented with fine clothes and ornaments which they put on and are seated on the carpet spread in the room. The girl washes her husband's feet in warm water with the aid of her elder sister or some friend and on his feet paints vermilion and turmeric shoes. The women dress a cylindrical stone-pin in a bodice, call it Gopala, and bring it in. This they call the future son and ask the girl to hand it to her husband. She gives it to him saying, Please take care of this child, I am going to fetch water. The boy says You keep the child, I am going to my business. Then the married women repeat their husband's names, the stone-pin is placed in the boy's hands, and the guests withdraw. The bedding is spread and water mixed with saffron is sprinkled over it. Close to the bed are set a lamp, a metal waterpot, a metal plate for betel leaves with a nutcracker, a betel-leaf can called panpuda, lime and catechu boxes, betel leaves, nuts, cardamoms, cloves, and nutmeg. The servant who prepared the bedding is presented with a turban. The boy is already in the room and at the lucky moment, the girl who feigns great unwillingness is dragged to the door and pushed in by her female friends, and the door is closed after her. She then drinks a little from a cup of milk and hands the cup to her husband who drinks it and chews the betel which his wife serves to him. Lastly they eat a piece of cocoanut and sugarcandy and go to bed. Next morning the girl's mother brings rice, wheat, a cocoanut, packets of vermilion and turmeric, puts them in the girl's lap, and presents her with uncooked provisions enough to feed twenty people.

During her first pregnancy, the girl is given a longing feast or dohale jevan and friends and kinsfolk ask her to dine. When a Deshasth is on the point of death, he is laid on a white country blanket or ghongdi and a basil leaf or gold and some holy water are put in his mouth. If the son is present he takes the dying head on His lap, and, when all is over, the women sit round the dead wailing and weeping. The dead is laid on a their and taken to the burning ground by four kinsmen preceded by the chief mourner with the firepot in his hand. If kinsmen are not available Brahmans are hired to carry the body to the burning ground. As soon as the dead is removed, those who remain at home dig a pit on the spot where the dead breathed his last, set in the hole a lighted lamp facing south, and keep the burning lamp for ten days. The village Mhars who take cowdung cakes to the burning ground are paid 3s. to 6s. (Rs.1½- 3). A pile is heaped, the body is laid on it, and burnt with the same rites as among the Poona Chitpavans. A married woman who dies before her husband is bathed in warm water, her hair is smoothed with butter, her body is rubbed with turmeric, and her brow is marked with vermilion. She is dressed in a new robe and bodice, the lucky necklace is tied round her neck, toerings are put round her toes, and her hair is decked with flowers. A betel roll squeezed between the palms of two hands is put in her mouth, and a cocoanut, wheat, and packets of turmeric and vermilion are laid in her lap. Married women are presented with rice cocoanuts and packets of turmeric and vermilion, and the body is laid on the bier, carried to the burning ground, and burnt. Widows are treated in the same way as men; they are not entitled to the honours shown to married women. Deshasths have a caste Council. The Brahman caste Council includes the available men of the Chitpavan, Deshasth, and Karhada castes and settle social disputes at caste meetings or according to the votes of learned men or shastris. Smaller breaches of social rules are punished by the caste Council and serious breaches are referred to the Smart Pontiff Shankaracharya of Sankeshvar. The Pontiff still gets his dues from his followers but his power is growing weaker day by day. They send their boys to school and are a steady class.

VAISHNAVS, or Madhya Brahmans, are returned as numbering about 300 and as found in all sub-divisions. They are said to have come from the Bombay Karnatak within the last hundred years. Their home tongue is Kanarese and out of doors they speak Marathi. They live in one or two-storeyed houses with brick walls and tiled roofs. In look food dress and social and religious customs they do not differ from the Madhva Brahmans of Dharvrar. [Details are given in the Dharwar Statistical Account.] They are landowners and as a class are rich.

Devrukhas.

Devrukha's, or People of Devrukh in Ratnagiri, are returned as numbering seventy-six and as found over the whole State except in Alta, Ichalkaranji, and Kagal. Both men and women are dark, strong, regular featured, and well made. They are generally husbandmen and house servants, and most of them are poor. In food dress and customs they are like Karhada Brahmans. As a class they are hardworking and thrifty. The local Deshasths look down on them as to dine with a Devrukha is considered unlncky. They send their boys to school.

Dravids.

Dravids, or Southerners, are returned as numbering thirty-eight, and as found in the town of Kolhapur. They are said to have come to Kolhapur within the last hundred years. Their home tongue is Tamil and they speak Marathi abroad. They are dark strong and well built, and in food drink and dwelling resemble local Deshasths. The men dress in a waistcloth, shouldercloth, shirt, coat, and turban; the women wear a long Maratha robe and bodice with a back and short sleeves. Unlike local Brahman women, Dravids do not gather the folds of their robe in front but fasten them to the left of the waistband and let them fall down the left leg. They pass one end of their robe between the feet and tuck it into the waistband behind, covering it with the other end which they pass over the right Shoulder and below the left arm. Men whose parents are alive shave the head except the topknot and the face except the moustache, but fatherless men shave the face clean. The women plait their hair in braids like local Brahman women and have a similar store of clothes and ornaments. Most are landholders and are well off. Their hereditary calling is to recite the Veds, and to read Purans and legends and to practise as priests. A few are moneylenders and medical practitioners, and some are State servants. They worship all Brahmanic and local deities and keep the regular fasts and feasts. Their priests belong to their own class and they do not ask other Brahmans to conduct their ceremonies. Their customs are the same as Deshasth customs except that Dravids have no raised altars or bahules at their thread-girding or marriage, and defer the samavartan or removing of the kush grass cord, tied at the time of thread-girding about the boy's waist, to the day of his marriage. They have begun to send their boys to school but not their girls, and are fairly off.

Golaks.

Golaks, [Details of Golak customs are given in the Sholapur Statistical Account.] or Bastards, are returned as numbering 192 and as found all over the State except in Alta and Bhudargad. They are divided into four classes, those born of a Brahman widow, those of an unmarried Brahman girl, Kund Golaks born of a Brahman widow who had remarried, and Rand Golaks of a Brahman woman who was guilty of adultery during her husband's life. The first two are now included in the last two. They are middle-sized fair and regular featured, but not so clean as other Brahmans and are not well-to-do. They are moneylenders shopkeepers and husbandmen.

Gujaratis.

Gujara't Brahmans are returned as numbering thirty-six and as found in the sub-divisions of Gadinglaj, Ichalkaranji, Kagal, Karvir, and Shirol. They are not permanent residents and have come into the district either for trade or to serve as priests to Gujarat Vanis. They remain in the district for a short time, and return home as soon as their business is over or to marry their children. They are servants, beggars, and priests to local Gujarat Vanis. In look food dress and customs they resemble their brethren in Poona and Bombay. They perform the daily worship of their patrons' house- gods and are a poor class.

Kanaujs.

Kanaujs are returned as numbering thirty-two and as found in the town of Kolhapur. They have come from Upper India and are employed under the State either as soldiers or as watchmen, returning to their native country to marry and when they grow old. They cook their own food and their staple food is wheat flour and clarified butter. They do not allow any one even of their own caste to touch their food and do not eat food cooked by others. They belong to the Panchgaud section of Brahmans and are faithful and brave. [Details of Kanauj customs are given in the Poona Statistical Account.]

Karhadas.

Karha'das are returned as numbering 3659 and as found in small numbers over the whole State. They are new settlers and most of them have come from Belgaum, Ratnagiri, and Satara. In look food dress and social and religious customs they are the same as Poona Karhadas. They live in one or two-storeyed houses with. brick walls and tiled roofs and are State servants, landholders, traders, moneylenders, and beggars. They are fairly off and a rising class.

Madhyandins.

Madhyandins, or Midday Worshippers, are returned as numbering seventy-nine and as found in small numbers in all parts of Kolhapur. The number given in the census is much below the real number as many return themselves as Deshasths as unless specially questioned they try to pass as Deshasths. The chief of Vishalgad and the hereditary priest or guru of the Kolhapur family are Madhyandins. They are so called because while other Deshasths perform their twilight or sandhya worship at sunrise, Madhyandins as a rule perform it at midday. They are a subdivision of Yajuryedi Deshasths and are darker and stronger than the Rigvedi section of Deshasths. In look food drink and dress they resemble local Deshasth Brahmans. In character they are like Deshasths except that Madhyandins are lazier and more extravagant. They are divided into two sections Vajsaneyas and Kanvas who eat together but do not intermarry, and resemble each other in all points except in their thread-girding and marriage customs. Among the Känvas, as soon as the bridegroom and bride are brought together, before a metal pot or kalash are laid sandal-paste, flowers, and some money in the name of the sage Yajnyavalkya the author of the Yajurved. The priests as a rule are given the money offered to the sage and will not go on with the ritual unless the houseowner lays £1 to £4 (Rs. 10-40) before the metal pot. This takes place at the thread-girding also, The well-to-do among them live in large mansions, use carriages and horses, and have servants and cattle; others live in one or two-storeyed houses with brick walls and tiled roofs and keep cattle, They are landlords, petty traders, money-lenders, State servants, and beggars or priests. Among other Brahmanic and local gods and goddesses they worship Ambabai, Bahirav, and Vindhyavasini, and keep all Brahmanic fasts and feasts. All their social and religious. customs are the same as Deshasth customs. They send their boys to school and are a rising class.

Savashas.

Sava'sha's [Details of the origin of the Savashas are given in the Bijapur Statistical Account.] are returned as numbering sixty-one and as found only in the sub-divisions of Kagal and Karvir. They say they have come from Satara but when and why they do not know. They are divided into Smarts and Vaishnavs. The following particulars apply to Vaishnavs as Smarts are seldom found in Kolhapur. Their names for men are Vyankatesh or Vishnu and for women Lakshmi. They are moneylenders and changers and the men add naik or leader to their names. Their surnames are Bhure, Chipde, Inkara, Karnatki, Kolbage, Sarade, Shikhre, and Shiralkar. Their home tongue is Marathi and their family gods are Khandoba, Narsinh, Shaligram, and Vyankoba of Tirupati in North Arkot. They are fair strong and middle sized, the women being fairer than the men and graceful. In food and dress they resemble Vaishnav Deshasths and are cleaner and neater than local Deshasths. As a class they are quiet and hardworking, but not thrifty. They are moneylenders and changers and priests and never take to service. They rank below Deshasths and have their own priests to conduct their ceremonies. Their religious teacher is a Vaishnav Pontiff called Raghavendracharya of Maisur. Like the Vaishnav Deshasths they are branded by their Pontiff with red-hot seals or tapt mudras. In caste mattera their pontiff's decision is final. Their social and religious customs are nearly the same as those of Vaishnav Deshasths. They send their children to school, but do not take to new pursuits and are fairly off.

Shenvis.

Shenvis are returned as numbering 2916 and as found all over the State especially in Ajre and Bhudargad. They are middle-sized, fair, and well made and the women thin, tall, and graceful. Both men and women dress like local Brahmans, and the women tie their hair in a back knot and are fond of using flowers and false hair. In food character and customs they resemble their brethren in Kanara and Ratnagiri. They are landholders, State servants, and moneylenders, and as a class are well-to-do.

Telangs.

Telangs are returned as numbering twenty-eight and as found in Karvir, Gadinglaj, and Ichalkaranji. They are wandering mendicants and none are permanently settled in the State. They are dark like other Yajurvedi Deshasths and speak Telugu at home and a corrupt Marathi abroad. They do not differ from local Deshasths in food drink or dress, and usually live in some temple or traveller's rest-house. They are great eaters and are specially fond of sour dishes. They earn their living by begging and by selling sacred threads. Some of them are very clever in repeating the Veds and many sing ashtpadis or eight-lined sonnets of Jaydev to the accompaniment of the lyre and the double drum called tabla, and some are puraniks or readers, who read and explain Sanskrit legends in temples. Telangs are proverbially unbidden guests. Whenever they hear that a feast is to be given, they appear at the host's with-out being asked and will not go until the host admits at least one or two of their number to the feast. They show the same sturdiness in exacting money at thread-girdings. The only class whom they are afraid to pester are Karhadas. They have no scruples about accepting any gifts or attending dinners on the eleventh day after a death.

Tirguls.

Tirguls are returned as numbering 107 and as found scattered over the State. They have no tale either of their origin or of their arrival in Kolhapur. Some say they are degraded Dashasths, while, according to others, they are degraded Shenvis. They are betel vine growers, and in look, food, dress, character, and customs resemble their brethren in Poona and Ahmadnagar. [Details of the Tirgul Brahman customs are given in the Poona and Ahmadnagar Statistical Accounts.]

WRITERS.

Prabhus.

Prabhus, or Lords, are returned as numbering 286 and as found scattered over the whole State. They are of two classes Kayasth Prabhus and Patana Prabhus. Most Kolhäpur Prabhus are Käyasths. Shivaji (1627-1680) had great faith in Prabhus and raised them to high military and civil posts. The Kolhapur Kayasth Prabhus are believed to have come from the Konkan and Satara since the rise of the Maratha state of Kolhapur (1710). The few Patana or Bombay Prabhus are said to have come during the last fifty years. Of the origin of the Kayasth Prabhus the books give three accounts. According to the Padma Puran they are descended from Chitragupt who was created by Brahma to record the actions of mankind; according to the Renuka Mahatmya of the Skand Puran they represent a Kshatriya king of Oudh named Chandrasen; and according to an account given in the Shudra Kamlakar, which is probably a Brahman play on the word parbhu or bastard a corruption of the word prabhu or lord, they are descended from a Kshatriya and his mistress. The Patana Prabhus claim a Rajput. origin. It seems probable that they represent Rajput Settlements from Anhilvada-Patan in North Gujarat (A. D. 1139) along the Thana coast near Bombay. The Patana Prabhus properly have no surnames, though of late they have begun to copy the Maratha practice. Among Kayasth Prabhus Dikshit, Garud, Gholkar, Khatik, Pradhan, Raje, Shringarpure, Tamhne, and other surnames are in use. They have also family names from offcial titles as Chitnis, Jamnis, Karkhannis, Pharasnis, Phadnis, and Sabhasad. The two classes of Prabhus differ little in appearance. As a rule the Patanas are larger, darker, more robust, and manly; some Kayasths are unusually fair and delicate featured. Their women are middle-sized, fair, and goodlooking. Their home speech is Marathi. The Kayasth Marathi differs little from the Chitpavan's and the Patana's home speech is marked by the use of Gujarati Portuguese and English words. Though there is no caste objection to the eating of fish and flesh, most Kolhapur Prabhus live like Brahmans on rice, pulse, and vegetables. They dress like Brahmans and wear the same Ornaments. They are clean, neat, hardworking, and faithful. The Kayasths are given to the worship of local goddesses rather than of the regular deities. In other respects their religious rites, fasts, and feasts, and their social customs differ little from those of Marathas and Maratha Brahmans. Social disputes are settled by the elders of the caste. They send their boys and some of their girls to school and are well-to-do. [A detailed account of Prabhus is given in the Poona Statistical account.]

Marathas.

FIGHTING CLASSES.

Fighting Classes of whom there are two Marathas and Rajputs have a strength of 63,787 or 8.32 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Fighting Classes, 1881.

DIVISIONS.	Males.	Females.	Total.
Marathas	31,506	30,781	62,287
Rajputs	788	712	1500
Total	32,294	31,493	63,787

Marathas are returned as numbering 62,287 and as found over the whole State. The Kolhapur Marathas have a special interest as their head the Maharaj of Kolhapur is the only representative of Shivaji the founder of the Maratha power. As in other parts of the Bombay Deccan the fighters among the Marathi-speaking middle classes claim to be called Marathas. Some families perhaps have an unusually large strain of northern or Rajput blood, but as a class Marathas cannot be distinguished from Marathi-speaking Deccan Kunbis with whom all eat and the poorer intermarry. The names in common use among men are Chandrarav, Janojirav, Manajirav, Prataprav, Suryajiray, and Udajirav, and among women Bayajabai, Hansabai, Lalubai, Pritabai, Rajasbai, and Sakvarbai. Many men affect Rajput names as Jaysing, Ramsing, and Phattesing and others have Kunbi names as Esba, Gyanba, and Narba. Kolhapur Marathas claim to belong to four branches or vanshas, Brahma vansh or the Brahma branch, Shesh vansh or the Serpent branch, Som vansh or the Moon branch, and Surya vansh or the Sun branch. as full a list of Maratha surnames [Several Maratha surnames are interesting as they include the names, and in some cases apparently preserve the true or un-Sanskritised forms of the names, of many of the early Deccan Hindu dynasties of whom all trace has passed from the Deccan caste lists. Among these dynastic names are Cholke perhaps the original form of Chalukya for long (560-1190) the rulers of the Deccan and Karnatak; Kadam which seems to be the same as Kadamba the name of dynasties, who, at different times between the sixth and the thirteenth Century ruled the Karnatak, Kolhapur, and Goa; More who probably represent the Mauryas a branch of the great North Indian family of that name who ruled the Konkan and Deccan in the sixth Century; Salunke, which seems to belong to latecomers, perhaps followers of the Solanki rulers of Gujarat (943 -1240); Shelar, which seems to preserve the original form of the name of the Silahara family Who ruled in the Konkan and West Deccan from about 850 to 1275; and Yadav, whose most famous Deccan family was of Devgiri or Daulatabad, who were in power and during much of the time supreme in the Deccan from about 1170 till the Musalman conquest in 1290. as far as is known the Devgiri Yadavs passed from the south northwards, and it is possible they were not northerners but belonged to some southern Kurubar or other shepherd tribe, who, under Brahman influence, adopted the great northern shepherd name of Yadav. The preservation of these old dynastic names suggests the hope that an enquiry into the strength and distribution of the clans which bear them might throw light on the strength of the northern element in the Marathas. This hope seems idle. Almost all the leading tribal surnames Cholke, More, Povar, Selar, and Yadav are found, besides among Kunbis who do not appreciably differ from Marathas, among Kolis, Dhangars, Ramoshis, Malis (who are Kunbis), Mhars, Mangs, and several wandeing tribes, classes whichseem to be but slightly connected. The existence of the same clan name in most middle and low-class Deccan Hindus might be due to the fact that these clans or tribes came into the Deccan as nations or communities complete enough to spread a fresh layer of people over the whole country. The case of the Vanjaris, whose great bands formerly included many classes of craftsmen and who still have Lohars and Mhare among them, shows that this is not impossible. At the same time the evidence against sameness of surname proving sameness of tribe or race is so strong as to make such widespread immigration improbable. The case of the Poona Uchlas or slit-pockets, all of whom are either Gaikvads or Jadhavs, proves that sameness of surname by no means implies sameness of tribe or race. Uchlas are recruited from all except the impure classes, being joined, besides by Marathas and Kamathis, by Brahmans Marwaris and Musalmans, and all recruits whatever their caste are adopted either into the Gaikvad or into the Jadhav clan. The evidence presented by the Uchlas is supported in a less extreme form by the general Deccan practice of calling a chief's retainers by their Chiefs surname. This practice, together with the case of the Uchlas who supply almost the last trace of the old system of recruiting predatory tribes, seems to show that the possession of northern surnames is no proof of a northern origin or even of a strain of northern blood. It probably usually arose, like the possession of the Norman names of Gordon and Campbell by the Scotch Keltic highlandera, from the practice of followers taking or being given the name of their chief.] or adnavs as could be procured numbering in all about 500 names, is given in the appendix. Of these the following are said to be the surnames in commonest use among Kolhapur Marathas: Bhonsle, Chavan, Gavde, Ghatge, Ghorpade, Gujar, Ingle, Jagdale, Kadam, Kale, Kharde, Magar, Mohite, Nalavde, Phadtare, Povar, Rananavre, Salunke, Shende, Sinde, Sisode, Sitole, Suryavanshe, and Yadav. Besides its surname every Maratha family has its devak or family guardian, of which as complete a list as could be obtained is given in the appendix. In matters of marriage the guardian is more important than the surname and sameness of surname alone does not bar marriage. as a rule Marathas are middle-sized, regular featured, and better made than Maratha Brahmans, a few are handsome and warlike, but as a rule except that they are fairer and better mannered they cannot be known from Kunbis. The women are often fairer and slenderer than Kunbi women. Both at home and abroad they speak Marathi almost as correctly as Brahmans, and some of them speak Kanarese fluently but not correctly. as a rule Marathas live in fairly aired and lighted middle class houses two or three storeys high with stone and burnt brick walls and tiled roofs. The entrance door, which is often spacious and imposing and furnished with a small room called devdi for guards or watchmen, opens on a yard in which is a cattle-shed and a stable for horses. One or two rooms in the upper storey and one or two in the ground floor are whitewashed and well painted and decorated with pictures of Ganpati and Shiv, and fancy pictures of gymnasts wrestling, of a war ship, or two tigers and a huntsman. These rooms are used for receptions and business. Other rooms are set apart for dining, keeping Stores, sleeping, and cooking; and at the back of the house is a sweet basil or tulas pillar. The privy is sometimes in the back of the yard and sometimes near the entrance. Except a few special apartments the house is seldom clean or tidy. The houses of poor Marathas are smaller and have fewer rooms. The house goods of the ordinary Maratha include a small store of metal waterpots, dining dishes, and cooking vessels,low wooden stools, cots, and pestles or musals, stone slabs or patas, pins or varvantas, and grindstones, beds, blankets, and quilts. Middle class houses have a large store of metal vessels and lampstands, low wooden stools, wooden frames or devaras for gods, cots, boxes, bedding, blankets, carpets, mortars and pestles, cradles, and bullock carts. Besides these well-to-do Marathas have silver cups and plates and scented oil-pots, large metal waterpots, and cooking vessels for grand feasts and brass oil-jars or budhlis, chairs, tables, benches, cupboards, stools, palanquins, shigrams or dog-carts or phaetons, bedding, Persian carpets or galichas, bed Covers, and pillows of various kinds, candlesticks, wallshades, looking-glasses, wooden and ivory toys, and embroidered wall hangings. [The articles in use in the mansions and palaces of the Maratha chiefs of Kolhapur are: gold and silver waterpots, plates simple and engraven, pots for the worship of the house gods, attar pans, staffs carried by bards and mace-bearers or chopdars, tree-like Stands with holes for holding cotton soaked in scented oil, twilight or sandhya worship pots, spoons, betel cases or panpudas, flywhisk or chauri handles, crest Ornaments of royal parasols or abdagirs, nutcrackers, lampstands or samais, large bathing vessels, chairs, cots, elephant cars or haudas, frames for housegods, palanquins with their stands, and horse and elephant housings and trappings. The number of gold vessels is small compared to that of silver, and brass and copper vessels are found in great abundance in addition to a large store of stone and wooden furniture and bedding. ] Marathas are fond of pets, and rear dogs monkeys and parrots. The staple food of well-to-do Marathas is wheat cakes, rice, split pulse, clarified butter, and vegetables and condiments; middle class families on ordinary days eat rice, millet bread, sambhare or liquid pulse seasoned with chillies, spices and salt, and vegetables; the daily food of the poor is millet bread, chopped chillies, and pulse sauce. All eat flesh and fish. The well-to-do eat mutton or fowls daily. Middle class families use them about once a week, while the poor use them only occasionally on Dasara in September -October and Shimga in March, and during marriages. Marathas seldom use liquor though no caste rule forbids either liquor or narcotics. They eat the usual kinds of flesh except beef and pork. at the houses of the well-to-do the food is cooked and served generally by servants called savalekaris or clean men, and in middle and poor families the women cook and serve the food. Before dining Marathas are careful to bathe and put on a fresh-washed cotton waistcloth. The elderly men of the house lay sandal, flowers, and sweetmeats before the house-gods, water the sweet basil, bow to the sun, and sip a little water in which a basil leaf has been dipped. all the men of the family sit in a line on low stools each with a fresh-scoured metal waterpot or tambya and a cup or pela to his right, and a metal or leaf plate before him with one or two cups for sauce and clarified butter. At home a Maratha eats bare to the waist; in Company and on festive occasions he dines without taking off any article of dress. Women take their food after the men, but the Brahman practice of eating from their husband's plate is not strictly kept.

The men cut the head hair close and wear the moustache and whiskers but not the beard. Some keep the topknot and earknots and shave the rest of the head leaving a clean shaven passage between the knots gradually narrowing from the brow to the centre as and again growing wider till it reaches the back of the head above the neck. In many heads this passage is wholly or partly blocked by the bunch of hair on the crown of the head. The women dress their hair with much care, either tying it in a back knot or buchada or plaiting it in a braid which they wear in an open circle at the back of the head. They use false hair and are fond of decking their hair with flowers. The men dress in a turban, a coat, a shouldercloth, and a waistcloth, trousers; or short drawers called cholnas. Instead of the turban they often wear a headscarf called rumal if about three to four yards or a Patka if ten to fifteen yards long. Maratha turbans are folded in one of two leading styles Sindeshai or Sindia fashion the style in use in the Gwalior court and Pathani because it is like the Pathan headdress. The Sindeshai turban is an elaborate piece of work, folds arranged so as to present all round a sharp ridge which shades the ears with conical protruding wings. The front is a circular convex ridge wider and more solid near the middle forehead, and sharply depressed near the corners to distinguish it from the adjoining ear wings. The hind part is like the front except that the folds are not twisted and are less elaborately arranged. Twisted bands are passed above, below, and across the surrounding ridge and the two gold ends are fixed at the top near the two wings. Some men wear the turban so that the two wings come within an inch of the ears and many consider it fashionable to place the turban jauntily on the left ear, and make its position secure by passing a twisted band lightly round the side where the ear is left free, allowing the raised wing on that side to show all its twisted and well arranged folds. The folds and twists are fixed by the aid of water or pins so that a turban price folded lasts two to three months. Old and staid men use folds instead of twists. In the Pathani turban the twists are not half so rigid as in the Sindeshai turban nor are there the wings and the corner depressions which are so notable in the Sindeshai turban. It is simpler and smaller and more oval than circular in shape slightly resembling the human head. The front is of partly twisted folds arranged so as to form symmetrical rows of numberless parallelograms one above the other till they reach the middle part of the upper surface. The portion above the right ear is raised slightly higher than the part above the left ear, and most of the back is covered by the two gold ends which reach to the middle of the top where the twisted folds of the front generally end. The Pathan fashion is becoming more popular among Kolhapur Marathas, but, as a rule, on festive occasions and special gatherings the Sindeshai mode is adopted. Some Marathas fold their headscarfs called rumals or patkas, in the shape of their turbans allowing one of its ends to lie loosely on the top which flutters slightly at every jerk in Walking. Some wear a mandil or gold turban folded like a loose turban. The Maratha coat fits very closely especially the arms and chest. The sleeves are generally longer than the arms, the extra length forming numberless small plaits or folds over the lower arm between the elbow and the wrist. The coat is tied in front below the right Shoulder and in the centre of the chest, part of the right chest being left open especially by those who pride themselves on their depth of chest. From the chest the coat falls in long full folds to the knee and sometimes a few inches below the knee. A Maratha's holiday coat in of silk or cloth of gold. It is not so tight as the every-day white coat and the sleeves have fewer puckera. Marathas have begun to wear English-shaped coats, shirts, jackets, and boots. The Maratha waistcloth is shorter than the Brahman waistcloth and the puckers in front and behind are fewer, the ends hanging and fluttering loose. The Maratha shoe which is finely decorated with silk and gold borders is stained a deep red and differs from the Brahman shoe by leaving open the whole except the toes and an inch of the upper part of the foot, and having its small round heel as hard as stone. Formerly a sword was part of the regular Maratha dress. Now a Walking stick has taken the place of the sword. They also draw a shawl over their Shoulders when they attend the court or darbar.

Except that they do not pass the skirt back between the feet and that they draw one end of the robeover the headtheindoor dress of the Kolhapur Maratha women is the same as of the Kolhapur Brahman women. They mark their brows with vermilion and tattoo a small crescent or Chandra between the eyebrows, and a small dot on the chin and on each cheek, and figures of sweet basil, lotuses representing the goddess Lakshmi, the words Shriram Jayram in Balbodh, and pictures of Krishna and his beloved Badha on their forearms. Both men and women have a large store of valuable clothes and Ornaments for great occasions. Almost every married woman has a lucky necklace, a nosering, and toerings which she must wear as signs of her married life. Other ornaments she uses at pleasure especially on holidays and on ceremonial occasions. The wardrobe of a well-to-do Maratha man includes turbans, coats of cotton wool and silk, gold turbans, breeches, silk-bordered shouldercloths and waistcloths, gold-bordered shouldercloths or dupetäs, and silk girdles or kanchas, trousers made in native fashion, one or two shawls, and shoes or boots. Most of these clothes last for several generations and cost £50 to £100 (Rs. 500 -1000). Middle class Marathas do not use gold turbans or mandils and shawls and gold-bordered shouldercloths or dupetas; their ceremonial dress is worth about £5 to £7 10s. (Rs. 50- 75). Poor Marathas wear patkas or headscarfs instead of turbans and have a pair of silk-bordered waistcloths and shouldercloths, trousers, and white coats which they keep carefully and use only when they have to pay visits and attend court. Women in high families have in store silk robes or sadis worth £1 10s. to £7 10s. (Rs. 15-75), Paithani robes worth £30 to £50 (Rs. 300 - 500), short-sleeved silk and gold bodices worth 10s. to £2 (Rs. 5 - 20), and gold upper robes or dupetas, and shawls worth £10 to £30 (Rs. 100-300). Middle-class families seldom use shawls and dupetas and Paithani robes, and have a store of silk-bordered robes worth about £1 to £1 4s. (Rs. 10-12), and bodices worth 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1 -2), ordinary upper robes worth £1 to £3 (Rs.10-30), and sometimes one or two Paithani robes each worth £5 to £10 (Rs.50 - 100). Poor women have a pair of robea or sadis each worth 6s. to 8s. (Rs. 3-4) and bodices each worth 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1 -2), and an upper scarf or shela worth 4s. to 6s. (Rs. 2-3) which they put on while going out of doors on festive occasions. Marathas both men and women wear a number of ornaments. Well-to-do men wear earrings with two pearls or an emerald pendant called bhikhalis and chaukadas, finger rings set with diamonds, and gold bracelets or kankans; well-to-do women wear for the head a gold ketak or sweet pandanus flower, a chandrakor or crescent moon, a rakhdi or full-moon, a mud or a ball-shaped gold ornament, flowers, gajaras,bindis,bijvaras, and chandrasing, al lstudded with pearls and jewels. Bindi, bijvara and chandrasin are used only by girls after they have come of age; the ear ornaments are bugdis, balyas, kaps, and kuradus all of gold studded with pearls; balyas and kuradus of pearls with a jewel in the centre; the wrist ornaments are gold bangdis or bangles, bilvars, chhands, gords, yots, kakans or wristlets, patalis, and todas, ornaments of gold studded with pearls and precious stones; the arm ornaments are bajubands, tolbands, velds, and vankis of gold studded with precious stones; the neck ornaments are champekalis or champa bud necklaces, chandrahars, chinchapetis, javas or barley necklace, kalas or buds, kanthas or necklaces, lapphas, pends, putalis and saris, gold necklaces set with pearls and precious stones; pearl noserings with a ruby pendant; gold waistbands or majpatas set with precious stones; the foot ornaments are chain anklets ruls and valas of silver except in the case of the ruling family who alone can wear gold ankle and toe ornaments [Gold is Lakshmi and therefore must not be allowed to touch the dust or the goddess will be angry and vanish. As rulers are guardians they are Vishnus or Protectors and therefore lords of Lakshmi and able to treat her as they like.]; and toe ornaments as gends, jodvis or toerings, masolis, phuls or flowers, and virodis. Maratha women as a rule wear all except foot and toe ornaments of gold and pearls according to their means. Ruling and rich families have a store of ornaments worth £500 to £5000 (Rs. 5000-50,000) and upwards; middle-class Maratha women's ornaments are worth £50 to £200 (Rs. 500-2000); and poor Maratha women have at least the gold lucky necklace or dorle, the nosering, and silver toerings worth £5 to £10 (Rs. 50-100).

As a class Marathas are simple, frank, independent and liberal, courteous, and, when kindly treated, trusting. They are a manly and intelligent race, proud of their former greatness, fond of show, and careful to hide poverty. The Maratha is proverbially dauli or fond of show. A Maratha though almost starving will raise a copper's worth of clarified butter and rub his moustache and hands with it, and sit washing his hands and face in front of his house, that passers may think he has had a rich dinner. A Maratha may dress in a rag at home but he has always a spare dress which he himself washes, keeps with great care, and puts on when he goes to pay a visit. He hires a boy to attend him with a lantern at night, or to take care of his shoes when he goes into his friend's house and hold them before him when he comes out. They say that war is their calling and few Marathas of good family however well educated willingly take service as clerks. They never keep shops. As a rule a well-to-do Maratha has in his service a Brahman clerk called divanji or minister, who often takes advantage of his master's want of education to defrand him, sometimes ending in making his master his debtor. Maratha women are kind, affable, and simple, and with few exceptions are good wives and managers. Marathas are husbandmen, grantholders, landowners, and State servants. Besides the Maharaj of Kolhapur several Marathas are chiefs or sansthaniks. A Maratha almost never rises early and soldom goes out in the morning. He rises about seven or eight, washes, and attends to business if he has any or idles till ten chewing tobacco, Smoking, and talking. About halfpast ten he bathes, dresses in a freshly-washed cotton cloth, marks his brow with white or red sandal, bows before the family gods which the priest has already worshipped, repeats the names of the deities Ambabai, Ganpati, Pandurang, and Shankar, and bows after each name. Religious Marathas pass an hour or two in reading sacred books as the Gurucharitra or Life of Dattatreya, Jnyanoba's commentary on the Bhagvatgita, Shiv's Play or Shiv Lila, and Rukmini's Choice or the Rukmini Svayamvar. Most of them lay sandal and flowers on their gods and drink the holy water or tirth used in washing the god's feet. Then the male members of the family sit in a row and take their food. After dinner they chew betel, smoke tobacco, and enjoy a short midday rest. They rise at three, and play at cards dice or chess. In the evening they drive ride or walk, or visit a friend, return about eight or nine, and retire to bed at ten or eleven. Marathas who have estates to manage lead regular fairly busy lives ; those who have no special business pass a life of monotonous weariness in idle talk, betel-chewing, and smoking. Many are fond of hunting, and hunt and shoot several days in every month. Others spend much of their leisure under the influence of opium and hemp-water. Maratha women seldom leave the house, and in well-to-do families, as they have neither to cook nor to mind the house, hey have much leisure. A Maratha matron generally spends her morning in washing combing and decking her hair with flowers, in feeding her children, and in bathing. Elderly Maratha women water the sweet basil plant and lay sandal and flowers before Balkrishna or Mahadev, but young women are generally careless about religious rites. After their midday meal they hear a Puran or holy book read by a priest, take a midday nap, look after the children, talk, play, with dice and sometimes with sagargotas, chew betel and tobacco, sup after the men, and retire about ten. Some Maratha women embroider and a few have learnt to read and write.

Marathas worship all Brahmanic, local, and boundary gods and keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and festivals. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans who conduct their ceremonies and perform the daily worship of the house gods of the well-to-do. Their chief holidays are the Hindu New Year's Day or Varshpratipada and Ramnavmi in March-April, Akshaytritiya or the Undying Third in May, Nagpanchami Shravni-Paurnima and Gokulashtami in July-August, Ganeshchaturthi in August, Dasara in September - October, Divali in October- November, Sankrant,on the twelfth of January, and Shimga in March. Their popular fasts are the Elevenths or ekadashis in the bright half of Ashadh or July-August and Kartik or Octr.-Novr., and Shiv's Night or Shivratra in February. The Marathas, especially the descendants of Shivaji the founder of the Maratha empire, who was raised to be a Kshatriya on paying £40,000 (Rs. 4,00,000) to Gaga Bhatt of Benares, [Before his installation Shivaji seems never to have worn the sacred thread. Details of the ceremony are given under Raygad in the Kolaba Statistical Account.] claim to belong to the Kshatriya or second of Manu's classes and say that their ceremonies are the same as those of Brahmans. Brahmans admit this claim in the case of the ruling family and perform their ceremonies with Vedic texts. The ceremonies of other Kolhapur Maratha families are performed according to the Shudra Kamalakar a classical Sanskrit version of the Vedic passages. The well-to-do among the Kolhapur Marathas claim to perform the sixteen Brahman sacraments or sanskars but the bulk of the people perform no ceremonies except at birth, threadgirding, marriage, coming of age, and death. A girl goes for her first confinement to her parents and a poor Maratha midwife waits on the pregnant woman. At the time of her delivery she cuts the navel-cord, bathes the mother and child, and lays them on a cot. When a son is born the joyful news is carried to friends and kinsfolk and packets of sugar are handed among them. The priest, who is asked to repeat shantipath or soothing verses every evening from the first to the tenth day, repeats verses over a pinch of ashes and rice, and hands the ashes to the midwife to be rubbed on the brows of the mother and child. A light is kept burning the whole night for the first ten days. A few days after the birth the jatkarm or birth ceremony is performed, when the priest and friends and kinsfolk are asked to the house, musicians are engaged to play their instruments, betel is served to men guests and packets of vermilion and turmeric are handed among the women, and a feast to the guests ends the ceremony. Now only a few keep this practice. As a rule all Marathas are particular about the fifth or sixth day worship, as those days are believed to be full of danger to the newborn child. Marathas share the common belief that convulsive seizures and most other forms of disease are the work of spirits. They think that only by worshipping Mothers Fifth and Sixth can the child be saved from the attacks of evil spirits which are said to hover about the lying-in-room and lie in wait for the child especially during the fifth and sixth days after birth, probably because from the sloughing of the navel-cord the child is at that time liable to tetanus and convulsions. [It is worthy of note that the old English name for convulsion is an attack of dwarfs.] Elderly matrons in the house take the utmost care to keep a light always burning in the lying-in room day and night especially from the fifth to the tenth day, and during that time never leave the mother alone in her room. On the fifth day a few friends and relations are asked to dine at the house. In the lying-in room a betelnut and a sword or sickle are set on a low stool and flowers, sandal-paste, burnt frankincense, and food are laid before the low stool in the name of Mother Fifth or Panchvi. The mother bows before the goddess with the child in her arms and prays Mother Fifth to save the child from the attacks of evil spirits. The guests are treated to a dinner and men guests pass the whole night singing ballads or lavnis and women guests watch by turns in the lying-in room. Mother Sixth or Satvai is worshipped on the sixth day with the same details as Mother Fifth and a few friends are feasted. The mother is held impure for ten days and no one except the midwife touches her. The midwife rubs the mother and the child with oil and bathes them. Then she bathes, takes her food, and waits upon the mother. During the first ten days the midwife eats nothing unless she has bathed from head to foot both morning and evening. The family are held impure for ten days in consequence of a childbirth. During this time they are allowed to touch others, though they cannot worship the house gods. On the eleventh the clothes of the mother are washed the room is cowdunged, and the family are purified by drinking water which is given them by the family priest. On the eleventh the men renew their sacred threads and lay sandal, flowers burnt frankincense, and sweetmeats before the house gods. On the evening of the twelfth a few women are asked to the house, musicians play, and the child is cradled. The women dress the babe in a child's hood or kunchi and name it saying, Cut off ties and Chams and join the umbrella and palanquin. [The Marathi runs: Bedi bandhan tod ani chhatri sukhasan jod.] The anniversary of the child's birthday is kept by a feast to friends and kinsfolk, and on that day the ceremony called chaul karm or hair-clipping is performed by the well-to-do, and the child's hair is clipped for the first time Well-to-do Marathas especially the families of chiefs and sardars or nobles gird their boys with the sacred thread between ten and twelve with nearly the same ritual as at a Brahman thread-girding.

Boys are married between twelve and twenty-five and girls generally before they come of age, though coming of age is no bar to a girl's marriage. A Maratha marriage is very costly. The bride's father must give a large dowry to the bridegroom and in return the bridegroom's father must present valuable ornaments to the bride. So the girls whose fathers belong to high families but cannot offer a large dowry with their daughter s hand remain unmarried after they come of age and have sometimes to marry men who are unequal either in age or social position Even to the well-to-do to have many daughters is a curse. In proportion to the Position of the family, the father has to spendon his daughter's marriage, running into debt from which he seldotn frees himself. As a rule the offer of marriage comes from the boy's side. Before the marriage is fixed it must be ascertained that the boy and the girl are not of the same clanor kul; they may both bear the same surname but the crest or devak on the male side must be different. Sameness of crest on the female side is no bar to marriage. After talking the matter over and fixing on the most suitable girl, the boy's father sends a Raul or Bhat to see the girl. He goes to her house and is treated to a dinner After a dinner and some betel the Raul or Bhat tells the girl's father why he has come and asks if they are willing to marry their girl. The girl's father answers either that they are willing or that they are not willing, and the Bhat or Raul returns home with a present. If the girl's father says he is willing some poor women relations of the boy or a female servant are asked to see the girl. If their report of the girl is  Mhii satisfactory, the boy's father on a lucky day sends a relation or friend, together with his priest and the Bhat to the girl's to propose the match. They go to the girl's house and are welcomed by the girl's father. They are given water to wash their hands and feet, betel and tobacco are served to them, and they are treated to a dinner. The head of the house kills a goat or at least a fowl, asks a friend or two to dine with the guests, and gives uncooked provisions to the priest who either cooks for himself or has his dinner cooked and served by a Brahman. After dinner all sit in the hall, betel is served, and the Bhat formally declares their object in Coming. If the girl's father agrees to the match, he calls in his priest and hands him the girl's horoscope. Both priests compare the horoscopes of the boy and the girl, calculate the positions of the stars at the time of their birth, and say whether the match will be lucky. If the astrologers or priests say the match will be unlucky, no further steps are taken. When the boy's and the girl's parents are anxious for the match they do not depend on the words of the astrologer and even do not consult him but at once settle the marriage terms the chief of which are the sum to be paid to the boy by the girl's father at the time of the girl-giving or kanyadan, the clothes and Ornaments to be presented to the girl by the boy's father, and the clothes to be presented to the relations of each by the other. Sometimes if the girl is unusually handsome and intelligent the boy's parents bear the whole marriage expenses even of the girl and do not receive a farthing from the girl's parents if they cannot conveniently pay. At other times if the girl's parents are well-to-do and wish to give their daughter to a poor but high family boy they pay the boy's marriage charges and present the girl with ornaments and the boy with a large dowry. A short time before the terms are settled the girl's father sends some relations to see the boy at whose house a feast is held for the guests and they return with presents of turbans and waistcloths or at the least with a waistcloth or cash. At the house of some Marathas, the presence of a Nhavi is required at the time of settling the marriage. When the terms are settled the fathers exchange cocoanuts, and the barber's duty is to hand the cocoanut to each as the sign of the marriage settlement; for this he is called mhala or the marriage settler and both parties present him with cash or a turban. The boy's and girl's fathers ask the village astrologer or gramjoshi to name three lucky moments on three different days, for the turmeric-rubbing, marriage, and varat or home-taking. As a rule the bridegroom must visit the girl's house for the marriage; but if the girl's parents are poorer than the boy's parents or the boy's parents refuse to visit the girl's but agree to pay her marriage charges, the girl's parents take the girl to the boy's village and lodge at a separate house which has been prepared for them. To take the girl to the boy's house is thought incorrect among Marathas and forms a special item in the marriage agreement. A little before the turmeric-rubbing the boy's relations and the priest go with music to the bride's and are received at her house. Music plays and the priest puts a robe and bodice and ornaments and a packet of sugar into her hands. A wheat or rice Square is traced round two low stools set in a line close to each other and on another stool before them are placed five waterpots or kalashas with cotton thread passed round their necks. The priest repeats verses, lays a betelnut and leaves in each pot, and covers their mouths with half-cocoanuts. He then sets a betelnut on a couple of leaves laid on the low stools and offers sandal, flowers, burnt incense, and sweetmeats to the betelnut Ganpati and the waterpot varun and waves lights round them. The bride and her mother are rubbed with wet turmeric powder mixed with fragrant oil by the boy's woruen servants. The girl then comes before the waterpot Varun and the betelnut Ganpati. The priest repeats verses and the girl is told to walk five times round the betelnut Ganpati and the waterpot Varun and sits on one of the two stools in the wheat Square; her mother sits on the other stool and while music plays they are again rubbed with sweetscented oil and turmeric and bathed by five women neighbours and relations. The bride is helped to put on a new yellow robe and bodice and her future mother-in-law presents her with ornaments, What remains of the turmeric a party of his friends take with music to the bridgroom's. The boy is rubbed with turmeric and bathed with the same rites as at the girl's house and the turmeric-rubbing ends with a feast at the boy's and girl's.

Next comes the marriage guardian or devak worship. A day or two before the marriage a man at the house of the boy and of the girl, bathes, and with music and a band of friends goes to the tree, [A list of the Maratha devaks or marriage guardians most of which are trees or ereepers is given in the Appendix.] which is the family guardian, offers sandal, flowers, burnt frankincense and sweatmeats to it, cuts a branch, lays it in a winnowing fan, and brings it home with music. He takes it to his god-room and worships it along with his family gods which are represented by betelnuts in a winnowing fan. Mean while five unwidowed girls wash a grindstone or jate and lay sandal, flowers, and sweetmeats before it and a family washerwoman worships the stone slab or pata, and a feast to married women and a few friends and relations completes the guardian or devak worship. Invitation cards are sent to distant friends and the houseowner asks a few of his near relations in person who come to the house on the marriage guardian or devak worship day. After dinner the invitation processions start as among Brahmans, from the boy's and girl's and ask local friends and kinsfolk to the marriage. After dinner the boy is well dressed and seated on a low stool laid in a square marked by the washerwoman with wheat or rice, and married women with a dish of turmeric, vermilion, and rice grains, rub him with turmeric, mark his brow with vermilion, and stick the rice grains on the vermilion. His head is hung with flower garlands or mundavalis and he is taken to his family goddess or kuldevi, lays a cocoanut and bows before her, and asks her to be kindly, and starts on horseback for the girl's with friends, relations, priests, and musicians. When they reach the girl's village they stop and visit the village Maruti. The boy dismounts, bows before the god, and asks him to be kindly. Here they are met by the bride's party with music and friends and the simant pujan or boundary worship is performed. If the girl is taken to the boy's village, the ceremony is performed at the house of a friend in the neighbourhood. All are seated and the bride's father marks the boy's brow with sandal and sticks grains of rice on it, burns frankincense before him, gives him sweetmeats to eat, and presents him with a turban and a gold scarf or shela. The guests are then escorted to a lodging or janvasghar prepared in the bride's neighbourhood. The Maratha vagnischaya or troth-plighting is the same as among Brahmans. The boy's father meets the girl's father at his house with his priest and is seated; the girl's father sits near him and his priest attends him. The priests then worship the betel-nut Ganpati and the metalpot Varun and repeat verses. The girl's father offers his daughter in marriage to the boy and in presence of his and the girl's relations the boy's father accepts the offer saying, I take her. The fathers change cocoanuts and a distribution of sugar ends the ceremony.

Shortly before the bridegroom starts for the bride's the bride's parents send a feast or rukhvat with a few friends and music to the boy's house. The boy is seated on a low stool set in a wheat square, and the sweet dishes brought from the bride's by the village Nhavi are arranged in rows about the stool. The dishes are usually of two kinds, for show and for use. The show dishes include sweet wheat and gram flour balls and sugarcoated betelnut and almond balls, as large as or larger than unhusked cocoanuts; the dishes; for use are of ordinary size and are prepared with great care. The bridegroom is presented with a turban, his brow is marked with vermilion to which grain is stuck, lights are waved about him by married women, and he is told to help himself to the dishes When the boy's feast or rukhvat is over, the girl's party with friends and music go to the boy's and tell them that the marriage hour. is near. The bridegroom is dressed in rich clothes, his brow is decked with the marriage Coronet or bashing, a dagger is set in his hands, and he is seated on a horse which is led by the village barber or Nhavi. Musicians walk in front, behind them walk all the men of the bride and bridegroom's parties, and then the bridegroom. Behind the bridegroom walks his sister usually a young girl closely veiled with a gold scarf or shela with the shakundiva or lucky lamp laid in a dish, and another veiled woman follows her with a metal or earthen pot called shenskara holding rice betelnut and water, and covered with a mango branch and a cocoanut and set on a heap of rice in a bamboo basket. If the pair are poor, the women of their house walk veiled behind the bridegroom; if the families are rich the women ride in closed palanquins or walk between cloths which are held round them by women servants. On reaching the bride's the bridegroom dismounts the priest throws cuminseed or jiri on the booth, the bride's mother meets him at the booth door with a dish holding two wheat flour lamps, waves small rice balls and wheat flour lamps round the bridegroom, throws the rice balls to one aide and lays the wheat flour lamps at the bridegroom's feet; another married woman of the bride's house pours a dish full of water mixed with lime and turmeric on his feet. The bridegroom presents the woman with a robe and bodice, the bride's father hands the bridegroom a cocoanut and leads him by the hand to a place prepared for him near the altar. The men guests are seated on carpets in the marriage hall. The women alight from their palanquins hid, by curtains held round them by their women servants, and are welcomed to their seats in a hall separated from the men's hall only by a cloth wall near the raised altar or bahule. Dancing girls amuse the guests in the marriage hall and the servants load their nmskets and hold themselves ready to announce the lucky moment by firing their guns. Shortly before the lucky moment the girl is seated in front of the family goddess or kuldevi and throws rice at the kuldevi and prays her to grant her a good husband. The astrologer is busy watching his water-clock, and has a horn-blower or shingi ready to blow his horn as soon as the astrologer gives the signal by clapping his hands. As the lucky moment draws near the girl is brought out of the house and made to stand before the bridegroom face to face separated by a curtain marked with a lucky cross. The priests stand on either side of the curtain and tell the pair to fold their hands, to look at the lucky cross, and pray to their family gods. The priests repeat lucky verses and throw red rice at the pair, crying Savdhan or Beware, and the musicians play. One of the priests hands red rice to the guests and another holds an empty dish before them and gathers the red rice to be thrown over the pair at the lucky moment. The astrologer teils the moment by clapping his hands, the hornblower or shingi blows his horn, the guns are fired, and the musicians redouble their noise. The priests draw aside the curtain, touch the bridegroom's eyes with water, pour red rice over the pair, and they are husband and wife. The bridegroom is taken to a seat near the earthen altar and the bride goes into the house. The bride's father and mother sit on two low stools in front of the bridegroom face to face, the father washes the feet of the boy, and the mother pours water on them. The father marks the brow of the bridegroom with sandal; sticks grains of rice on the sandal, hands him a flower to smell, burns frankincense before him, and pours honey and curds over his hands to sip, and the ceremony of honeysipping or madhupark is over. [Formerly any distinguished guest was received with madhupark literally honey-sipping. The host killed a calf and treated the guest to a dinner but the cow-killing or gavalambh was forbidden by the first Shankaracharya 0n pain of loss of caste. Since that time madhupark is performed only at weddings.] The girl's maternal uncle, or some other near relation, gives the girl's right hand to the boy who clasps it fast in both his hands. The priest lays both his hands over the boy's and mutters verses. The girl's father sets sandal, flowers, burnt frankincense, and sweetmeat before the betelnut Ganpati and the waterpot Varun, and pours water with some coins in it over the clasped hands of the boy and girl and the kanyadan or girl-giving is over. The guests in the hall are treated to betel and fragrant cotton sticks called phavas, and take leave soon after the girl-giving is over. The priest then asks the bridegroom to tie the lucky neckthread or mangalsutra round the bride's neck, and ties together the hems of the pair's clothes. They are seated on low stools set on the earthen altar, the bride as a rule sitting to the bridegroom's left. The sacrificial fire is lit and fed with clarified butter, sesame seed, cotton sticks, and palas or other sacred wood with nearly the same rites as at a Brahman marriage. The bride's brother squeezes the bridegroom's ear and is presented with a turban by the bridegroom's party. The pair then leave their seats, walk seven times from right to left round the Sacred fire, and the ceremony of Seven Steps or sapt padi is over. Turmeric root wristlets are tied to the hands of each of the pair. They bow before the family gods and the first day's proceedings are over. From this day to the hometaking or varat the bridegroom stays at the bride's and is feasted. The boy sleeps with the men outside and the girl with the women in the house.

On the next day a sumptuous feast is held in honour of the bridegroom's party. In the morning the pair play at the betelnut hunt and rub each other with turmeric. The boy is seated on the altar and the girl Stands behind with turmeric powder in her band and tries to force some of it into his mouth. The boy keeps his mouth closed tight and tries to prevent her, and if she succeeds in forcing some into his mouth, he is laughed at and asked if he is hungry. Then the boy Stands behind the girl and tries with his left hand to force turmeric into her mouth. Next the boy holds a betelnut in his hand and asks the girl to take it from him. They struggle and the girl manages to snatch it away. Then the girl holds a betelnut in her closed fist and asks the boy to take it. If the boy fails, he has to beg it of her, and is laughed at. Lastly the pair bathe, dress in new clothes, and break their fast. Meanwhile the girl's party go with music and friends and ask the bridegroom's party to dine at the bride's. At noon they are asked with music and friends and are treated to a sweet dinner or godi jevan. In the evening the boy's mother performs the ceremony of seeing the, daughter-in-law's face or sunmukh darshan. The bride's mother with music and women friends asks the bridegroom's mother to her house. Accompanied by kinswomen and friends and the family priest and music the bridegroom's mother goes to the girl's bringing bamboo baskets, sesame seed, gram balls, betelnuts, cocoa-kernels, dates, a robe and bodice, and ornaments sweetmeats and fruit. On the way she feigns anger and tries to return home when the girl's mother presents her with a robe and bodice, the washerwoman spreads sheets of cloth on the way, and the bridegroom's mother and her friends go walking over them to the bride's house with music. At the girl's the priest worships the betelnut Ganpati and the waterpot Varun and the boy's mother dresses the girl in the clothes she has brought and sweetens her mouth with sugar. Then comes the basket or jhal ceremony. A piece of cloth is spread in a bamboo basket and nine dates, nine cocoa-kernels, and nine lumps of turmeric and a handful of rice and cooked food are laid in it. The priest offers sandal, flowers, rice, and sweetmeats to the basket, and the boy and the girl, with the hems of their garments knotted together, walk five times round it from right to left. The basket is set on the heads of the nearest relations of the boy and the girl and the ceremony is over. The pair accompanied by friends relations and music start for the boy's. The girl is fully dressed and closely veiled and seated in a palanquin with the boy face to face followed by attendants who wave flywhisks or chauris round the pair and hold state umbrellas or abdagirs over them. Among poor Marathas the bride and bridegroom are seated on horseback and the horse is taken by the village Nhavi to the bridegroom's house preceded by musicians and kinsfolk and followed by the bride's sister on horseback or in a closed palanquin. On reaching the house the pair bow before the house-gods and eiders, lay sandal and flowers before the goddess Lakshmi, present clothes to the bride's party, and the ceremony ends by afeast at the bridegroom's. Marathas treat their wedding guests to two sorts of dinners or mejavanis, godi or sweet and khati or sour. The godi feast is given before the marriage guardian is bowed out and the khati which is usually a flesh feast, is given after the marriage guardian is bowed out. At the khati feast Marathas sit in full dress each with a sword by his side. Marathas do not allow widow marriage, know nothing of polyandry, and practise polygamy.

Even though the bride is of age, the marriage consummation does not form part of the marriage ceremony. The consummation ceremony is put off till the bride's first monthly sickness after the marriage. In performing the age-coming ceremony, the girl is seated in a gaily decked wooden frame or makhar with arches on each side in a specially prepared hall. Plantain stems decked with tinsel and coloured paper are set at each corner of the frame. The girl is dressed in a rich yellow robe and bodice and her brow is marked with vermilion on which rice grains are stuck. Her head is hung with a network of flowers and garlands are tied round her neck and lines of vermilion drawn on her feet. The news is handed round among friends and kinsfolk and sugar packets and cocoanuts are distributed at every house in the neighbourhood. Women friends and relations present the girl with sweet dishes and musicians are engaged to play at the house while the ceremony lasts. The girl is unclean for three days. On the fourth she is rubbed with oil and turmeric and bathed, and a lucky day, between the fourth and the sixteenth, is named for the puberty ceremony. On the morning of the lucky day the pair are rubbed with turmeric and fragrant oil and bathed while music plays. Friends and kinsfolk are asked and the pair are seated on low stools, the girl to the right of the boy. The priest attends and lights the sacred fire as at the Brahman puberty ceremony. The pair bow before the gods and eiders and the ritual is complete. A grand feast is given to women friends and neighbours at noon and in the evening the ceremony called otibharan or lapfilling is performed. The pair are seated on two low stools set in a wheat or rice square, the girl to the left of the boy, and the brows of both the boy and the girl are marked with vermilion. Rice grains are stuck on the vermilion and married women fill the girl's lap with a bodicecloth, wheat, cocoanut, fruit, packets of vermilion, and betelnuts. Their fathers-in-law present the boy and girl with clothes and ornaments, and the girl's father presents the pair with bedding, lamps, metal waterpots, and betel cases. The rest of the ceremony is the same as the Brahman puberty ceremony. During a girl's first pregnancy in the third, fifth, and seventh months, while music plays five unwidowed women fill her lap with wheac, a bodicecloth, a cocoanut, and fruit. She is asked to dine by women friends and relations during the seventh and the eighth months and is presented with robes and bodices. She is taken with women friends and relations to some garden where a longing feast or dohalejevan is given her.

When a Maratha dies the body is bathed and dressed in a white sheet, laid on a bier, and tied fast to the bier with strings. Betel leaves, flowers, and redpowder are thrown on it, and sometimes half a dozen gold or silver flowers are strewn over the bier. The well-to-do Maratha dead are carried in a palanquin to the burning ground which is generally on the bank of some stream or river accompanied by kinsinen and preceded by Holar or Mhar pipe-blowers. The body is bathed in water, the pile is built, the dead is laid on the pile, and burnt with nearly the same rites as at a Brahman funeral. When the body is nearly consumed, the party bathe in the river and return home. On the second third or fourth day the ashes are gathered, and, except a few bones which are buried somewhere near the burning ground they are taken to some holy place or river and are thrown into the water. The rest of the funeral ceremony is performed on the third, fifth, seventh, or ninth at the latest. On the tenth rice or wheat flour balls are offered to the dead. On the eleventh the family, which since the death has been impure, are cleansed by eating the five products of the cow and present Brahmans with clothes, pots, umbrellas, shoes, cows, and cash in the name of the dead. On the twelfth balls or pinds are offered to the dead and his ancestors, and on the thirteenth the shraddh or mind-rite is performed in the name of the dead, and friends and kinsfolk are treated to a dinner. On the fourteenth the mouth-sweetening or god tond karne is performed, when relations meet and treat the chief mourner to a sweet dinner. At the end of every fortnight, month, and year from the death-day, uncooked provisions are given to Brahmans in the deceased's name and the anniversary of his death is kept by a shraddh or mind-rite, when friends and relations are asked to dine at the house. The dead is remembered every year in the dark half of Bhadrapad or August-September on a day corresponding to the death-day in the Mahdlaya Paksh or All Souls' Fortnight. The chief mourners, out of respect to the dead for one full year avoid gay colours and sweet dishes and do not attend marriage or other festive parties. Marathas gird their boys with the sacred thread which they renew every year on Cocoanut Day in August. On that day all bathe and sit on low stools and Brahman priests attend. ONE of the priests teils them to sip water three times in the name of Vishinu and pours the five products of the cow on the right palm of each which they sip and again drink water in Vishnu's name. They are then given sacred threads by the priest and put them on. The priests get a cash present and withdraw with uncooked provisions. Some Marathas of high family perform the sacred thread-renewing or shravni according to the Brahman ritual. On the anniversary of the dead Marathas lay sandal, flowers, rice, and food before three to thirteen palas Butea frondosa leaves and present the officiating and other priests who are generally as many as the number of leaves with uncooked provisions and cash. Maratha married couples are asked to the house, their feet are washed with water by the deceased's son, and they are feasted. After dinner betel is served to the guests and they withdraw with presents of turbans and robes. Marathas have a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of castemen. Breaches of caste rules are punished with fines which generally take the form of caste feasts. They send their boys to school, and except a few are not well-to-do.

History.

The name Maratha, which rose to importance under Shahaji (1594-1664) and his son Shivaji (1627-1680) in the seventeenth Century and under the Peshwas became famous throughout India in the eighteenth Century, has a threefold application. It is applied First to the section of India south of the Narbada and north of the Karnatak in which the Marathi language is spoken; Second to the whole Marathi-speaking population; and Third, in a narrower and more correct sense to the bulk of the old fighting and now cultivating middle class of the country whose language is Marathi. The generally received origin of the name Maratha, an explanation which has the support of Mr. Fleet and Dr. Bhagvanlal, is that it comes from Maharashtra the Great Country a name which the early Sanskrit-knowing settlers in Upper India are supposed to have given to the unknown land to the south of Hindusthan. [Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 3.] To this explanation the chief objection is the absence of any reason why the people of Northern India should honour the south of India with the name of Great Country, or why, if the name Great Country was at first applied to the whole of Peninsular India it should come to be restricted to the present Marathi-speaking portions of the peninsula. If any people can be found with a suitable name it seems more likely that the country took its name from the people, than that the people took their name from the country. This view was held by the late Dr. John Wilson who proposed to trace Maharashtra to Mhar-rashtra the land of the Mhars. But though the Mhars are a large and important class in the Marathi-speaking country their depressed state makes it unlikely that the country should have been called after them. One derivation, which has the approval of Professor Bhandarkar, remains, that Maharasthra is the Sanskritised form of Maharattha that is the country of the Maharatthis or Maharatthis that is the Great Rattis, [Bhandarkar's Early Deccan History, 10.] a tribe which, under the name Ratta or Ratthis and its Sanskrit form Rashtrakas or Rashtrikas, from very early times have at intervals ruled in the Bombay Deccan Bombay Karnatak.

In the middle of the third Century before Christ, in the copy of his rock-cut edicts which is preserved at Girnar, the Mauryan emperor Ashok (B.C. 245) states that he sent ministers of religion to the Rastikas, the Petenikas, and the Aparantas. According to Professor Bhandarkar the Aparantas are the people of the Bombay Konkan, the Petenikas are the people of Paithan about fifty miles north-east of Ahmadnagar, and the Rastikas or (Sk.) Rashtrikas are the people of Maharashtra, [Early Deccan History, 9.] According to Professor Bhandarkar one branch of the tribe of Rastikas or Rattas took the name of Rashtrakutas and governed the Deccan and Konkan before the fifth Century after Christ. [Early Deccan History, 10. Of this Early Ratta or Rashtrakuta dynasty all that is at present known is that about the fourth Century after Christ a chief of this tribe named Krishna ruled whose coins have been found in Nasik, South Gujarat, the islands of salsette and Bombay, and in the South Bombay Deccan. Fleet's Kanaresr Dynasties, 31 note 1.] They then lost power but won it back about 760 and continued supreme in the Deccan and Karnatak till about 970.[Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 31-38; Bhandarkar's Early Deccan History, 10] Mr. Fleet [Kanarese Dynasties, 32.] favours the opinion that the name Rashtrakuta was not a Sanskritised form of Ratta but was acquired by the holders in virtue of their office of managers of a rashtra or province. But the case of the Rattas who ruled in the Belgaum district from the ninth to the thirteenth Century (875-1250) and who claimed to be a branch of the Rashtrakutas strongly supports the view that Rashtrakuta is a Sanskritised form of Ratta. [Compare Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties, 79-83. The view that Rashtrakuta is Sanskritised form of Ratta has the support of Mr. Rice, Dr. Burnell (South Indian Palseography, p. x,), and as noticed above of Professor Bhandarkar.] In the Kanarese districts the Rattas seem to be now represented by the Raddis one of the leading classes of Kanarese husbandmen. [The 1881 census gives in the Bombay Karnatak a total of 56,874 Raddis. They are also found in Maisur.] The fact that the list of Maratha surnames, which includes Cholke that is Chalukya, Selar or Silahara, Kadam or Kadamba, Yadav or Jadav, and almost all the early rulers of the Deccan, does not include Ratta, favours the view that the memory of the Rattas is preserved in the general term Maratha. The Suggestion that a branch of the Rattas in very early times took the name of Maharatthis or Great Rattas is supported by the practice of the Bhoja rulers of the Konkan and West Deccan who are styled Bhojas in Ashok's thirteenth edict (B.C. 240) and Mahabhojas in rock-cut inscriptions in the Bedsa caves in Poona and the Kuda caves in Kolaba of about the first Century after Christ. [Bombay Gazetteer, X. 336-310; Arch. Survey No. 10, pp. 4, 9, 17, 26. Early Deccan History, 10.] The earliest known mention of the name Maratha is an inscription of about B.C. 100 over a statue in the Nana pass rest-chamber. This inscription runs Maharatha graniko yiro, which probably means The hero, the leader of the Marathas or Great Rattas. [Jour. Born. Br. Roy. As. Soc. XIII. 311; Early Deccan History, 10. Other interpretations of Maharatha are the Great Charioteer and the Great Warrior,] An inscription in the Bedsa caves in the Poona district of about the first Century after Christ mentions a gift by a Maharathi queen and three other inscriptions of the same or of a slightly later date, one at the Bhaja caves and two at Karle both in the Poona district mention gifts by persons who call themselves. Maharathis. [Archaeological Survey No. 10, pp..24, 26, 28, 34.] Mahavanso the Ceylonese chronicle of the fifth century (A.D. 480) twice mentions the conntry of Maharattha. [Turnour's Mahavanso, 71, 74. The name Maharattha also occurs in the Dipvanso (Oldenburg's Edition, 54) which is much older. Early Deccan History, 10.] About the middle of the seventh Century (A.D. 634) the famous inscription at Aihole or Aivalli in South Bijapur notices that the Great Western Chalukya king Pulikeshi II. (610- 635) gained the sovereignty of the three Maharashtrakas which together contained 99,000 villages. [Indian Antiquary, VIII. 244.] About the same time the Chinese pilgrim Hiwen Thsang (629-645) describes the kingdom of Mo-ho-lach'a, apparently Maharattha or Maharashtra, as nearly six thousand lis or twelve hundred miles in circuit. The capital, which was towards the west near a large river, had a circumference of thirty lis or six miles. [Dr. Burgess (Ind. Ant. VII. 290) suggests, though the description hardly suita the site, that this may be Badami in South Bijapur.] Hiwen Thsang describes the people, apparently the warlike Maratha tribe, as tall, boastful, and proud. Whoever does them a service, he says, may count on their gratitude, but no one who offends them will escape their vengeance. If any one insults them, they will risk their lives to wipe out the affront. If any one in trouble applies to them forgetful of themselves they will hasten to help him. When they have an injury to avenge they never fail to warn their enemy ; after the warning each puts on his cuirass and grasps his spear. In battle they pursue fugitives but do not slay those who give themselves up. When a general has lost a battle, instead of punishing him corporally they make him wear women's clothes, and so force him to sacrifice his life. The state maintains several hundred dauntless champions, who every time they prepare for combat, make themselves drunk with wine; and then one of them, spear in hand, will defy ten thousand enemies. If they kill a man whom they meet on the road, the law does not punish them. When-ever the army goes on a campaign, these braves march in front to the sound of the drum. They also intoxicate many hundreds of naturally fierce elephants. At the time of Coming to blows they drink strong liquor. They run in a body, trampling everything under their feet. No enemy can stand before them; and the king proud of possessing these men and elephants despises and slights the neighbouring kingdoms. [Julien's Hiwen Thsang, II. 149; Indian Antiquary, VII. 290.] About 1020 the Arab geographer Al Biruni mentions Marhat Des as a conntry to the south of the Narbada. [Elliot and Dowson, I. 60.] In 1320 the French friar Jordanus refers to the kingdom of Maratha as very great. [Yule's Jordanus' Mirabilia, 41.] In 1340 the African traveller lbn Batuta notices that the people of Daulatabad or Devgiri were Marhatahs whose nobles were Brahmans. [Yule's Cathay, 415.]

From the beginning to the end of his Deccan history (1290-1600) the historian Ferishta often mentions the Marathas. In his account of the Musalman Turk conquest under Ala-ud-din Khilji and his generals, Ferishta refers to the Marathas as the people of the province of Mharat or Mherat, dependent on Daulatabad and apparently considered to centre in Paithan or as it is written Mheropatan. [Scott's Deccan, I. 13, 32. Ferishta's Mherat seems closely to correspond with the present Maharashtra as the two other main divisions of the Deccan were as at present Kar or Karnatak and Telingana. Ditto, I. 10.] In 1318 Harapal the son-in-law of the Devgiri chief rebelled and forced the Musalmans to give up several districts of Marath. [Scott, I. 13.] In 1370 Jadhav Maratha, the chief of the Naiks, revolted in Daulatabad, persuaded its Musalman governor to join him, raised the Rathod chief of Baglan and other local leaders, and collected a great army at Paithan. [Scott, I. 32.] Till the end of Bahmani supremacy (1490) some Maratha chiefs, among them the Rajas of Galna and Baglan in Nasik, were practically independent paying no tribute for years at a time. After the close of Bahmani supremacy (1490), under the Ahmadnagar and to a less extent under the Bijapur kings, one or two Maratha chiefs remained nearly independent. [The Galna and Baglan chiefs were forced to pay tribute in 1507 and again in 1530. Briggs' Ferishta, III. 204, 226.] Others were continued in their estates on condition of supplying troops, [Briggs' Ferishta, III. 226.] and others took Service with their Musalman rulers and were granted estates and the Hindu titles of Deshmukh, Sar Deshmukh, Naik, Rav, and Raja. [One Maratha under Bijapur held the high title of chief of the nobles Omir-ul- omrah. Grant Dulfs Marathas, 39-40.] In several cases the daughters of leading Marathas were raised to be the wives of Musalman kings. [The daughter of Sabaji Maratha married Amir Berid the son of the Georgian slave Kasim Berid who (1492) became king of Bedar. Briggs' Ferishta, III. 495. Yusuf Adil Shah's wife (1489-1510) was a Maratha woman of exquisite beauty, great under- standing, and engaging manners. Scott's Deccan, I. 226.] Of the lower ranks of Marathas many were employed as mercenary troops, most of them as cavalry [In 1507 Marathas joined the bulk of Malik Ashrai's troops, who for a time held Daulatabad. Briggs' Ferishta, III. 204. In 1535 Ibrahim Adil Shah of Bijapur had 30,000 cavalry apparently chiefly Marathas (Scott's Deccan, 1. 262, 278, 302, 303). In 1548 the Bijapur Maratha horse out off all supplies from the Ahmadnagar army. Briggs' Ferishta, III. 233,234. In 1560 Ali Adilshah I. is mentioned as trusting his family to three Maratha officers. Ditto, III. 432. In 1580 Ibrahim Adil Shah sent an army of 20,000Maratha horse to harass the besiegers of Naldurg. Ditto, III. 448. And in 1582 the Abyssinian faction in Bijapur employed 10,000 Maratha horse against the force that was investing the city. Ditto, III. 153. Grant Duff (History, 40) says, Neither national sentiment nor unity of language and religion, prevented the Marathas fighting against each other. They fought with rancour wherever there were disputes or family feuds. Their Musalman rulers used this spirit of rivalry as a means of balancing Maratha families against each other.] but some also as infantry. On one occasion (1507) the bulk of the people between Paithan and Chakan in Poona are spoken of as rebellious Marathas. Besides by their correct name the Marathas are often called Bargis, a word of uncertain origin. [Bargi is not to be confounded with the persian Bargir literally a rider that is a trooper whose horse and arms are supplied by the chief under whom he takes Service. In 1511 most of the Maratha troops under Bijapur were Bargirs (Briggs' Ferishta, III; 37,79), and in later times Shivaji (1680) was very fond of this kind of cavalry. Scott's Deccan, II. 55; compare Grant Duff, 34.] Shakespeare seems to derive it frotn the Sanskrit Vargiya as it originally means a man of class (varg) or family. [Shakespeare's Hindustani Dictionary under Bargi p. 319.] Grant Duff describes it as a word of unknown origin apparently a slaug term of contempt used of the local levies by the regular foreign cavalry.[Grant Duff's Marathas, 37.] In another passage Grant Duff states that all the troops officered by Marathas were formerly called Bargis and that when he wrote (1826) in many parts of India the Marathas were still known by that name. [Grant Duffs Marathas, 37.]. The following are the leading instances of the use of the term Bargi by the Musalman historians. In the fifteenth Century, according to the author of the Mirat-i-Ahmadi (1760) the Maratha chiefs of Baglan in North Nasik had for generations borne the title of the Baharji or Bargi chiefs.[Bird's Mirat-i-Ahmadi, 123.] The word Bargi is applied to'the Maratha cavalry under Bijapur in 1549 and again in 1560.[Briggs' Ferishta, III. 103 and 432.] It is frequently applied to Telugu troops and estate-holders under the Känarese kingdom of Vijayanagar (1330 - 1564),[Compare Scott'a Deccan, I. 313, 314, 315 and Briggs' Ferishta, III. 137, 138, 139, 141, 153, 154, 166, 173, 243. One of these Vijayanagar Bargis bore the Dravidian name Hindeattum (Scott's Deccan, I. 305) and some seem to have been Telugu men.] and to the Bijapur troops after Bijapur (1570) extended its power over much of the territory formerly held by Vijayanagar. In 1613 the Emperor Jahangir in his autobiography calls the Maratha skirmishers of Ahmadnagar Bargiyan. [Wakiat-i-Jahangiri in Elliot and Dowson, VI. 333.] In 1616 the Bargis of Ahmadnagar are described as a very hardy race and Jadhav Rai, apparently Shivaji's maternal grandfather, is called Bargi.[Wakiat-i-Jahangiri in Elliot and Dowson, VI. 343.] These quotations show that the Musalman historians applied the term Bargi both to Telugu and to Maratha cavalry. This double use of Bargi suggests that the origin of the word is the Tamil Vaduga that is northern, a term which in the Tamil country is commonly used of the people of Telingana, which is also used of Kanarese immigrants to the Nilgiri hills, and which might, with equal correctness, be used of the people of Maharashtra. [Compare Caldwell's Dravidian Grammar, ii. The Kanarese Vadugas or northerners of the Nilgiri hills are the people known to the English as Burghers. Ditto, 34.]

Rajputs.

Rajputs are returned as numbering 1500 and as found in all parts of the State. Most of them have been settled in the State for several generations. They believe that their forefathers came south from Upper India in search of military service. Their commonest surnames or clan names are Ahir, Chobe, Kanoje, and Tidhare. The names in common use among men are Bhimsing, Madansing, and Vijaysing; and among women Durgabai, Gunjabai, and Lakshmibai. They are fair strong and well made with regular features. The women are short and slightly made, but fair and graceful. Their home speech is Hindi, and out of doors they speak Marathi. They live in tiled houses and keep cattle and sometimes horses. Their daily food includes rice, Indian millet and pulse, and, on festive occasions, sweet dishes and mutton. They do not eat fowls or eggs. Some of them are excessively fond of opium and of smoking hemp-flower or ganja. They take food from no one but Brahmans. The men wear a waistcloth, jacket, shouldercloth, and headscarf. The women do not appear in public. They wear the full Maratha robe sometimes passing the skirt back between the feet, and the bodice with a back and short sleeves. They claim, and to a certain extent are given a higher social position than Marathas. They are faithful, thrifty, hardworking, hospitable, and quick-tempered. They are State servants, traders, and husbandmen. Their ceremonies are performed by North Indian Brahman priests called Pandyas and when Pandyas are not available by local Brahmans. They worship the regular Brahmanic gods and pay special reverence to Balaji. They allow widow marriage and some wear the sacred thread. Their birth marriage and death ceremonies do not differ from those performed by Marathas of good family. Social disputes are settled at meetings of the elders of the caste. Their orders are enforced by putting out of caste or by fine which is spent on a caste dinner. They send their boys to school and are fairly off.

TRADERS.

Traders include six divisions with a strength of 9876 or 1.29 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

kolhapur Traders, 1881.

DIVISION.	Males.	Females.	Total.
Atars	4	1	5
Gujarat Vanis	48	31	79
Komtia	66	56	122
Maratha Vanis	4531	4281	8812
Marwar Vanis	73	25	98
Tambolis	401	359	760
Total	5123	4753	9876

Atars.

Ata'rs or Perfumers, are returned as numbering five and as found in the town of Kolhapur. It is doubtful to what class these five Atars belong. The people generally called Atars are Musalmans. It is possible that some individuals either of the Gandhi or Hindu perfumers or of the Lad class who live by selling perfumed oils, powder, and turmeric, returned themselves as Atars.

Gujarat Vanis.

Gujara't Va'nis are returned as numbering seventy-nine and as found chiefly in Alta and Shirol. Most of them are Nagars of the Meshri or Brahmanic division of Gujarat Vanis, who are said to have come from Gujarat, Bombay, and Poona. Few of them are permanently settled in the State; most go to Gujarat Bombay or Poona to marry their children. They are traders and moneylenders and are well-to-do. [Details of Gujarat Vanis are given in the Poona Statistical Account.]

Komtis

Komtis [The fact that several 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 Haidarbad. It seems, probable that the name Kamathi is in origin the same as Komti.] who are returned as numbering 122, are found in most market towns. They are partly old settlers and partly newcomers. Their home speech shows that they originally belonged to the Telugu country. The men are middle-sized dark and somewhat irregular in features, and the women are short, wiry, strong, and well featured. They are vegetarians and both men and women dress like Brahmans. They are hardworking, thrifty, and well-to-do dealing in grain, glass beads, and metal ware and sometimes lending money. They gird their boys with the sacred thread, and in religious and social customs closely resemble Maratha Brahmans whom they call to officiate at their houses. They send their children to school and or the whole are a rising class. [A detailed account of Komtis is given in the Sholapur Statistical Account.]

Maratha Vanis.

Mara'tha Va'nis, or Traders, who are also called Vaishya Vanis, are returned as numbering 8812 and as found in Bavda, Bhudargad, Vishalgad, and other sub-divisions bordering on the Konkan from which they seem to have come. They belong to three divisions, Kudal Vanis apparently from Kudal in Savantvadi, Sangmeshvar Vanis apparently from Sangmeshvar in Ratnagiri, and Patane Vanis apparently from Patan in Satara. All eat together but do not intermarry. They are of middle size, and fairer than Lingayat Vänis. Their home speech is Marathi. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They dress like Marathas except that the men wear a Brahman-shaped turban. Their ornaments do not differ from those worn by Marathas. They are shrewd, thrifty, hard-working, and honest, and their chief occupation is grain-dealing. They send grain to the coast on pack-bullocks and bring back salt and other articles. Before cart roads were opened across the Sahyadris they owned large numbers of pack-bullocks. Since cart roads have been opened they have turned their attention to husbandry. They hold much the same position as Marathas and eat only from Brahmans. They employ either Konkanasth or Deshasth Maratha Brahmans and treat them with much respect. Their favourite deities are Ambabai, Maruti, and Vithoba of Pandharpur, and they also worship Jotiba and Mahadev. They keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and feasts and almost all their social and religious customs are the same as Maratha customs. They send their boys to school and teach them to read, write, and work sums in Marathi. Their condition is middling.

Marwar Vanis.

Ma'rwa'r Va'nis [A detailed account of Marwar Vanis is given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] are returned as numbering ninety-eight and as found chiefly in Kolhapur and Shirol. They come from Marwar to trade principally in piecegoods and in their old age retire to their native country. They belong to two main classes Jains or Shravaks and Meshris or Vaishnavs. Of the seventy-two clans into which the Meshri Marwaris say they are divided in Marwar seventeen are represented in Kolhapur. The seventeen are Bajaj, Baladva, Biavi, Chindah, Gatana, Gilda, Jhandar, Kabra, Kalantri, Malpana, Malv, Marda, Modani, Porval, Sarad, Shikji, and Soni. Persons bearing the same surnames cannot intermarry. The names in common use among men are Gavra, Khushal, and Ram; and among women Bani, Naju, and Padma. They are rather tall dark and stout, and as a rule have big faces and sharp eyes. The expression of many is hard and mean, but they are more vigorous than the Lingayat and other local Vanis. They speak Marwari at home and incorrect Marathi abroad. They keep their accounts in Marwari. Most of them live in houses of the better class. Their daily food is wheat pulse and butter. They abstain from flesh and spirituous drink. The men generally wear the back hair long with an upward turn at the tips. They shave the front part of the head leaving a curly lock over each ear. Some wear the beard long and thin, others shave the face except the moustache and eyebrows. The men wear a waistcloth, long coat and shouldercloth, and shoes. They can be known by their two-coloured tightly-wound turban. The women wear the hair in a triple braid without decking it with flowers. They wear a full long petticoat, an openbacked bodice, and an upper robe which they draw over the head like a veil. Some Marwari women wear shoes. Their arms are covered with ivory bracelets. They are shrewd, thrifty, hardworking, and prosperous. Most of them are tradesmen. Their favourite god is Balaji of Tirupati in North Arkot, and their chief festivals are Gaur on the third of bright Chaitra or March-April, Tej on the third of bright Shravau or July-August, and Divali on the no-moon of Ashvin or September-October. They have priests of their own, and in their absence employ local Brahmans. Most of them can read and write Marwari and are prosperous.

The Shravak or Jain Marwaris are a smaller body than the Meshri Marwaris from whom they do not differ in speech, dress, character, occupation, or condition. All Kolhapur Marwari Jains are said to belong to the Osval subdivision.

Tambolis.

Ta'mbolis, or Betel-leaf Seilers, are returned as numbering ten. They seem to belong to a larger class called Panaris or leaf sellers, who are returned with a strength of 750. These Panaris used to sell betelnut and some keep to their old calling. The rest have taken to husbandry, betel-leaf growing, parched rice or poha-making, and moneylending. In appearance speech and names they do not differ from Marathas, and in food dress and customs they closely copy Maratha Brahmans. They send their boys to school and teach them to write, read, and count in Marathi. They are vigorous and well-to-do.

HUSBANDMEN.

Husbandmen include four divisions with a strength of 303,696 or 39.65 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Husbandmen, 1881.

Chhattris.

Chhatris are returned as numbering 1844 and as found in Kolhapur only. They are apparently of Rajput descent. They are cultivators and resemble Kunbis in appearance, food, dress, and manners and customs.

Kunbis.

Kunbis are returned as numbering 299,871 and as found over the whole State. They have no divisions, and are dark, middle sized, well made, strong, and hardy. Except in the south and east where they speak Kanarese, their home tongue is Marathi. The house of a village Kunbi is about twenty feet square with a tiled or thatched roof and walls of stone, sun-burnt bricks, or wattle and daub. It consists of an enclosed veranda or sopa in which he keeps his cattle and a room divided by walls three feet high. Inside it is dark and badly aired. ' If we had Windows' they say, ' the thief's work would be easy.' The Kunbi's ordinary food is jvari bread, vegetables, salt, and chillies. In the western hills nachni is used instead of jvari. Rice is eaten bat very sparingly on account of its high price. All Kunbis to the west of Kolhapur are fond of ambil or gruel a preparation of fermented nachni flour and buttermilk. On great holidays banquets and feasts they use animal food and are fond of mutton, fowls, and eggs. They never use beef or pork, but have no objection to boar's flesh. All Kunbis use spirituous liquors, but seldom to excess. Tobacco smoking and chewing are very common, hemp-smoking is not uncommon, but opium-eating is rare. A Kunbi man's usual dress is a white turban and a waistcloth. At home or when at work in the field he wears a piece of cloth passed between his legs and a blanket. Towards the western hills where the climate is colder, Kunbis use a small blanket jacket. On special occasions such as holidays and marriage ceremonies they wear either a waistcloth or loose trousers called cholnas reaching a little below the knee and along white coat hanging to the knee. Poor Kunbis cannot afford to have a coat and wear only a waistcloth. The shoes generally worn by men and women are sandals or paytans. Well-to-do Kunbis use a Brahman shoe. A Kunbi woman dresses in a robe and bodice. On ceremonial occasions the women wear a silk-bordered robe and bodice and the men a waistcloth. The Kunbis are a hard-working, honest, frank, orderly and contented people, but timid and shy. They are cultivators. Besides managing the house the women aid in the field, picking and cleaning cotton and spinning yarn. They also go to the nearest weekly markets and sell the surplus produce. Kunbis are socially lower than Marathas. But a well-to-do Kunbi calls himself a Maratha and poor Marathas freely and openly marry with rich Kunbis. The men begin work in the field at daybreak and have a light breakfast or nyahri of jvari or nachni which is taken to them by the women at about eight. They work till midday when they have another meal in the field and after a short rest begin again and work till dark, when they return home, sup, and go to bed. The same articles are generally eaten at the midday and evening meals. In the Ghatimatha or hilly west all eat rice and in the Desh or piain instead of rice they use jvari both in the form of bread and kanya that is partially ground jvari cooked somewhat in the form of rice. Along with this they eat curry made of pounded chillies, flour, and spices, and vegetables. When a Kunbi marriage is settled, both parents go to the village astrologer and ask him whether the stars favour their union. The astrologer asks the boy's and girl's names, and after Consulting his almanac generally declares that the stars are favourable and the marriage is settled. The parents ask the astrologer to name lucky days and hours for the turmeric-rubbing, marriage and return procession, and then go to their homes. A little before the hour fixed for the turmeric-rubbing the boy's relations and friends both men and women go to the girl's, taking two robes, sugar, cocoanuts, dates, turmeric, betelnuts, a pair of silver anklets, and a necklace of gold coins or putlis, and music. Here while the priest, who is a Brahman, repeats verses, the boy'sfather presents the girl with the robe and puts a little sugar into her mouth. Then the girl's female relations trace a white powder Square, set round it five earthen jars and pass a thread round the jars. In the Square are set two low wooden stools, and the priest worships the jars by putting water and a betelnut into each jar and closes its mouth with a cocoanut. He lays a betelnut in front, worships it as the god Ganpati, and prays it to be kindly. Both the mother and girl are anointed with turmeric and oil by married women, and the priest, leading the girl five times round the jars, at each turn throws grains of rice over the jars, and at the last turn seats her on one of the low wooden stools. The mother sits on the other stool and both are bathed by married women. After the bath, the boy's relations present the girl with a robe and deck her with ornaments. The girl's relations, taking the remaining turmeric and oil, go along with the boy's relations and music to the boy's, and a similar ceremony is gone through. This is followed by the devak or guardian ceremony which consists of worshipping the picture of Ganpati in the priest's almanac; of setting a lucky post outside the house in the booth; and of preparing two bundles of betelnuts, rice, and turmeric to represent the various gods. While this ceremony is going on the women in the house worship the grain grindstone or jate, and the village washerwoman lays sandal, rice, turmeric, and vermilion before the grinding-stone slab or pata Next day feasts are held in honour of the family deity Jotiba, Khandoba, or Ambabai. On the third or marriage day, the boy is bathed in the morning, and an hour or two before the hour fixed for the marriage, goes on horseback to the village temple, and thence to the girl's accompanied by men and women relations, friends, and music. When the procession reaches the girl's house, the boy is taken off the horse and the village barber washes his feet. The girl's father approaches the boy and presents him with a new waistcloth shouldercloth and turban. The boy wears them and Walking into the booth takes his stand on a heap of unhusked rice. The girl is brought out of the house where she was sitting among women and made to stand on another heap in front of the boy facing him. A cloth is held between them with a lucky red cross or savastik properly svastik on it. A pinch of cumin seed or jire is held by the pair in their mouths, and a near relation holds either a sword or a dagger over the boy's head. The priests and other Brahmans repeat marriage verses and end with the word Savdhan or Beware. The curtain is pulled on one side, the guests throw rice grains over the pair, and the musicians raise a blast of music. The boy's priest fastens round the girl's neck the marriage string or mangalsutra, and one of the elderly male relations ties a cotton thread or dorla. The boy and girl are then led by the priest to the house gods and bow before them; while he is bowing the boy steals an image from the god-room and does not gives it back till he is paid 2s. (Re. 1). They are next seated on an altar or bahule and the girl's brother holds the boy by his right ear, and does not loosen his hold until he is presented with a new turban. Female relations now approach the couple and drop rice grains from the boy's and girl's Shoulders. Then a dish of cooked food such as rice, vegetables, and sweetmeats, served by two or four married women is placed on the altar in front of the boy and girl. A couple of relations from both sides join the pair and all dine from the same plate. A feast to relations and castefellows follows. The boy's parents present the girl with rich clothes and ornaments, and clothes are exchanged between the two houses. The boy and girl are seated on a horse and are taken in procession to the boy's house accompanied by men and women relations, friends, and music. When they arrive at the boy's house, his sister stands in the doorway and does not allow him to enter until he promises to give his daughter in marriage to her son. The pair then enter the house and bow before the house-gods. The village washerwoman, taking a pestle in her hand with the help of the boy, the girl, and some kinswomen beats unhusked rice, singing songs. Kunbis allow their girls to remain unmarried till they are over sixteen. Marriages between Kunbis and Marathas do not take place unless a Maratha becomes poor and fails to get a Maratha bride. Kunbis allow polygamy, but it is not so common among them as among Marathas. They also allow widow marriage, but a married widow is considered unclean and cannot take part in any religious family ceremonies. When a Kunbi dies, he is taken out of the house, bathed, dressed in a loincloth, and laid on a bier. He is oovered with a sheet and redpowder is sprinkled over the sheet. He is carried on the Shoulders of four men to the burning ground. After the body is burnt the mourners return home. On the third day, the chief mourner, aecompanied by a few male relations, goes to the burning ground, removes the ashes and unburnt bones, and throws them into water. The family of the dead is unclean for ten days. On the morning of the eleventh they drink water in which a Brahman's toe has been dipped and become pure. Every year in the month of Bhadrapad or August-September they perform the anniversary of the deceased, when they offer cooked food to crows and feast castemen. Kunbis worship all Brahmanic gods and goddesses, and follow the doctrines of Tukaram, Dnyaneshvar, and Namdev. Others who worship Vithoba of Pandharpur are called Malkaris or wearers of basil bead necklaces. The names of their family gods are Bahiroba, Jakoba, Jotiba, Khandoba, Mhasoba, and Narsoba; and of their godesses Ambabai, Bhavani, Bhavkai, Chopdai, Ekviri, Jakai, Jugai, Kalkai, Phirangai, Margai, Satvai, Vithli, and Yallamma. The only animals which Kunbis offer to please their deities are he-goats, cocks, and chickens. They offer them to Mhasoba in the month of Ashadh or June-July and to Ambabai in Ashvin or September-October on Dasara Day, and on the fifteenth or full-moon of Magh or January- February. Animal sacrifices are not confined to these two deities, they are offered to all house gods. They make vows both to house and village gods, and believe in witchcraft holding witches and sorcerers in great respect. They believe in omens and consider it lucky if a crow flies to the right and a tas or the blue jay Coracias indica to the left. On going out they think it lucky to meet an unwidowed woman with a full waterpot on her head, a milkmaid with milk pots, or anybody with a dish of cooked food. If a cat, a bareheaded Brahman, a barber with his shaving gear, or a widow happen to pass before them while going OUT they consider it unlucky and go back. They hold it very unlucky if a lighted lamp falls on the ground and goes out; or if a house- lizard drops in front of them or on them. The only living animal they worship is the cow. They also worship clay images of bullocks on the full-moon of Ashadh or June-July, and on that day they paint the horns of their cattle especially of their bullocks, feed them on sweet dishes, and allow them to rest. They worship the sweet basil and the Indian fig tree. Their priests are ordinary village Brahmans to whom they pay great respect. They go on pilgrimage to Jotiba of Vadi-Ratnagiri nine miles north-west of Kolhapur in the months of Chaitra or March-April and Shravan or July-August; to Narsoba's Vadi on Guru-dvadashi in Ashvin or Sept.-Oct. and in the month of Magh or January-February; to Pandharpur on the eleventh of the first halves of Ashadh or June-July and Kartik or October-November; to Alandi and Dehu in Poona and Tuljapur in the Nizam's country, and even to Benares at any time during their lives. The holidays kept by Kunbis are the Padva or New Year's Day which falls in Chaitra or March-April. On this day they hoist a flag or gudhi in front of their house in honour of the new year. On the fifteenth a feast is held in honour of the god Jotiba when the chief dish is rolly polies or puranpolis. Akshayatritiya which falls on the third of Vaishakh or April-May is kept as a feast. The full-moon of Ashadh or June-July on which they worship clay bullocks, they consider to be the most important of their holidays. On the fourth of Bhadrapad or Aug-Sept. comes Ganesh-chathurthi or Ganpati'sFourth when earthen images of Ganpati are made and worshipped and a dish of rice flour balls stuffed with cocoakernel scrapings and molasses is prepared in their honour. The first nine days of Ashvin or Septembor-October are called Navratra when an earthen jar filled with water with a cocoanut on the top is worshipped in hor.our of the goddess Ambabai. On the tenth they worship weapons and field tools and feast on sweet-meats, flesh, and liquor. In the afternoon villagers go in procession as far as the village boundary or gavshinv. Here the village headman worships the apta or shami tree with the help of the village Brahman, and on their return they distribute leaves to their relations and friends. On Great Sankrant Day or the twelfth of January, they present sugared sesame to their friends and acquaintances, and during Shimga in March-April they burn and worship the Holi bonfire and on the following day daub one another with dirt. Four days later on Rang-panchmi Day they throw red water over each other and term it shimpan or the sprinkling. During these festive occasions Kunbis dress in rich clothes, and those who can afford it eat fowls and mutton and drink liquor. Their fasts are the Ekadishis or elevenths of Kartik or October-November and Ashadh or June-July, Shivratra in January-February, Gokulashtami in August, Ram-navmi in March-April, and all Mondays in Shravan or July-August. The famine of 1876-77 reduced a number of Kunbis to poverty. The western Kunbis are generally in debt and those of the east are better off. Some of them send their boys to school but their condition on the whole is poor.

Malis.

Malis, or Gardeners, are returned as numbering 1407 and as found chiefly in Karvir and Panhala. They are divided into Lingayat and Maratha Malis, who do not eat together or intermarry. They are dark and strong. Except a few who speak Kanarese all speak Marathi. They are hardworking and orderly. They are husbandmen and gardeners, and grow and sell vegetables. They are helped in their calling by their wives and children. Some are moneylenders. The men pass their time in the fields and gardens and the women take the vegetables to market to sell. Most are Lingayats and their head priest the Svami of Kadapa's math or monastery which is about nine miles from Kolhapur, attends their marriages. In manners and customs Maratha Malis do not differ from cultivating Marathas, and though they do not eat or marry with them, Lingayat Malis resemble Lingayat Vanis. Some Malis of both classes send their boys to school, but few can be said to be well off.

Raddis.

Raddis are returned as numbering 574 and as found mainly in Gadinglaj. They are believed to have come to the State from the south. Their home speech is Telugu. They are husbandmen and resemble Kunbis in all respects. They are Smarts in religion.

CRAFTSMEN.

Craftsmen include twenty-one classes with a strength of 52,574 or 6.57 per cent. The details are:

Kolhapur Craftsmen, 1881.

Beldars.

Belda'rs, or Pickaxe Men, are returned as numbering 758 and as found in small numbers over the whole State. They are tall, dark, robust, strong, hardworking, and quarrelsome. They speak incorrect Marathi both at home and abroad, and live in dirty clumsy thatched houses. Their chief hereditary calling is working in stone and earth, hewing stone, and building wells. They have a bad name as thieves, with their wives and children attending fairs and river-bank gatherings. The men engage some stranger in talk while the children carry off his property, or one of the gang comes close to women who are seated perhaps cooking on a sandy river side with a box of valuables near, stops as he passes and sits down as if to relieve himself and while the woman turns her head away seizes and hides in the sand any valuables he can lay his hands on. They earn enough to support themselves, but are given to drink and are badly off. They keep all Hindu fasts and feasts and their favourite gods are Khandoba and Jotiba.

Buruds.

Buruds, [Details of the Lingayat Burud customs are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] or Basket Makers, are returned as numbering 900 and as found all over the State. They claim descent from Medarket one of the followers of Basav (1100- 1168) the founder or reviver of the Lingayat faith. In look, food, dress, and dwelling they are similar to the Buruds of Ahmadnagar. They are hardworking and fond of drink and spend most of their earnings on liquor and in marriages. They keep all Hindu fasts and feasts and worship Shiv. Their priests are Jangams, but they also ask Brahmans to their marriages. Their religious teacher is Shiddhgiri of Kanheri in Satara. They make bamboo baskets, winnowing fans, mats, and cages, and live from hand to mouth. They have a caste Council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. Few send their boys to school. They do not take to new pursuits, and are a poor class.

Gavandis.

Gavandis, or Masons, are returned as numbering eighty-seven and as found in towns. They are said to be the offspring of a Brahman widow by a sanyashi or Brahman ascetic. In food, dress, look, and social religious customs they in no way differ from local husbandmen with whom they eat but do not marry. As a class they are quiet, hardworking, clean and neat in their habits, and hospitable. They cut and dress stone and build walls and are well-to-do. They have a caste Council and send their boys to school.

Hanbars.

Hanbars, or Cattlekeepers, are returned as numbering 4162 and and as found in Karvir and Gadinglaj. The name Hanbar means possessor of cattle with upright horns. According to their religious rules they ought to live in forests, keep herds of cattle, and sell milk and clarified butter, eat only once a day wearing a wet cloth, and never look at a lamp or engage in tillage. Now-a days they do not keep these rules, many of them till, and a few serve as messengers and labourers or field workers. In look, food, dress, and customs they differ little from ordinary husbandmen. They have their own priests and their favourite gods are Alamprabhu, Krishna, and Sidhoba. They also offer sandal, flowers, and sweetmeats to the serpent or Nag on the dark lunar eleventh or ekadashi in Kartik or October-November. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. They do not send their boys to school. They are hardworking and thrifty but poor.

Jingars.

Jingars, [Details of the Jingar customs are given in the Sholapur Statistical Account.] or Saddlemakers, are returned as numbering 394 and as found only in towns. In look, food, dress, drink, and dwelling, they are the same as the Sholapur Jingars and Karanjkars. As a class they are clean, neat, hardworking, orderly, and thrifty, and their speech at home and abroad is a corrupt Marathi. They are saddlemakers, bookbinders, carpenters, copper and brass smiths, landholders, cultivators, and ironsmiths. Those who do not work in leather are called Karanjkars or fountain makers. A few Jingars repair carriages and watches and prepare dolls of paper and earth and sell them at local fairs, and make and sell clay figures of Ganpati in the month of Bhadrapad or August-September. Jingars and Karanjkars eat together and intermarry, and their religious and social customs are the same as those of Sholapur Karanjkars. Their priests are ordinary Maratha Brahmans. Few among them know how to read and write, but many send their boys to school, and they are a thriving class.

Kasars.

Kasars, or Bellmetal Smiths, are returned as numbering 379 and as found only in towns. They belong to the Jain sect, and like other Jains wear the sacred thread and worship the Jain deities Kallamma and Parasnath, eschew flesh, and have their social disputes settled by the Jain pontiff Lakshmisen. They speak Kanarese at home and Marathi abroad. They deal in copper arid brass vessels and glass bangles and fit glass bangles on the wrists of married Hindu women. They are clean neat and orderly, and dress like Brahmans. They send their boys to school and are in easy circumstances. Their social and religious customs are the same as those of the local Jains. [Details are given under Jains.]

Koshtis.

Koshtis, [Details of Koshti customs are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] or Weavers, are returned as numbering 6431 and as found in towns and large villages. Kolhapur weavers include six classes, Devangs, Hatkars, Khatris, Koshtis, Lads. and Salis. Of these Koshtis and Salis, though they do not eat together or inter-marry, resemble each other in look food dress and customs, and form the bulk of the local weavers. Devangs and Hatkars who are Lingayats and can be readily known by the ling tied round their necks are found in small numbers, and Khatris [Details of Khatris are given in the Ahmadnagar and Sholapur Statistical Accounts.] and Lads are rare. The following details apply to Koshtis and Salis. They say they have come from Paithan on the Godavari but when and why none of them can tell. As a class they are thin and weak, and in look, food, dress, drink, speech, and customs resemble the ordinary local husbandmen. They worship all Brahmanic gods, keep the usual Brahman fasts and feasts, and ask local Brahmans to conduct their marriages. Boys are married between twelve and twenty and girls generally before they come of age. The boy's father pays the girl's marriage charges and makes a money present to her father. Their marriage guardian or devak is a mango or umbar Ficus glomerata twig and boys are given a sacred thread to wear a short time before the marriage by the priest. They bathe daily and offer sandal-paste, flowers, burnt frankincense, and food cooked in the house to their loom which they say represents the ling or Shiv's emblem. Widow marriage and polygamy are allowed but polyandry is unknown. Their women help them, but they are badly off owing to the importation of machine-made cotton goods. Some have taken to tillage and many work as labourers. They are a falling class.

Kumbhars.

Kumbha'rs, or Potters, are returned as numbering 8509 and as found in small numbers over the whole State. They are divided into Maratha Kumbhars and Rajput Kumbhars, who do not eat together or intermarry. Maratha Kumbhars have no tale of their origin or any memory of former settlement. Rajput Kumbhars say they came into the State about two hundred years ago. The bulk of the Kolhapur potters are Maratha Kumbhars, and the Rajputs are a very small body. The men of both classes shave the head except the topknot and the face except the moustache, and in look, food, dress, and customs the Marathas resemble local husband- men. The Rajput Kumbhars are like local Rajputs in dwelling, food, dress, and look, and in social and religious customs. Both at home and abroad the Marathas speak a corrupt Marathi and the Rajputs a corrupt Hindustani. As a class Kumbhars are hard-working and thrifty. The Rajputs are brickmakers only and as they find themselves unable to compete with the Marathas they have taken to fuel-selling and charcoal-burning. The Marathas enjoy the monopoly of making and selling earth vessels and toys. Maratha Kumbhars are paid in cash except in villages where they are one among the village staff of servants and are paid in grain at harvest. Their women and children help in their calling. Except that among Maratha Kumbhar mourners men do not shave the face after a death, their social and religious customs are the same as those of local husbandmen. They have a caste council and a head-man or mehtar and settle social disputes at caste meetings or panchayats. Rajput Kumbhars are a declining people and Maratha Kumbhars are fairly off. Bhandu Kumbhars, seemingly a branch of Maratha Kumbhars, are found at Panhala. They earn their living by making and selling earthen images. In look, food, dress, and customs they are the same as Maratha Kumbhars. They practise polygamy and bury their dead. They are a steady class.

Lohars.

Lohar's, [Details of Lohar customs are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] or Blacksmiths, are returned as numbering 2101 and as found in small numbers over the whole State. They are cultivators and a few hold rent-free land. They worship all Hindu gods and goddesses and keep all their feasts or fasts, and their favourite deities are Khandoba, Sidhoba, and Yallamma. In look, food, dress, and customs they are the same as Ahmadnagar and Poona Lohars. They employ Brahmans at their marriages and Jangams at their funerals. They are hardworking and earn enough to support themselves, but are given to drink and are badly off. They settle social disputes at meetings of castemen and seldom send their boys to school.

Otaris.

Ota'ris, [Details of Otari customs are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] or Casters, are returned as numbering 229 and as found over the whole State and chiefly in the town of Kolhapur. They are dark strong and well made, their speech both at home and abroad is a corrupt Marathi, and they live in one-storeyed houses with mud walls and tiled or thatched roofs. They have bullocks for carrying their goods and are fond of pets. In food drink and character they do not differ from the Ahmadnagar Otaris. They make and sell brass and copper vessels, but are badly off on account of the competition of imported goods. Their favourite deity is Kallamma, and they worship all Brahmanic and local gods and goddesses and keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts. Their social and religious customs are the same as those of Poona Otaris. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. Few among them send their boys to school or take to new callings. Though honest and thrifty, they dislike hard work and are poor.

Panchals

Pa'nchals, [Details of Panchal customs are given in the Sholapur Statistical Account.] a name of doubtful origin generally supposed to mean the five craftsmen, are returned as numbering 819 and as found in towns and large villages. They speak Kanarese at home and Marathi abroad. In look, food, dress, and dwelling, and social and religious customs they are the same as the Sholapur Panchals. They are clean and neat in their habits, hardworking, orderly, and thrifty. They are carpenters, coppersmiths, goldsmiths, and casters of brass and copper vessels. They keep all Brahmanic fasts and feasts and worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses. Their family goddess is Kalikadevi and their priests belong to their own caste. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings under their headman. A few send their boys to school and as a class are well-to-do.

Patharvats.

Pa'tharvats, or Stone Dressers, are returned as numbering 217 and as found only in towns. Patharvats are of several classes Marathas, Lingayats, Jains, and Musalmans. The Maratha Patharvats dress like Kunbis and do not differ from them in food or in religious and social customs. Their favourite goddess is Kallamma and they eat but do not marry with Maratha Kunbis. Their calling is well paid but they spend their earnings in liquor. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. Few of them send their boys to school.

Rangaris.

Ranga'ris or Dyers, including Nilaris or Indigo Dyers, are returned as numbering eighty-eight and as found only in towns. They belong to the Shimpi caste, and in look, food, dress, dwelling, and social and religious customs are the same as Shimpis. They worship all Brahman and local gods and goddesses and keep the usual fasts and feasts, and their priests are local Brahmans who conduct their marriage and death ceremonies. Their calling is well paid and they are fairly off.

Rauls.

Ra'uls are returned as numbering 229 and as found in all parts of the State. In look, food, drink, dress, and customs they resemble Maratha Kunbis with whom they eat but do not marry. Their favourite god is Mahadev, but they worship all Brahmanic and local deities and keep the regular fasts and feasts. They are players and beggars, and weave strips of coarse cloth and tape. They have a caste council. They do not send their boys to school, and are poor.

Sangars.

Sangars, or Wool Weavers, are returned as numbering 1011 and as found in small numbers over the whole State. They seem to have been formerly Lingayats or followers of Basav (1100-1168) whose priests or Jangams they still employ at their marriage and death ceremonies, and to settle their caste disputes. In look, food, dress, dwelling, and customs they do not differ from the Poona Sangars. They weave and sell coarse blankets and the women do as much work as the men. They worship all Hindu gods and goddesses, and keep the regular fasts and feasts. Their favourite gods are Bahiroba, Khandoba, and Mhasoba. They have a caste council, and some of them send their boys to school. Though they are hardworking and thrifty their calling is poorly paid and they live from hand to mouth.

Shimpis,

Shimpis, [Details of Namdev Shimpi customs are given in the Ahmadnagar and Satara Statistical Accounts.] or Tailors are returned as numbering 5666 and as found all over the State but chiefly in towns. They claim descent from the sister of Namdev a staunch devotee of Vithoba of Pandharpur, who is said to have been born of a shell or shimpi. Originally it is said Shimpis were both dyers and tailors, but in time, probably from its unpleasantness, dyeing came to be looked down on and is now the calling of a distinct caste called Rangaris. In look, food, dress, and customs the Kolhapur Shimpis are the same as the Satara and Ahmadnagar Shimpis. As a class Shimpis are clean and neat in their habits, quiet, orderly, and hardworking, but proverbial cheats. They are cloth-dealers and tailors. They worship all local and Brahmanic gods and goddesses, and keep the usual fasts and feasts. Their priests are local Brahmans who conduct their marriage and death ceremonies. They belong to the Vaishnav sect, and their favourite god is Vithoba of Pandharpur. The worshippers of Vithoba wear a tulsi bead necklace and on the lunar elevenths or ekadaslris in Ashadh or June-July and Kartilc or October-November, visit his shrine at Pandharpur in bands carrying yellow flags. When they come back they feast friends and kinsfolk in honour of Vithoba. They have a caste council and send their boys to school. Formerly they received much patronage from the local Maratha noblemen and chiefs and were well-to-do. A few have begun to use sewing machines, but as a class they are not so well off as they formerly were.

Sonars.

Sonars [Sonar details are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] or Goldsmiths, are returned as numbering 5671 and as found over the whole State. They are divided into Deshasths, Konkanasths, Sadas, Ajhras, Pardeshis, Vidurs or Dasiputras, and Khandeshis, who neither eat together nor intermarry. Deshasths and Konkanasths, to whom the following details mostly apply, are looked upon as higher than the rest. They look and dress like Brahmans and speak a corrupt Marathi with a drawl. In food, dress, house, character, and customs they are the same as Ahmadnagar Sonars. They are moneychangers and make gold and silver ornaments. They worship all Brahmanic and local gods and goddesses and keep the usual fasts and feasts. Their priests are men of their own caste who conduct their thread-girding marriage and death ceremonies. The Deshasth and Konkanasth Sonars, who resemble each other most, gird their boys with the sacred thread between eight and fourteen and marry them before they are twenty-five. Girls are married before they come o£ age. They forbid widow marriage, know nothing of polyandry, and allow and practise polygamy. All their ceremonies they say are the same as Brahman ceremonies. They are bound together as a body and settle social disputes at meetings of castemen. They give some elementary schooling to their boys, but as soon as they are of use keep them at home. The other classes of Sonars resemble local Kunbis in all points and their priests are Deshasth Brahmans. They do not gird their boys with the sacred thread, and use animal food and drink liquor. The higher classes of Sonars are fairly off, but the other classes find their calling ill-paid and barely earn a living.

Sutars.

Suta'rs, or Carpenters, are returned as numbering 11,451 and as found over the whole State. They are divided into two" classes Marathas and Kanadas, the latter looking down on the former with whom they neither eat nor marry. As a class Maratha Sutars are strong, dark, regular featured, and well built, and live in one-storeyed houses with mud walls and tiled or thatched roofs. In look, food, speech, dress, and customs they resemble the Sutars of Poona and Ahmadnagar.- Their family gods are Jotiba, Khandoba, and Vithoba. Unlike the Kanadas who have their own priests the priests of Maratha Sutars are local Brahmans who conduct their marriage and death ceremonies. At present the work both of Kanada and Maratha Sutars is in great demand, and they earn enough to keep themselves and their families in comfort. A few are husbandmen and hold rent-free lands in return for their services to villagers as one of the balutedars or village staff.

Tambats.

Ta'mbats, or Coppersmiths, are returned as numbering 160 and as found only in towns. They are said to have come from the Konkan about the middle of the eighteenth century. They are middle sized and thin, but strong and muscular. They look and dress like Brahmans and claim to be Panchals. They speak a corrupt Marathi and their houses are like those of Sonars. They say they are vegetarians. They make and sell brass and copper vessels. They worship all local and Brahmanic gods and goddesses and keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasta. Their family goddess is Kallamma of Shirshingi in Belgaum. They employ their own priests and perform ceremonies like those of Brahmans. They gird their boys with the sacred thread between eight and fourteen and marry them between fourteen and twenty, the boy as a rule paying the girl's father a sum of money. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at caste meetings. On account of the increasing use of glass and China ware, the Tambats say their goods are in less demand than they used to be.

Telis.

Telis, or Oilmen, are returned as numbering 2100 and as found in small numbers over the whole Stato. They include two divisions Maratha and Lingayat Telis. Lingayat Telis have a separate recognised head of the caste and employ Jangams to conduct their marriages and births. They bury their dead. Maratha Telis eat with local Maratha Kunbis, but marry among themselves only, and employ Brahman priests to conduct their ceremonies. Telis are hardworking, honest, and thrifty. The growing use of kerosine oil has not yet affected their craft. They are a steady class.

Upars.

Upa'rs, or Grindstone Makers, are returned as numbering 1212 and as found in small numbers in towns and large villages. In look food dress and dwelling they do not differ from ordinary Kunbia or Malis. They claim to be mediums and to have intercourse with gods and spirits. Sometimes they put on a Maratha dress and alarge bead necklace and sit at a ford or riverside counting their beads as if absorbed in prayer and holy thoughts, but when the chance offers they make away with the property of travellers who happen to halt or rest near them. They are grindstone-makers and cut and dress stone, and make salt from earth. Their family god is Hanuman, and they worship all local and Brahmanic gods and goddesses and keep the usual fasts and feasts. Their customs are the same as Kunbi customs. They allow widow marriage and polygamy but not polyandry. They either burn or bury the dead and mourn them ten days. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of castemen. Few among them send their boys to school, and as a class they live from hand to mouth.

MUSICIANS.

Musicians include five classes with a strength of 11,253 or 1.40 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

kolhapur Musicians, 1881,

Bhats.

Bha'ts, who are returned as numbering 1132, formerly barda and praisers, are famous for their talkativeness. They eat the flesh of goats and sheep. The demand for their services has to a great extent ceased. Most have taken to tillage. The rest beg and recite the doings and praises of kings. They claim a Kshatriya origin but rank with Marathas. Their favourite gods are Balaji, Mahadev, Maruti, and Vithoba. They wear necklaces of tulsi beads, and allow polygamy and widow marriage. They have no recognized head.

Dasris.

Da'sris, literally Slaves, are returned as numbering 198 and as found only in Katkol. They are strolling players of two classes one who prostitute and the other who do not prostitute their women. They neither eat together nor intermarry. Their home speech is Telugu. They do not own houses but live in poor tents called pals or booths. Their ordinary food is millet bread, pulse, chillies, and salt, but they eat all kinds of flesh except the flesh of the hog and of the cow. They are idle and thriftless and move from village to village begging and performing. Their wives and children help in their calling. Socially' they rank below Kunbis. Their favourite gods are Maruti, Vyankatpati, and the goddess Yallamma, whose images they keep in their houses. They worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses, keep the usual fasts and festivals, and employ as priests the ordinary village Brahmans whom they treat with respect. They either bury or burn their dead and are poor.

Davris.

Davris, or Players of the daur drum, are returned as numbering 1114. Of several divisions Maratha Davris are alone found in Kolhapur. They eat but do not marry with Marathas. They have the ancient and still respected privilege of living in the out-houses of the temples of Rankoba and Bahiroba. They eat fish, fowls, and the flesh of goats, wild cats, and foxes, but not of cattle. They wear a thread to which is tied a whistle or shingi made of wood or deer's horn. At the houses of Marathas and others whose family gods are Jotiba and Bahiroba they perform the gondhal dance at marriages, or on the fulfilment of vows, and play a small daur or drum. [Details of the gondhal dance are given in the poona Statistical Account.] They also beg, and are husbandmen and landholders. The names of their family gods are Bahiroba, Jotiba, Mahakali, Rankoba, and Temblai. Their priests are the ordinary village Brahmans, In their initiation ceremony holes are made in the lobes of their children's ears and gold rings are put in them. They marry their widows, allow polygamy, and bury their dead. Important disputes are settled by their spiritual guide or guru, a slit-eared or Kanphatya Gosayi who lives at Battis Shirala in Satara.

Ghadshis.

Ghadshis are returned as numbering 213. They are hereditary musicians and some are husbandmen and day labourers. They eat from Kunbis but Kunbis look down on them and do not eat from them or marry with them. Their priests are the ordinary village Brahmans and their customs are like those of Kunbis. Their social disputes are referred to Brahman priests whose feet-washings they drink. They do not send their boys to school, and though good musicians, are badly off.

Guravs.

Guravs, or Priests, are returned as numbering 8596. They are divided into Nilkanths, Khotasanes, and Lingayats. The Khotasanes eat flesh and dine with Kunbis and employ Kumbhars and Davris at their funerals. The Nilkanths and Khotasanes wear the sacred thread, and the Lingayats the ling. Guravs are hereditary worshippers of village gods for which service they generally hold rent-free land. They are also paid in grain by the villagers at harvest time. They have a further source of income in the proceeds of the offerings made to the gods. They also make leaf plates, blow brass horns, and beat drums. They worship Shiv. The priests of Nilkanths and Khotasanes are ordinary village Brahmans, while those of the Lingayat Guravs are Jangams.

SERVANTS.

Servants include two classes with a strength of 12,784 or 1.77 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Servants, 1881.

Nhavis.

Nha'vis or Barbers, also called Hajams are returned as numbering 7476 and as found in all towns and villages. They are divided into Maratha and Lingayat Nhavis. The home speech of Marathas is Marathi and that of the Lingayats is Kanarese. The Lingayats are vegetarians, while the Marathas eat fish and flesh and drnik liquor. Though poor the Hajams take particular care-to dress neatly. They are idle but sober and take pains to be agreeable to their patrons. They generally sit and wait for employment at the meetings of roads and streets. When not employed they spend their time in gossip and spreading the stories they hear in the streets or in rich men's houses. In the afternoons they have generally nothing to do. Some have taken to tillage thrashing and selling rice, in which they are helped by their women. Some Nhavi women follow cattle to the grazing grounds to gather cowdung which they dry and use for fuel or sell. In towns barbers are paid in coin and in villages in grain. Unlike the Khandesh barbers they are neither musicians nor torch-carriers. Formerly they practised surgery, but now owing to the spread of European surgery their services are in little demand. Hajams are supposed to be the offspring of mixed marriages and hold a social position below Kunbis. The priests of the Lingayat Hajams are Jangams, and those of Maratha Hajams ordinary Maratha Brahmans. The Marathas rub sandal on their brows and the Lingayats rub ashes and tie a ling round their necks or round their arms above the elbow. Some have lately begun to send their boys to school. As a class they are poor.

Parits.

Parits, or Washermen, are returned as numbering 5308 and as found over the whole State. They say they came from Satara with the Maharaj's family in the beginning of the eighteenth century. They are divided into Lingayat and Maratha Parits. The Lingayat Parits speak Kanarese and though Lingayats neither eat nor marry with them, in food customs and religion are the same as Lingayats. Maratha Parits speak Marathi, and in food, dress, religion, and customs do not differ from Maratha Kunbis. As a class Parits are clean, quiet, contented, and hardworking. They are washermen and are helped in their calling by their women. They also till and hold rent-free lands. A few are labourers. The priests of the Marathas are Brahmans and those of the Lingayats are Jangams. The social disputes of the Maratha washermen are settled by their headman who is called Mhetar. When a member of the caste has broken one of the leading caste rules, they seek the aid of the village astrologer or Joshi, and the defaulter is let back into caste after drinking the feet-washed water of a Brahman and feasting the castemen. A few send their boys to school.

SHEPHERDS.

Shepherds include two classes with a strength of 42,150 or 5.86 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Shepherds, 1881.

Dhangars.

Dhangars, literally Cowmen, are found all over the State. They are said to have been created from the dust of Shiv's body. They are either an early local tribe or immigrants from the south. In support of their southern origin the division called Kanade Dhangars are said to be the latest settlement. They are divided into Dange or Hill and Mendheor Sheep Dhangars, who eat together but seldom intermarry. Their surnames are Barge, Kambre, Kolekar, Landge, and Yedge, and parties bearing the same surname do not intermarry. They are dark, strong, and generally lean. They speak Marathi, and in house, dress, and food are the same as Marathas. They are dirty, quiet, hospitable, and orderly. They have a great name as weather prophets, foretelling rain and other changes of weather by observing the planets. The Danges who are said to get their name from grazing their cattle in the Sahyadri forests are cattle dealers. The Mendhes take their name from keeping flocks of sheep and goats, and are professional graziers selling wool and woollen thread and goats and sheep. They collect considerable quantities of grain in return for folding. their sheep and goats in fields in want of manure. Their social position is below that of Kunbis. They worship all the Hindu gods and goddesses, and their favourite deities are Vithoba of Pandharpur, Mahadev of Udgiri in Kolhapur, Bahiroba of Kodoli near Panhala, and Sidhoba and Dhuloba of Chikurde in Satara. The family priests of the Mendhes are the ordinary village Brahmans, but the Danges have priests of their own class, who officiate at their marriages. They believe in sorcery and witchcraft, and hold caste councils. They do not send their boys to school. They have suffered by the recent marking off of lands for forest.

Gavlis.

Gavlis, or Cowkeepers, are found only in towns and large villages. They are divided into Maratha Gavlis, Lingayat Gavlis, Dhangar or Shepherd Gavlis, Krishna Gavlis, and Rajput Gavlis, who neither eat together nor intermarry. They are clean and their women are generally fat and buxom, Rajput Gavlis speak Hindustani, Lingayat Gavlis Kanarese, and Maratha, Shepherd, and Krishna Gavlis Marathi. The Gavlis are a quiet hard-working people who live by selling milk, curds, and butter, and keep herds of buffaloes and cows. Except of the Lingayats, the favourite Gavli god is Krishna. The manners and customs of Marathi-speaking Gavlis are the same as those of Kunbis, keeping the same fasts and feasts and employing Brahmans in their marriages; the customs of Lingayat Gavlis are like those of Lingayats, and Jangams officiate at their marriages and funerals. They seldom send their boys to school and are generally well-to-do.

LABOURERS.

Labourers include ten classes with a strength of 17,534 or 2.27 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Labourers, 1881.

Ambis.

Ambis, or Watermen, are returned as numbering fifty-one and as found in many river villages. They are ferrymen, taking passengers across the rivers when in flood during the rains for which they are partly paid by the grant of rent-free lands. During the fair season they act as husbandmen. Most of them are Lingayats with Jangam priests to attend their funerals and marriages, and settle their social disputes. Their manners and customs are the same as those of other Lingayats.

Berads.

Berads, apparently Biadarus or Hunters, called by the Musalmans Bedars the fearless, are returned as numbering 5277 and as found all over the State chiefly in Gadinglaj. They are a settled class and live in regular houses. The Berads seem to be one of the leading early tribes of the Kanarese districts. A book account makes the founder of the tribe a vyadh or hunter named Kauayya a great worshipper of Shiv.[Bijapur Statistical Account p. 91,] They seem to have come to Kolhapur from Belgaum under a chief or naik Gudadapa and settled at the village of Kuldini. Gudadapa gathered a large band of Berads and committed gang robberies in the surrounding districts. The hardheartedness of Berads is proverbial. They formerly moved about the country in gangs committing highway robberies. During the last fifty years they have been steadily hunted down by the Kolhapur government and forced to change plundering for tillage. The names in common use among men are Ishvara, Lakshman, Malla, Ram, Sidda, Subaya, and Tipya; and among women, Balai, Lagma, Nilava, and Santa. Their surnames are Goladvar and Phadyalvar. Their home speech is Kanarese, and in look and make they are like the local Mangs and Mhars. They are dark, strong, muscular, and coarse featured with gray lively eyes, flat nose, round high-boned cheeks, and flabby lips, short and lank head hair, small moustache, and ear-locks. They live in one-storeyed houses with mud and sun-dried brick walls and tiled or thatched roofs. Their house goods include metal and earth vessels, field tools, low stools, one or two cots, quilts, and blankets. They own cattle and rear dogs which are very useful to them in watching their cows and buffaloes and in hunting. Though small and poor their houses are clean and neat. Their staple food is millet bread, pulse sauce seasoned with garlic, onions, salt, chillies, and vegetables. They eat all kinds of flesh except beef and drink liquor. They use animal food particularly on holidays and when they can afford it. They give caste feasts at births, betrothals, marriages, and deaths, when the guests are served with wheat cakes, pulse, vegetables, and mutton, which they wash down with a cup of liquor, and sit all night singing lavnis or ballads and beating the daph drum accompanied by the one-stringed fiddle or tuntune. The men shave the head except the topknot and earknots and face except the moustache and whiskers; the women tie their hair in a back-knot or plait it into braids which hang loose down their back. The men dress in a loincloth or a pair of drawers, a shouldercloth, a shirt, and a coarse Maratha turban. The women wear a Maratha robe and bodice and do not pass the end of the robe back between the feet. Both men and women have spare clothes for great days and wear ornaments like those worn by Marathas. As a class they are clean, neat, active, hardworking, simple, and temperate. They are husbandmen and their women and children help in field work. Some of them are day labourers and a few are village watchmen. They work from six in the morning to eleven, take their food, rest for an hour or so, again go to their work, and return home at sunset. Women mind the house and go to the fields after and return before the men; children watch the cattle. They are busy from May to December and during the rest of the year they work as labourers or sell fuel. They earn enough to live on and under ordinary circumstances save. They have good credit, and as a class are not much in debt. They worship all Hindu gods and goddesses, and their family deities are Mahadev, Maruti, and Yailamma. They keep all Hindu fasts and feasts, and their priests are ordinary Brahmans who conduct their marriages, but at deaths they ask a Lingayat priest at the house. They have a strong belief in soothsaying witchcraft and spirit-possession, and consult oracles when they are in difficulty. They rank below Kunbis and above Mhars and Mangs. They marry their girls between five and sixteen and their boys before they are twenty-five. They allow widow marriage and practise polygamy. They either bury or burn their dead and mourn nine days. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling. Their spiritual head or guru, whose authority shows no sign of declining, settles their social disputes at caste meetings. They send their boys to school and on the whole are well-to-do.

Bhandaris.

Bhanda'ris, literally Distillers, are returned as numbering 396 and as found in only a few villages. They are said to have come from the Konkan where they are in large numbers especially along the coast. Their surnames are Chavan, Jadhav, More, and Surve. The men are middle-sized, lean, and fairer than Kunbis. The women are fair like the men, short, and goodlooking. They speak Marathi. In their way of living, food, religious observances, and customs they do not differ from Kunbis. Their name is from the Sanskrit mand-harak or distiller. Their proper calling is palm-tapping; but as the number of palm in Kolhapur is small they have taken to tillage. Their family gods are Javadari, Kalai, and Pavadai. They have a headman who settles social disputes at meetings of the caste.

Bhois.

Bhois, or Fishers, are returned as numbering 1756. They are divided into Pardeshi Bhois [Details of Kahar and Maratha Bhois are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] or Kahars and Maratha Bhois or more commonly called Bhois who neither eat together nor intermarry. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor. They are hardworking quiet and contented. They are fishermen, litter-bearers, and husbandmen, and when at leisure busy themselves in preparing fishing nets. They rank below Kunbis and eat from them. Their priests are Brahmans and their favoarite deities Bahiri, Bhavani, Khandoba, and Maruti. They have a recognized headman who settles their social disputes. They are poor.

Ghisadis.

Ghisa'dis, or Tinkers, who are returned as numbering 153, are believed to have originally come from Gujarat. Their surnames are Chavan, Salunke, Shelar, Padvalkar, and Khetri. They are generally black and bearded like Musalmans. They drink to excess. They work in iron, making shields, axes, ploughs, horse-shoes, and ladles. Their women help by bringing coal and blowing the bellows. Socially they rank below Kunbis. Their priests are Brahmans and their family gods are Jotiba and Khandoba. Their customs are generally like those of Kunbis. They practise bigamy, pay for their wives, and either bury or burn their dead. Caste disputes are settled at meetings of the caste council. Their craft is depressed by the import of iron tools from Bombay and Poona. They cannot read or write, and do not send their children to school.

Kalals.

Kalals, or Liquor Sellers, who are both Hindus and Musalmans, are returned as numbering sixty-five. Butchers sometimes act as liquor-sellers but they are not called Kalals. The Kalals properly Lad Kalals are a class of Rajputs, who for long have dealt in spirituous liquors and employ Musalmans and Bhandaris as their agents. They live in thatched houses and own earthen and a few brass vessels. They deal in spirituous liquors and are labourers and field workers. In their social and religious customs they do not differ from Rajputs. Local Brahmans officiate at their marriages but their spiritual head or vushtambh a man of their own caste must also be present. They allow widow marriage and polygamy and burn their dead. Their social disputes are settled by their teacher in the presence of their castemen. They send their boys to school and are generally poor.

Khatiks.

Kha'tiks, or Butchers, are returned as numbering 1985 and as found in towns and large villages. Their surnames are Ghatge, Puravalkar, Bhapte, and Shelke. They are active and intelligent. Formerly their business was confined to selling sheep and goats, the slaughtering work being done by Musalmans. Now Maratha Khatiks act as butchers as well as meat-sellers, while others are husbandmen. Socially Khatiks are lower than Kunbis who neither eat nor drink from their hands. Brahmans officiate at their marriages, and their manners and customs differ little from those of Kunbis. Their social disputes are settled by a headman or mehtar. They seldom send their boys to school, and are a thriving people.

Kolis.

Kolis, orFerrymen, are returned as numbering 6240 and as found all over the State. They claim descent from the sage Valmik the reputed author of the Ramayan. They are divided into Kabir Kolis,Mahadev Kolis.and Raj-Kolis. Their surnames are Ghutenvar, Hugadvar, and Jatanvar. They are a hardworking, quiet, and hospitable people, but rude dirty and given to drink. They gather slake and sell lime nodules, catch and sell fish, and work ferries on rivers. Some are village servants and labourers and others make and sell sackcloth. Their favourite deities and Bahiroba, Jotiba, Mahadev, and the goddess Yallamma, and their priests are ordinary village Brahmans. Social disputes are settled at mass meetings by their head or guru called Ganachar. They do not send their boys to school and are a poor class.

Lonaris

Lona'ris, or Cement Makers, are returned as numbering 826 and as chiefly found in the town of Kolhapur. The first Lonari that came to Kolhapur is said to have been named Ellapa, and to have come from Mandesh in East Satara when the Kolhapur fort was building. In food, dress, religion, and customs, Lonaris are the same as Kunbis. In towns they sell fuel, coal, and lime and the few who live in villages are husbandmen. Their women help in burning and selling lime nodules. Their social disputes are settled at meetings of the leading members of the caste. They do not send their boys to school. Their calling is less thriving than it was partly from forest restrictions on the cutting of fuel and partly from the competition of a class of Rajputs called Balvars.

Ramoshis.

Ra'moshis are returned as numbering 785 and as found chiefly in Alta and Panhala. They claim descent from Ram, who they say created them when he passed through the Deccan to Ceylon. Their rites, ceremonies, and home speech seem to show a Telugu origin. They are divided into Chavans and Jadhavs. Like Kunbis they eat fish, fowls, and the flesh of goats and deer, and differ little from them in house, dress, or customs. They have a bad name for committing thefts burglaries and gang and highway robberies, and stealing cattle and crops. Their children are petty thieves and robbers. They act as village watchmen and in return for their services hold rent-free lands and receive grain allowances. Some are labourers and others husbandmen. Their favourite god is Khandoba, but they worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses. Their priests are ordinaiy village Brahmans. They practise bigamy and have to pay for their wives. They bury their dead.

UNSETTLED TRIBES.

Unsettled Tribes include four divisions with a strength of 5165 or 0.67 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Unsettled Tribes, 1881.

Kaikadis.

Kaikadis, or Basket Makers, are returned at 145 and as found all over the State wandering in search of work. At home they speak a mixed Kanarese and Telugu and abroad an incorrect Marathi or Kanarese. In the rainy season they live in the skirts of villages in wretched leaf and branch huts and under trees during the dry months. They eat almost all kinds of flesh except beef, and drink liquor. They are dirty and poor but hardworking. They make baskets of babhul twigs and cotton and tur stalks, and are day labourers. They rank below Kolis and are said to belong to the same tribe. They are Brihmanic Hindus, and their favourite deities are Khandoba and Markka. They practise polygamy, allow widow marriage, and pay for their wives. They bury their dead, raise tombs over their graves, and worship the tombs for three days.

Korvis.

Korvis, or Basket Makers, are returned as numbering 1267. They are a wandering tribe who make baskets and brooms from tur Oajanus indicus and cotton stems. They rear pig, play music, and when the chance offers, commit thefts and gang robberies. Their favourite deities are Hanuman, Vyankoba, and Yallamma, and their favourite month is Shravan or July-August. The priests who conduct their marriages belong to their own caste, and except in Bhadrapad or August-September and the month in which the Musalman Muharram falls they marry their children at any time. They practise polygamy, allow widow marriage, and pay for their wives. They either bury or burn their dead.

Lamans.

Lama'ns, or Caravan Men, who are returned as numbering 243 are said to have come from Khandesh about two hundred years ago. They eat most kinds of flesh except the flesh of cattle. Their women wear the petticoat and short-sleeved bodice and bone ornaments. They are a wandering tribe and trade in grain and salt moving about ' during the fair season with large droves of pack bullocks, buffaloes, cows, and sheep, and sometimes camels. During the rains they live in the forests. Their chief holidays are Shimga in February. March, Dasara in September-October, and Divali in October-November. Their priests are the ordinary village Brahmans, and their favourite gods are Balaji and Vyankatesh. They name their children on the twentieth day after birth and their marriages cost not less than £10 (Rs. 100). They burn the dead and have their social disputes settled by their headman in presence of the caste men. Since the opening of cart-roads the demand for their services has greatly declined.

Vadars.

Vada'rs, or Quarrymen, are returned as numbering 3510. They are divided into Gadi or Cart Vadars and Mati or Earth Vadars, who eat together but do not intermarry. They are black, strong, well-built, and generally spare, and their home speech is Telugu. They live outside of villages in rude huts made of sticks mats and sugarcane leaves. Their staple food is millet, but they eat fish fowls and flesh of all kinds, being specially fond of rats. Their women do not wear the bodice, but are careful to wear glass and brass bangles; round the left and right wrists. Though dirty and intemperate they are hardworking, thrifty, and hospitable. Gadi Vadars are quarrymen, making grindstones and carrying stones on low solid wheeled carts; the Mati or Earth Vaddrs dig wells and ponds, Their favourite gods are Maruti and Vyankoba, and they keep the usual Brahmanic fasts and festivals. Their marriages occupy two days Sunday and Monday. On Sunday the turmeric ceremony takes place. On Monday morning an iron post is fixed in the ground and the bride and bridegroom are made to stand near it. Rice and holy water given by the guru or teacher are thrown over the pair but no texts are repeated. A dinner party on that day ends the ceremony. Vadar women are impure for thirty days after childbirth. They either bury or burn their dead. They do not send their boys to school, but from their early years employ them to tend sheep and goats. As a class they are fairly off.

DEPRESSED CLASSES.

Depressed Classes include five divisions with a strength of 90,150 or 11.77 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Depressed Classes, 1881.

Bhangis.

Bhangis, or Nightsoil Men, are returned as numbering 128 and as found chiefly in Kolhapur town. They are dark and strongly built, and both at home and abroad speak an incorrect Hindustani. They live in clean one-storeyed houses, and eat better food than other depressed classes. Their staple food is millet, rice, wheat, split pulse, vegetables, and occasionally fish and flesh. They smoke tobacco, hemp, and opium, and drink liquor. In the morning when they go their rounds the men wear tight trousers, a jacket, and a cap. The women wear either the petticoat, open-backed bodice and headscarf, or the robe reaching to the knee with the skirt tightly drawn back between the feet and a small tightfitting bodice with short sleeves and a back. They are generally sluggish, weak, timid, and drunken, but contented and orderly. The men are fond of show and pleasure. When a Bhangi is dressed in his best it is hard to say to what caste he belongs. He wears a white or red turban, a white coat and jacket, and a silk-bordered shouldercloth with a silk handkerchief in his hand. They are scavengers and nightsoil men, cleaning the town from daybreak to ten. They are paid £1 to £1 4s. (Rs.10-12) a month. In religion they are half Musalmans half Hindus, repeating prayers from the Kuran and at the same time worshipping Hindu gods. They rank as the lowest of all Hindu castes- Their social disputes are settled at caste meetings. They do not send their children to school, and show no signs of bettering their condition. [Details of Bhangis are given in the Poona Satistical Account.]

Chambhars

Cha'mbha'rs, or Leather Workers, are returned as numbering 10,219 and as found over the whole State. They claim descent from Aralaya, one of the sons and great worshippers of Shiv, who incurred Shiv's displeasure by making a pair of shoes of his own skin which he presented to the god. As a punishment he was doomed to be a cobbler for life. They have no memory of any former home. The names in common use among men are Apya, Haibati, Mahadu, and Rama; and among women, Ahilya, Dhondu, Lakshmi, and Rukmini. They belong to two divisions those that make shoes for the higher classes, and those that make shoes for Berads, Mangs, and Mhars. Though they neither eat together nor intermarry these two classes are similar to one another in every respect. As a class Chambhars are fair, middle-sized, a little round-shouldered, and weak with large gray eyes, gaunt cheeks, thin lips, and lank head and face hair. Their women are well built with regular features and fairer than Kunbi women. Both at home and abroad they speak a corrupt Marathi and live in one-storeyed houses with mud and sun-dried walls and tiled or thatched roofs, with a small open veranda and courtyard where they tan hides and work in leather. Besides their working tools and a store of hides their house goods include metal and earth vessels, quilts, low stools, and blankets. They rear cows and buffaloes and poultry. Their staple food includes millet bread, pulse, and a pounded mixture of onions garlic and chillies. They eat flesh except beef and pork. They eat flesh whenever they can afford it, and drink liquor- Except by being less clean their dress does not differ from the Kunbi dress. As a class Chambhars are quiet, honest, hardworking, even-tempered, and free from crime. They make shoes, water-bags, and harness work to order, and sometimes take job work by contract. They work from six to ten in the morning, breakfast, and again work till two in the afternoon when they again eat and work till eight at night. The Chambhar's is one of the few callings that have not suffered from European competition. On the contrary they are better paid than they formerly were. Besides by making shoes a few Chambhars earn their living as husbandmen. Chambhars rank above Mangs and Mhars. They worship all local and Brahmanic gods and goddesses, chiefly Mahadev and Yallamma, and they keep the usual Brahmanic feasts and fasts. Their priests who are Brahmans name the lucky day for the marriages and conduct the ceremony [Details of Chambhar customs are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account.] standing at a distance. They make pilgrimages to Singanapur in Satara, to Yallamma in Belgaum, and to Jotiba's hill in Vadi-Ratnagiri nine; miles north-west of Kolhapur. They have a religious teacher to whom they pay a yearly money tribute, but whom they do not ask to settle social disputes which are referred to a council of elderly castemen. An appeal from the caste lies to a Chambhar Gosavi at Siddhgiri whose decrees are final. Smaller breaches of caste rules are punished with fines which take the form of a caste feast and no one is allowed to smoke, drink, or eat with any one who is out of caste. They do not send their boys to school or take to new pursuits, but their calling is well paid and they earn enough to live on and to save.

Dhors.

Dhors, [Details of Dhor customs are given in the Bijapur Statistical Account.] or Tanners, are returned as numbering 1166 and as found in towns and large villages. Their names and surnames are the same as those among Mhars, and in food, look, dress, and customs they do not differ from the Dhors of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur. They eat flesh except beef and drink liquor. They tan hides and make and repair water-bags. The women mind the house and help the men in their calling. Besides as tanners Dhors work as husbandmen. Though they rank above Mhars and Mangs their touch is though to pollute high and middle class Hindus. They worship all Hindu gods and goddesses and keep the regular fasts and feasts. Their family gods are Jotiba, Naikoba, and Yallamma, and their priests are village Brahmans who name a lucky day for their marriages and repeat verses at the lucky moment standing at a distance from the Dhor marriage booth. Dhors settle caste disputes at meetings of castemen subject to the decision of the Lingayat Jangam at Siddhgiri. They do not send their boys to school. Their calling is well paid but they spend their earnings on liquor. Of late years their condition has changed a little.

Mangs.

Ma'ngs are returned as numbering 13,323 and as found all over the State. They have no memory of any former home. They are divided into Dukalvals or begging bards, Garudis or snake-charmers now cattle-dealers, Nadas or rope-makers, Pathantanas or Shivta,s or cobblers, and Vajantris or musicians. Of these five divisions the Nadas think themselves highest and do not eat with the rest. Most Mangs speak Marathi and a few who live on the borders of the Kanarese districts speak Kanarese. They are darker than Kunbis and have a strongly built athletic frame with a fierce look, dark or gray eyes, straight nose, gaunt cheeks, and lank and thick head and face hair. They live in dirty ill-kept one-storeyed houses with stone or sun-burnt brick and mud walls and tiled or thatched roofs. Their house goods include a few brass and copper vessels, bellmetal dining plates, cooking earthen pots, and a few dirty clothes. Their staple food is millet bread and split pulse with a relish of chillies, salt, onions, and garlic. They eat all kinds of flesh including carrion. When they can afford it they drink country liquor. The men wear a pair of reddish knee-breeches, a jacket, a shouldercloth, and a ragged turban, and gird their loins with a waistband. The women dress in the ordinary full Maratha robe without passing the skirt back between the feet, and bodice with short sleeves and a back. They wear few brass and zinc ornaments. Mangs both men and women are proverbially dirty. They are faithless, passionate, drunken, and fond of thieving. Dukalvals are Mang bards who move from place to place begging from Mangs. Garudis under the pretence of begging and cattle-dealing are cattle-lifters and sheep and goat stealers which they catch at night or kill while grazing during the day. Nadas are tanners and make hide and hemp ropes, brooms, and bamboo baskets. Pathantanas or Shivtas are cobblers. Vajantris are Mang musicians who play on the tabor and clarion. Besides their special occupations many Mangs of all classes work as day labourers and village watchmen. A Mang is also the State executioner whose dearest pleasure is said to be adjusting the noose round the neck of a Mhar the hereditary rival of their tribe. They are poor and live from hand to mouth. They rank below Mhars and above Bhangis. They are Brahmanic Hindus and adore Brahmans whom they call to conduct their marriages. They worship all local and Brahmanic Hindu gods and goddesses and keep some of the leading fasts and feasts. Their favourite deities are Jotiba in Vadi-Ratnagiri nine miles north-west of Kolhapur and Yallamma of Parasgad in Belgaum whose shrines they sometimes visit. They have a strong faith in soothsaying sorcery and witchcraft. They allow widow marriage and polygamy, but forbid polyandry. As among Mhars the husband has to pay the bride's father a sum of money, and their marriage ceremony does not differ from that of Mhars. Mangs either burn or bury their dead and are impure for ten days after a death. On the twelfth they take holy water from the village astrologer and give a caste dinner. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling and have headmen called Mhetars. The Mhetars with the chief Mang inhabitants of the surrounding five villages settle social disputes. Breaches of social rules are punished by putting the offender out of caste. They do not send their children to school, but their condition of late years shows some signs of improving.

Mhars.

Mha'rs are returned as numbering 65,314 and as found in considerable numbers all over the State. They have no memory of any former settlement. The names in common use among men are Kondunak, Limbnak, Masnak, and Ramnak; and among women Bhimi, Iji, Rani, Taini, and Yelli. Like South Konkan Mhars the men take the word nak apparently a corruption of naik or leader after their names. Of the many divisions into which Mhars say they are divided, thirteen are represented in Kolhapur. The thirteen are Andvon or virgin-born, Beles or broom basket and mat makers, Jhades or sweepers, Ghadshis or musicians, Ghatkamblis, Gondvans or beggars, Hedshis, Kabules, Kudvans, Ladvans, Pans or flute-players, Sankamblis, and Saladis. The members of these divisions neither eat together nor intermarry. Except those living in the villages bordering on the Kanarese country who speak Kanarese, most Mhars speak an incorrect and oddly pronounced Marathi both at home and abroad. When he meets a man of his own caste a Mhar says Namastu or A bow to you, and when he meets any one other than a Mhar he says Johar, said to be from the Sanskrit yoddhdr or warrior. They are darker than Kunbis, with gaunt cheeks, irregular features, a dreamy expression, and flat noses, still except in colour they differ little from Kunbis. They live on the skirts of towns and villages in dirty ill-kept one-storeyed houses with sun-burnt brick or stone and mud walls and tiled or thatched roofs. Mhars consider it wrong to live in a house for which rent has to be paid. Their house goods include a few brass drinking vessels, bellmetal dining plates, earthen cooking dishes, and a few clothes. Only husbandmen own bullocks and field tools. Mhars are great eaters but poor cooks. Their staple food is millet bread and cheap vegetables and, when they can get it, carrion. Except the flesh of the peacock, hog, and cat, they say they may use any kind of flesh. They are very fond of mutton and eat it with rices and pulse and wheat bread on holidays. They smoke tobacco and hemp and drink liquor. The men dress in a loincloth," a waistcloth, a jacket, a blanket as a shouldercloth, and a white or red turban. The women plait their hair in a braid which hangs down the back They wear the full Maratha robe without passing the skirt back between the feet and a bodice with short sleeves and a back, Except that it is somewhat richer, the Mhar's holiday dress is the same as his every-day dress. They are hardworking and fairly honest, but careless and unclean. They are often accused of poisoning village cattle, and the village headman keeps a list of all the village Mhars, does not allow them to go out of the village without his leave, and every evening sees that all are present in the village.

They are village servants, street-sweepers, and dead cattle carriers. They act as guides and messengers to public officers travelling on duty being rewarded by the grant of inam or rent-free lands. A few are husbandmen and a few bricklayers. The chief dues for Mhars' services to villagers which were allowed by the Muhammadan and Maratha governments are Sita-devi or a part of a standing sugarcane crop, village or town gate offerings, Holi food offerings on the full-moon of Phalgun in March, bendur grain gifts on the full-moon of Ashadh or June-July, hides of dead cattle, hat-shekne or hand-warming, a money gift for watching the fire made for boiling sugarcane juice, ghar-takka or home-money, money paid for digging graves, grain lying on and about the thrashing floor when the floor is used for the first time, grain at the bottom of a pev or grain pit, the rice strewn on the two low stools which are set for the bride and bridegroom, a yearly pair of sandals for watching the village or town gate, rukka or marriage gift including two coppers in cash, a piece of cocoa-kernel and a handful of rice, oti-pati or lap-tax that is handfuls of grain put into the laps of Mhar women at the first treading of the grain, money thrown into her platter when a Mhar woman comes to wave a lamp round the head of the bride's or bridegroom's mother, madhe-pade or carcass-tax, manguli or gifts for winding a string round the village on the no-moon of Ashadh in June-July and of Kartik in October-November, ran-sodvan or forest-leaving that is grain ears given to Mhars on the first cutting and stacking, pendha or straw, and lagin takka or marriage-rupee that is 6d. (4 as.) given to the village Mhar when the booth is raised: Of late years regular employment in State public works has improved the condition of the Mhars and they are less in debt than Kunbis. They have no credit and can borrow only at twenty-five to fifty per cent. They work from six to twelve and from two to nine. Village watchmen sleep by day and stay awake all night. Their busy season is from January to June. Besides the ordinary Brahmanic holidays they take a holiday on the Rede Jatra or Buffalo Fair that is when buffaloes are killed in honour of the cholera goddess. They rank first among the depressed classes and do not eat from Mangs. When a Kunbi is buried or burnt without a Brahman priest, a Mhar is asked to say, Ye great angels, free Bapu son of Rama from worldly affections. His sin and his merit have been balanced, he is gone to Shiv's heaven by holding the sacred bull's tail, Shiv, Har Har. [The Marathi runs: Jhada jhuda sansar toda, papa punyacha jhala nivada, den-ganche devgan miralche mahajan (he says deceased's name) basvyachi shep dharun kailasas yela, Shiv, Har Har.] A family of five spend about 10s. (Rs. 5) a month on food and dress. A boy's marriage costs £5 to £6 (Rs. 50-60) including all the girl's father's expenses and a special payment of £2 8s. (Rs. 24), and a death 10s. to £3 (Rs. 5 - 30). Mhars are Brahmanic Hindus, but they cannot tell whether they are Bhagvats or Smarts. They revere Brahmans and have also teachers or gurus of their own caste. The head of their teachers is called Dheguji Meghuji or Cloud of Clouds. There are three Clouds of Clouds, of one of whom Kolhapur is the see. [The other two sees are at Dombingaon on the Godavari and Vasi the position of which the Kolhapur Mhars do not know.] The jurisdiction of the Kolhapar Cloudy Highness passes as far south as the Tungbhadra, and his yearly dues, which are collected at the rate of 4s. (Rs. 2) a village amount to about £300 (Rs. 3000). His office is hereditary. The Dheguji Meghujis are much respected; they eschew beef and do not allow other Mhars to touch their food. Mhars worship all Brahmanic gods and goddesses, their favourite deities being Bahiroba, Khandoba, Mhasoba, and Vithoba. Their peculiar deities are the cholera goddess or Mari, Pandhar or the village site goddess, and.Thal or the settlement place-spirit. Besides these gods and goddesses they worship their ancestors' brass images as house gods, and they have strong faith in soothsaying sorcery and witchcraft.

A Mhar woman is held impure for eight days after childbirth. On the fifth a few spots of sandal and turmeric paste are daubed on the wall near the mother's cot. The spots are marked with sandal paste and rice, and a lamp is waved round them. Mhar children are named on the ninth day. Polygamy and widow-marriage are allowed and polyandry is forbidden. Mhar girls who are devoted to Khandoba remain unmarried and become their fathers' heirs. "When a marriage is settled the boy's father asks the village astrologer to fix the marriage day. On the day before the marriage day the boy is rubbed with turmeric paste and bathed, and his kinspeople and friends take the rest of the paste to the girl's house, rub the girl with the paste, and present her with a robe and a few ornaments. In the evening of the marriage day an hour before the time fixed the boy goes on horseback in procession to the girl's, where the village astrologer gives the boy and girl two yellow strings with bits of turmeric roots fastened to them to tie round their wrists. The boy and girl are then taken to the marriage altar and seated on two low wooden stools, the girl to the right and the boy to the left. The village astrologer and the kinspeople and friends of the pair throw yellow rice on the pair and they are wedded. Betel is handed to all present and friends and kinspeople are feasted. After the feast the boy and girl are taken on horse-back to the village Maruti, where they break a cocoanut and go to the boy's house. The ceremony ends with two feasts one given by each party. Mhars bury their dead and mourn three days'. On the third day the chief mourner shampoos the bearers' shoulders, and gives them food before any of the family eats and while the bearers are eating every one leaves the house. Mhars are bound together by a strong caste feeling and have headmen or Mhetars. Breaches against caste rules are punished by putting the offender out of caste. A nimb twig is thrown on the offender's house and all are enjoined to keep aloof from the offender's family on pain of losing caste. When an offender is let back, he has to spend 4s. to £1 (Rs. 2 -10) on a caste dinner. The high priest gives him tirth or holy water to sip and he is allowed to eat in the same row with his castemen. Mhars seldom send their boys to school, but of late years their condition has shown signs of improving.

BEGGARS.

Beggars include nine classes with a strength of 3504 or 0.46 per cent of the Hindu population. The details are:

Kolhapur Beggars, 1881.

Bairagis.

Baira'gis, properly Vairagis or Ascetics are returned as numbering 106 and as found wandering all over the State. As all Hindus except the depressed classes are allowed to become Bairagis, the class varies greatly in appearance. They speak Hindustani among themselves. They are vegetarians and keep from flesh fish and liquor, but freely use hemp. They dress in ochre-coloured clothes. They smear their bodies with ashes and grow their hair long, wearing it either dishevelled or coiled round the head. Bairagis are passionate and idle and almost always under the influence of hemp. They are religious beggars and wander all over the country sometimes in bands and sometimes singly. On the third Monday of Shravan or July-August the State gives a dinner, clothes, and money to Bairagis. They are devotees of Vishnu and visit many of the famous Vishnu shrines. Their gurus or teachers who are also Bairagis have maths or monasteries in different holy places in India. The guru is succeeded by his favourite disciple. When a Hindu wishes to become a Bairagi, he tells a distinguished Bairagi that he wishes to become his chela or disciple. A day is fixed on which the novice is stripped of his clothes and is given a loincloth to wear and a hom or burnt-offering is made. The novice then takes a vow of poverty, celibacy, and pilgrimage to all holy places in India. The vow is not always kept. Only a few of them refrain from cutting their hair and nails, and undergo bodily tortures. They worship all Brahmanic gods and keep most fasts and feasts. They believe in witchcraft and soothsaying. They bury their dead and do not mourn. On the thirteenth a feast is given to Bairagis.

Chudbudke Joshis.

Chudbudke Joshis, or Hourglass-drum Astrologers, are returned as numbering 268 and as found in small numbers in some of the eastern and southern villages of Kolhapur. They take their name from the little hourglass-shaped drum or chudbudke. In name house food and dress they do not differ from Kunbis. A Chudbudke Joshi got up for his begging tour is a quaint figure. He is dressed in a large dirty white turban with a red cloth turned over it, a long white coat reaching below his knees, and a tattered silk-bordered shouldercloth. In one hand is a book by referring to which they pretend to foretell fortunes, and in the other is the name-giving hourglass-shaped drum. As they are generally unable to read, they do not tell fortunes by almanacs and books, but judge by the face and the lines on the hands. They have good fortune in store for every one who asks them. Their usual blessing is Brother, thy belly will grow large, that is You will become a big man. [The incorrect Marathi runs : Tujhe dvand mothe hoil ga dada.] They beg from morning to evening. The harvest is their busy time when they lay in grain for the rainy season. Their favourite goddesses are Yallamma and Margai. In other points of religion and in customs they do not differ from Kunbis. Their social disputes are settled by a headman or Mhetar who lives at Kolhapur. They do not send their children to school nor take to new pursuits. On the whole they are a falling class.

Dombaris,

Domba'ris, or Tumblers also called Kolhatis, are returned as numbering 179 and as found wandering all over the State. They have no memory of any former settlement. They are generally dark, strong, and well made with regular features. Their home speech is a mixed Marathi Hindustani and Kanarese. They live in small huts of grass matting and own donkeys to carry their kit, dogs for watching, and she-buffaloes for milk. The men's dress meludes a loincloth, cholnas or knee-breeches, a tattered turban, and a piece of cloth thrown loosely over the shoulders. The women dress in a full Maratha robe without passing the skirt back between the feet and a bodice with short sleeves and a back. The women who tumble are careful about their dress and appearance, and wear a few ornaments. They are a wandering tribe of tumblers and rope-dancers of bad character, the women prostitutes, and all when they get the chance thieves. They are under the eye of the police. They worship both Hindu gods and Musalman saints and have no regular rites. They have neither priests nor headmen: the most influential among them advises the community. They believe in witchcraft and ghosts. They have no fixed customs. Their marriage ends with a procession from the bridegroom's house to the bride's and a caste feast. They do not send their children to school and show no signs of bettering their condition.

Garudis.

Ga'rudis, or Jugglers and Snakecharmers, are returned as numbering fifty-three and as found wandering with their families in all parts of the State. They are Brahmanic Hindus and ask Brahmans. to conduct their marriages. They fast on the eleventh of each fortnight and on the first day of Ashvhi or September- October. They practise bigamy and pay for their wives. They either burn or bury their dead.

Gondhlis.

Gondhlis, or Performers of the gondhal dance, are returned as numbering 750 and as found all over the State. Except that they are poorer, they differ little from Kunbis in name, house, food, or dress. They are beggars begging from door to door for grain clothes and money, singing dancing and playing on a drum called sambal, on the one-stringed fiddle or tuntune, and on metal cups or tals. They beg on Tuesdays and Fridays, days sacred to Bhavani. They also perform the gondhal dance, and entertain-people with their songs. The gondhal dance [Details are given in the Poona Statistical Account,] is generally performed among Deshasth Brahmans and among Marathas and Kunbis in honour of Bhavani on the occasion of a thread-girding, of a marriage, or of a birth. The dance always takes place at night. During the day the host gives a feast to dancers, who generally perform in a band of three to five. At night the dancers come back bringing their musical instruments, a torch or divti, and the dress of the chief player. The dance begins between nine and ten at night and with good performances ends between four and five in the morning. On a wooden stool in the largest room of the house they set a brass water-pot or tambya. In the mouth of the water-pot betel leaves are laid and the whole is closed with a cocoanut. The water-pot with the cocoanut represents the family goddess Bhavani. On either side of the pot are set two lighted torches which are fed with oil from time to time. The head dancer is dressed in a long white robe reaching to his ankles fringed with red or gold and gathered in puckers a little above the waist and wears cowry shell necklaces and jingling bell anklets. He takes his stand in front of the goddess and his companions stand behind him playing on the double drum or sarnbal and one-stringed fiddle called tuntune. The head dancer dances and sings hymns in praise of Bhavani and his companions repeat a refrain. After Bhavani's praise is over the rest of the time is spent in reciting and explaining historical ballads and singing love songs. They are idle and many consider it a degradation to work as labourers. They are not so well off as they used to be. Owing to the want of patronage skilled Gondhlis are disappearing. In religious and social customs they do not differ from Kunbis. They seldom send their children to school and on the whole are a falling class.

Gopals.

Gopa'ls, literally Cowkeepers, are returned as numbering fifty-six and as found wandering over the State. They are Mhar beggars who wear a woollen necklace, clash cymbals, and ask blessings on the almsgiver. Though Mhars by birth and in social customs, they do not eat from Mhars.

Gosavia.

Gosa'vis, or Passion Lords, are returned as numbering 1796 and as found either wandering or settled all over the State. They are divided into five classes Ban, Bharti, Giri, Puri, and Sarasvati, who, except Bhartis and Puris, eat together and intermarry. They are recruited from all Hindus except the depressed classes. The body of Gosavis include those who willingly become Gosavis, children bought by Gosavis, and children presented to Gosavis by their parents. Those who are married generally live in one-storeyed houses. Among themselves they speak Hindustani and Marathi with others. Gosavis wear ochre-coloured clothes. They dine with Kunbis, eat goats sheep and fowls, smoke tobacco and hemp, and some drink country liquor. They are passionate and idle. They are religious beggars. On the third Monday of Shravan or July-August the State gives a dinner, clothes, and money to Gosavis. Though at the initiation they take a vow of poverty and celibacy, most of them are traders, moneylenders, soldiers, and a few are inam, or rent-free landholders. They formerly wandered in armed bands, waged war with Bairagis, and plundered the country they passed through. They are devotees of Shiv, worship all regular Brahmanic gods, and keep most fasts and feast3. Some marry and some keep mistresses. Those who live a single life are generally attended by a disciple who is their heir and successor. They bury their dead and do not mourn. On the thirteenth they give a feast to Gosavis.

Valhars.

Valha'rs are returned as numbering 270 and as found only in some villages of the State. In name, house, food, dress, religion, and customs they do not differ from Kunbis. They play on flutes and drums and beg. Some are husbandmen, some make horse whips, and some are day-labourers. They do not send their children to school and are a steady class.

Vasudevs.

Va'sudevs are returned as numbering twenty-six and as found wandering all over the State. In name, house, food, dress, religion, and customs they do not differ from Kunbis. The men beg dressed in trousers, along white coat, and a long crown-like hat with a brass top surrounded with peacock feathers. While begging three or four dance in a circle striking together their metal cups or tals and castanets or chiplis.

LINGAYATS.

Linga'yats, [Detailed accounts of Lingayats are given in the Dharwar and Bijapur Statistical Accounts.] properly Lingyats or Ling Wearers, are returned as numbering 75,212 of whom 39,571 are males and 35,641 females. They are chiefly found in the Alta, Gadinglaj, and Shirol subdivisions. Of the whole number 27,148 or more than one-third are in Gadinglaj on the south-east bordering on Belgaum. The Lingayat sect rose to importance during the twelfth century. Basav, the founder of the sect was the son of an Aradhya or Shaiv Brahman of Ingleshvar near Bagevadi about twenty-two miles southeast of Bijapur. The worship of the ling as a home or shrine of Shiv is generally admitted to have belonged to the tribes who held the south of India before the arrival of the Brahmans. The Lingayats claim the ling as the earliest object of worship and look on Basav as the restorer not the author of the faith. It is not unlikely that like other guardian emblems or objects the ling has from very early times been worn by the people of the Deccan. [In Egypt, in Rome, and still in Italy a small ling or phalus is hung round a child's neck to ward off the evil eye. For the same reason a phalus was tied under a Roman warrior's triumphal car. The Brahman story of the origin of the wearing of the ling is that Brahma asked Ruthra or Shiv to plan a world, Rudra disappeared into the lower world and remained so long thinking how to devise an everlasting world that Brahma weary of waiting himself completed the universe. News came to Rudra that a world had been made. In a fit of passion he forced his way through the earth and determined to destroy all that Brahma had done. The gods prayed him to spare it and he relented. He took from the gods their power and made an animal with three horns one of Vishnu's power, one of his own, and the third of Brahma's. Rudra afterwards restored their power to Brahma and Vishnu and wore the third horn round his own neck calling it atma ling or soul-essence.] Guravs, not Brahmans, are the proper ministrants in Shaiv shrines, who often wear the ling, though most of them are not followers of the Lingayat faith. From them or some other local classes the Aradhya Brahmans seem to have adopted the practice of wearing the ling round the arm. This practice Basav extended to all members of his sect. His followers consider Basav an incarnation of Nandi or Shiv's bull. According to tradition his father was a worshipper of parthiu or earth lings, which he made daily with his own hands. Basav is said to have refused to be girt with the sacred thread, or, according to another account, refused to repeat the gayatri or. sun-hymn and was forced to leave his father's house. He went to Kalyan in the Nizam's country about a hundred miles north-west of Haidarabad then the seat of the usurper Vijjal or Bijjal of the Kalachuri family, who was a Jain by religion. Basav's cleverness attracted the notice of Baldev the prime minister, who gave him his daughter in marriage, and his advancement was further hastened by the beauty of his sister Akka Nagamma with whom king Bijjal fell in love. After the death of his father-in-law, Basav became prime minister, and in time rose to the command of the army and the control of the finances. When he rose to power Basav took great pains to spread his new religion. He filled all the offices of the State with adherents of the new sect. [According to Jain traditions Basav started his new religion because he had been put out of caste for taking food from the hands of a woman in her monthly sickness.] At length his power became so formidable that Bijjal determined to seize him. Basav fled, and gathering a large body of his followers turned on the king who was in pursuit of him and defeated him. This happened in 1168. He returned in triumph to Kalyan with the king as his prisoner. According to the Basav Puran, because the king had put out the eyes of two pious Lingayats, Basav ordered him to be killed. He cursed Kalyan and retired to Sangameshvar about ten miles north of Hungund in Bijapur, the meeting of the Malprabha and Krishna. When Basav heard that the king was dead he prayed Shiv to receive him, the ling opened and Basav passed into it. According to Jain histories after the murder of his king Basav was seized with panic. He fled from the king's son and sought refuge in Ulvi in North Kanara about twenty miles south of Supa. Finding that the town could not stand against the besieging army, Basav leapt into a well and perished. Lingayats still go on pilgrimage to Ulvi in Magh or January-February. After Basav's death the sect made rapid progress. According to the theory of the faith the wearers of the ling are equal and distinctions of caste cease. It is said that Basav allowed people of even the lowest classes to join the new sect. According to some accounts, the bulk of the early adherents were men of low caste. In support of this it is said that the bulk of Lingayat saints are outcastes and women and that there is not a Brahman among them. [Madras Journal of Literature and Science, II. 146.] Soon after Basav's death, the lower or impure classes were not allowed to join and all other classes who wished to join had to pass a term of proving before they were admitted to be members. Like the doctrine of the equality of believers many of Basav's other doctrines, if they over passed beyond theory, are no longer practised. One of his leading doctrines was that there was one God who required neither mediators, fasts, nor pilgrimages. The Kolhapur Lingayats worship several gods, among them Basav the founder of the faith whom they consider an incarnation of Nandi or Shiv's bull, Ganpati and Virbhadra the sons of Shiv, and Ganga and Parvati the wives of Shiv. Besides the members of Shiv's family Kolhapur Lingayats worship Yallamma of Hampi in Belari and Tuljabhavani of Tuljapur in the Nizam's country. The Kolhapur Lingayats fast on Shivratra or Shiv's Night in January-February, and make pilgrimages to Ulvi in North Kanara and Sangameshvar in Bijapur, and the Jamgam in practice is no less a mediator than the Brahman. One of the leading doctrines of Basav's faith was that nothing could make the bearer of the ling impure. To the true believer the observance of ceremonial impurity in consequence of a woman's monthly sickness, a birth, or a death was unnecessary. In practice the Kolhapur Lingayats are little less careful to observe ceremonial uncleanliness in connection with monthly sickness, births, and deaths than their Brahmanic neighbours. Another of Basav's leading doctrines was that as she wore the ling the Lingayat woman was the equal of the Lingayat man; that therefore she should not marry till she came of age; that she should have a say in the choice of her husband; and that she, equally with the man, might be a guru or Lingayat teacher. Lingayat women in Kolhapur are married in their childhood, they have nothing to say to the choice of their husband, and except that the widow's hair is not shaved and that she is not stripped of her bodice, her position differs in no way from the position of a widow in a Brahmanic Hindu household. According to the theory of the Lingayat faith the wearer of the ling is safe from all evil influences, neither stars nor evil spirits can harm him. In practice Kolhapur Lingayats consult astrologers and fear and guard against evil spirits little less constantly and carefully than their Brahmanic Hindu neigh bours. The chief points of difference between a Kolhapur Linga yat and Brahmanic Hindu is that the Lingayat worships fewer gods, that he has fewer fasts and feasts and fewer ceremonies especially death ceremonies and purifying ceremonies; that both men and women wear the ling and neither man nor woman the sacred thread; that both men and women rub their brows withcowdung ashes; that as a rule men shave the whole head, and that neither a widow's head nor a mourner's lip is shaved; that they neither eat animal food nor drink liquor; and that they show no respect to Brahmans and show high respect to Jangams their own priests. In having a ling-binding, an initiation for priests, and a purifying ceremony for all instead of the sixteen sacraments or sanskars, Lingayats differ both from Brahmanical and Jain Hindus. In their respect for life, in the strictness of their rules against the use of animal food and liquor, and in the little regard they show to the dead the Lingayats are like the Jains. [In connection with the Buddhist and Jain element in the Lingayats it is worthy of note that one of the latest buildings raised to Buddhist gods about 1095 was built at Dambal in Dharwar by traders of the Vira Balanja sect who afterwarads became great supporters of the Lingayat faith.]

Kolhapur Lingayats belong to four classes Jangams or priests, Vanis or traders, Panchams or Panchamsalis, [Panchamsalis seem to mean Jain weavers. The Panchams are the fifth or lowest class of Jains whom all who marry widows have to join. Compare the account of Lingayats in the Statistical Account of Dharwar.] craftsmen husbandmen and herdsmen, and a fourth unnamed class including servants barbers washermen and Mhars. The Lingayat priests of Kolhapur include five sects or schools Ekoramaradhya, Marularadhya, Panditaradhya, Revanaradhya, and Vishvaradhya. The founders of these schools Ekoram, Marul, Pandit, Revan, and Vishva, are believed to have sprung from the five mouths of Shiv and to have been great spreaders of the Lingayat faith.

They seldom meet and there is no show of rivalry. To laymen all Jangams are holy and they worship all without much inquiry as to their school. Each of the five schools includes thirteen divisions or bagis. The divisions or bagis of the Ekoramaradhya school are Bhasma, Chandragundi, Katiyemba, Khadgi, Khastak, Lambonemba, Mrityakanti, Rajyu, Ramgiri, Raupya, Shikhari, Triputi, and Vasam. The divisions of the Marularadhya school are Bilvasutra, Bhaitraya, Chakari, Kattar; Kavach, Koraban, Kuksha-kanta, Kutar, Malli, Masani, Nilkanti, Singi, and Svarnakauthi. The divisions of the Panditaradhya school are Bedadi, Bhagini, Danti, Gonikati, Jalkanti, Jathar, Keshkanti, Lallat, Lochan, Muktaguchha, Natija, Trigun, and Vijaprakanti. The divisions of the Revanaradhya school are Bhikti, Digambar, Mahni, Murath, Musadi, Nat, Pachhakanti, Padvidi, Puran, Shadga, Shori, Surgi, and Veni. The divisions of the Vishvaradhya school are Dash-mukh, Gagan, Gochar, Guhagra, Gurjarkanti, Kambli, Panchvaktu, Panchvani, Lagudi, Musali, Pashupati, Shitali, and Vrishabh. The chief details of the five leading schools are:

Lingayat Sects, 1881.

²  [Kedar is in the Garhwal district of the North-West Provinces, Ujjain in Malwa, Shri Shail Parvat in North Arkot, Kadlipur the modern Balehalli in Dharwar, and Kollipake an unidentified Western Chalukya capital in Southern India (Fleet's Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts of the Bombay Presidency, 44).] 

Jangams of the same school division or bagi do not intermarry. Jangams include five classes, Virakts or renouncers of worldly pleasures, Pattadevrus or head priests, Ayyas or teachers, Charantis or wanderers, and Maris or acolytes. [Virakt is from the Sanskrit vi without and ranj to please; Pattadevru is from the Sanskrit pat cloth through patt clothed hence honoured, and deo shining hence worshipful. Devru is the Kanarese plural of dev, Ayya means spiritual guide and is often applied to common teachers.] The Virakts wear the loincloth and short loose shirt, and spend most of their time in devotion and study. The Pattadevrus wear a waistcloth instead of a loincloth and are less retired than the Virakts. The Ayyas are married and live chiefly by begging. When begging they wear the bell-garter or Jang below the right knee, wear ochre-coloured clothes and carry a cane staff. [Kolhapur Lingayats do not carry the cobra-cane or nagbet and do not know why the cane carried by Bijapur Jangams is called nagbet or cobra-cane.] The Charantis or wanderers go from place to place and gather contributions from the Lingayat laity for the support of monasteries or maths. Maris or acolytes are celibates and wait on the Virakts. After the death of a Virakt, the most learned and fittest among his Maris or attendants is raised to his seat. Unlike Bijapur, Lingayats, Kolhapur Lingayats have no Ganacharis or monastery managers, Mathpatis or Lingayat beadles, and Chalvadis or Mhar standard-bearers. In Kolhapur the heads of small monasteries are called Mathadayyas. Vanis and Panchams or Panchamsalis can become Jangams but it is only when a Jangam has no child or relation that he adopts a boy from these classes. The boy must be unmarried and must not be the child of a widow by her second husband. Ayyas or married Jangams may take food from any Lingayat except from members of the barber washerman and Mhar classes, and in some cases from oilmen and ferrymen. When a Jangam gives a feast, all except these three classes come and eat together. The same freedom is observed when a feast is given in a monastery or math. In Kolhapur the word Jangam is generally applied to the Jangam's assistants, the Mathpatis or Lingayat beadles of Belgaum and other Kanarese districts, who in all religious ceremonies act under the Jangam's orders. In Kolhapur the head local Jangam is called svami or lord a title which in other districts belongs to the provincial high priest. The house in which the Mathadayya or local head priest, lives is called a math or monastery. In places where there are many Lingayats the monastery is a large building of stone or burnt brick, an open quadrangle generally shaded with trees among which the bel Ægle marmelos is conspicuous. The four verandas of the quadrangle are covered with tiled roofs one of which is set apart as a ling shrine with a Nandi or bull in front, In the central hall a place is set apart for the svami or chief priest, whose authority extends over several villages. On the space set apart for the svami a cushion with pillows on three sides of it is always spread. Several small rooms are used as a cook-room for the svami, a worshipping-room, a study, and a sleeping-room. In the outer verandas a school is generally held where Kanarese and sometimes Sanskrit are taught. In the open ground behind the monastery are generally a well, and at some distance the tombs of previous svamis, cube-shaped stone structures with a ling on the top. The hindpart of the enclosure is generally surrounded with a wall. At each corner of the building is a stone called the lingmudrikallu or ling-marked stone. Lingayat strangers can almost always find a meal at a monastery. No Brahmanic Hindu can get a meal at a monastery and no Lingayat stranger can remain at a monastery more than two days. The income of the head of the monastery is generally partly paid by the State, most of it is collected from the local Lingayats chiefly on marriage and other festive occasions, from trade fees, and from gifts at religious ceremonies. The head of the monastery often gets presents of cloth from cloth dealers and grain from husbandmen and landowners. A stranger who visits the head of a monastery is generally requested to lay some silver coins before his feet. If the svami expresses a wish for anything his wish is promptly gratified by one of his followers. He generally takes his midday meal at a follower's house and sometimes takes a little at several houses; his evening meal he takes in the monastery. He has servants and attendants who exact prompt obedience from the svami's followers. The svami is always careful on all occasions to press on his followers the need of keeping their faith and of unquestioning obedience to all its rules. In the afternoon he generally reads some sacred book, old people almost always coming to hear. In Shravan or July-August the congregation is specially large and is generally chiefly composed of old women. The Puran is finished in Bhadrapad or August- September, when, the hearers give cash and clothes and a feast is held.

The class of Lingayats who rank next to Jangams are the Vanis or traders. They are divided into Shilvants or rule-keepers and Lokvants or common people. [Shilvant is said to come from the Sanskrit shil good disposition and to mean those who obey religious rules. The word Lokvant is from the Sanskrit lok people and means of the masses.] Shilvants rank next to Jangams and can become Jangams by passing the purifying Ceremony called diksha. Lokvants who rank next to Shilvants can also become-Jangams. Except when a Jangam is the host or when the feast is held in a religious house neither Shilvants nor Lokvants eat with members of the lower classes. The third division includes Panchams or Panchamsalis, oilmen or Telis, ferrymen or Ambis, cowherds or Gavlis, gardeners or Malis, and potters or Kumbhars. A Jangam may adopt a Pancham boy. The fourth or lowest class includes Nhavis or barbers, Parits or washermen, and Mhars.

The names in common use among men are generally taken from the names of Shiv as Rudrappa, and Shivlingappa, some from Basav and Guru as Basappa, Vir Basappa, and Gurusidhappa. If a woman has lost several children she gives her next child a mean name, as Kallappa from kallu (K.) stone and Kadappa from kad (K.) forest. The names in common use among women are Basavva from Basav, Gangavva from the heavenly Ganges, Kallavva from kallu (K.) stone, and Parvativva from Parvati the wife of Shiv. Their surnames, when they have surnames, are place and calling names as Lokapuri a dweller in Lokapur or Tenginkai a cocoanut seller. The lay followers of a guru or teacher adopt his family stock or gotra.

The Lingayats of Gadinglaj in the south speak correct Kanarese. The home tongue of the rest is a somewhat impure Kanarese spoken in a Marathi tone. Out of doors most speak a fairly correct Marathi. So large a body as the Lingayats, including persons of almost all callings differ considerably in appearance, height, and colour. Still, except that they are slighter and cleaner, Kolhapur Lingayats as a class differ little from Marathas. The men are dark-brown and the women are often fair and handsome. Their houses are simple and clean and are occasionally two-storeyed. They are divided into several dark and ill-aired rooms, a cooking and a store-room, a sitting and office room, and bed rooms. Near the cook-room are niches in the wall with folding doors where pickles and sun-dried pulse and rice called sandge papad are kept. A portion of the centre hall is set apart as a shrine where the Jangam is worshipped. No one but a Lingayat may go into the cook-room or into the Jangam shrine. Lingayats have a great dislike to leather. They allow no leather in their saddles; no shoe may be brought into the inner part of the house, and if any one touches a shoe he must wash. [The Lingayat dislike to leather is stronger than the Deccan Brahman's disliks When they go out well-to-do Deccan Brahman women put on shoes; and during her lying-in a Brahman woman with her shoes on is allowed to walk over great part of the house.] The privy, if there is a privy, is at some distance from the house. Cattle are not kept in the house but in a separate shed. A Lingayat's house goods include cots, low wooden stools, boxes, iron or brass tripods to hold dining plates, and metal and earthen vessels required for family use. Few have vessels enough for a caste feast. Givers of caste feasts borrow the public vessels from a monastery. Silver vessels are used by the rich, brass and copper vessels by middle class people, and wooden and earthen vessels by the poor. Lingayats never use animal food or spirituous drink. Their daily food includes rice, millet bread, pulse curry, vegetables, and milk, whey, curds, butter, and clarified butter. No one but a ling-wearer may touch or even see a Lingayat's food. On holidays and at small parties they have rich dishes. Their caste feasts are plain. The two chief dishes are huggi that is wheat and milk boiled together and seasoned with raw sugar and holagis or rolly-polies, that is wheat cakes stuffed with gram flour and raw sugar. A caste feast costs about 6d. (4 as.) a head. A Lingayat when alone or one of a small party sits to eat on a low wooden stool and generally eats his food off a brass plate set on an iron or brass tripod. Except in travelling when metal plates are not easily got and leaf plates are used, Lingayats never use leaf plates. At dinner, before he eats a Lingayat holds his ling in his left hand and bows to it. At caste dinners the guests sit on matting instead of on stools, and except Jangams lay the plate on, the ground not on a tripod. At caste dinners before guests have pat to it, tirth or holy water, that is water in which a Jangam's feet, have been washed, is poured over the guest's hands. The guests sip the holy water, shout Har Har Mahadev, and begin to eat. In eating the right hand is alone used. The small waterpot which must neven touch the lip is raised in the left hand. Women dine after the men, They sometimes sit on stools, never on mats, and generally lay their plates on the ground. Among Lingayats a young married couple never talk together in the presence of elders. Except a few who grow short topknots the men shave the whole head and face except the moustache and eyebrows. They mark the brow with white ashes called vibhuti literally the great power. [Among Kolhapur Lingayats, according to the time when they are used, the cowdung ashes have different degrees of holiness. The ashes which Lingayats rub without bathing are simple ashes, have no texts said over them, and can be touched by any Lingayat. The ashes rubbed after bathing are holier, have texts said over them, and can be touched only by Lingayats who have bathed. The ashes rubbed at the time of the ling worship are still holier, have many texts-said over them, and can be touched only at the time of ling worship.] The ashes which are rubbed on the brow are specially prepared by the Jangams or priests. Pure cowdung is dried and burnt and the ashes soaked in milk for six or seven days and rolled into balls about the size of a mango. Before they are used, the Jangam purifies the ball by sprinkling it with sacred water and saying texts over it. They cannot be sold by the person who gets them from the Jangam, and they cannot be passed to any one else. Virakt or unwed Jangams wear a loincloth hung from a waistband and ochre-coloured shoulder and head cloths. Laymen and married priests generally wear a somewhat scrimp waistcloth, a headscarf or a Brahman turban. They do not colour their clothes with ochre. Husbandmen generally wear a loincloth or short trousers, a blanket, and a headscarf. Lingayat women tie the hair in a knot at the back of the head but with less care than Brahman women. They never use false hair or deck their hair with flowers or ornaments. Their wives and widows wear the ordinary Maratha bodice with a back and short sleeves and the ends tied in front under the bosom. The robe is like the Maratha Brahman woman's robe except that the skirt falls like a petticoat and is seldom drawn back between the feet. Lingayat women are also more careful than Brahman women always to draw the upper end of the robe over the head. Like the men, women mark the brow with white cowdung ashes. Except that the women wear no head ornaments, the ornaments worn both by men and women are the same as those worn by Maratha Brahmans. On holidays Lingayat women dress and adorn themselves richly.

Lingayats are a quiet satisfied class wishing neither change nor power. Few are in the service of the State and almost none are messengers, constables, or soldiers. A large number of Lingayats are weavers, several are retail dealers, and some are husbandmen. In Gadinglaj and in the Kagal State a few rich traders have large dealings with Belgaum, Dharwar, and other Kanarese districts. A few estate-holders or jagirdars and proprietors and inamdars as the Desais of Terni and Bhodgaon, are Lingayats. Except the priests no Lingayat lives on alms, and few are labourers. A Lingayat rises early, marks his brow with ashes, and goes to the monastery to pay his respects to the lord or svami. He works till eleven, bathes, and, sitting on a white blanket in the central hall near the Jangam shrine, worships the ling for about half an hour. He then dines. After dinner, over which he spends twenty to thirty minutes, he washes his hands and mouth and chews betel. If well-to-do he rests after his dinner and goes back to work. In the evening he visits the monastery and bows to the head priest. [When a Lingayat layman pays his respects to his head priest, he prostrates himself before him; and when he meets an ordinary Jangam he places both his palms on his head and the head on the Jangam's feet. Neither the head priest nor an ordinary Jangam does or says anything. When a Lingayat layman meets another Lingayat layman, both of them join their hands, raise them to their heads and say Sharanarthi probably from sharanarthi that is asking refuge. When two Jangams meet they salute each other like laymen. Lay women do not salute each other; but if she meets a Jangam woman a laywoman salutes her as a layman salutes a Jangam. Like laywomen Jangam women do not salute one another. Before he starts on a journey a Lingayat prostrates himself before his gods and elders and his younger relations prostrate themselves before him. In a bargain a Lingayat buyer strikes the four fingers of his right hand on the four fingers of a Lingayat seller's right hand.] Priests and a few pious laymen worship the ling in the evening with the same details as in the morning. But the bulk of the laity simply wash their hands and feet and then wash the ling and eat their supper. After supper they chew betel, smoke tobacco, and talk for an hour or so and then go to bed. In theory as a fellow-wearer of the ling the Lingayat woman is equal to the Lingayat man. In practice her position in the family does not vary from the position of a woman in a Brahmanic Hindu family. She has no voice in choosing her husband. She is married about ten and contrary to book rules must be married before she comes of age. She rises early and marks her brow both with ashes and with redpowder. The higher class women do no work except minding the house. The wives of potters and weavers help their husbands at home, and the wives of husbandmen work in the fields and sell vegetables. Elderly women go in the morning to the monastery to pay their, respects to the svami. The three watehwords of the Lingayat faith are the ling the Jangam and the guru. The ling is the stone home of the deity, the jangam is the human abode of the deity, and the guru is the teacher who breathes the sacred spell into the disciple's ear. All Lingayats both men and women from childhood to death wear hung to a string passed round the neck a small slate-stone ling, a double disc with a small pea-like knob on the upper disc, hid under a betelnut-like coating of cowdung earth and marking-nut, and wound in a cloth or laid in a silver or rarely in a gold box. [The lings worn by Lingayats are generally of a light gray slate brought from Parvatgiri in North Arkot. The line which is turned on a lathe is of two discs one lower circular about an eighth of an inch thick the upper slightly elongated, each disc about three-quarters of an inch in diameter and separated by a deep groove about an eighth of an inch broad. From the centre of the upper disc, which like the lower disc is slightly rounded, rises a pea-like knob about a quarter of an inch high and three-quarters of an inch round, giving the stone ling a total height of nearly three quarters of an inch. This knob is called the ban arrow. The upper disc is called jalhari that is the water-drawer because this part of a fullsized ling is grooved for carrying off the water which is poured over the central knob. It is also called pith that is the seat and pithak the little seat. Over the stone ling to keep it from harm is plastered a black mixture of clay cowdung ashes and marking-nut juice. This coating, which is called kanthi or the cover, entirely hides the shape of the enclosed stone ling. It forms a smooth black slightly truncated cone, not unlike a dark betelnut, about three-quarters of an inch high and narrowing from three-quarters of an inch at the base to half an inch across the point which is cut flat and is slightly hollow. The simplest ling costs 1½d. (1 a.) and its usual price is 3s. (Rs. 1½). To the clay, ashes, and marking-nut juice the rich add powdered gold, silver, coral, pearls, even diamonds, raising the value of the ling sometimes to £5 (Rs. 50). Statistical Account of Bijapur.] A Lingayat is very careful not to lose his ling. In theory a man who loses his ling is degraded and cannot again become a Lingayat. In practice if the ling is accidentally lost the loser has to give a caste dinner, go through the ceremony of shuddhi [Details of shuddhi are given in the Bijapur Statistical Account.] or cleansing, and receive a new ling from the teacher or guru. Jangams or Lingayat priests are as much respected by Lingayats as Brahmans are by Brahmanic Hindus. They marry and bury Lingayats and conduct almost all Lingayat rites and ceremonies. The Jangam is succeeded by his son or near kinsman, or if he has no near kinsman by a disciple. The head Pontiff of the Lingayats is the Ayya or teacher of the Chitrakaldurga monastery in north-west Maisur. He is greatly respected and when he visits Kolhapur is received with enthusiasm. The guru is a married Jangam and seems to be the direct descendant either by birth or by adoption, of the first head of several families. The gotra or stock of these families and of their guru or teacher is the same and the families cannot intermarry. The guru or teacher is required to be present at every family ceremony. If he is not present his place is taken by an ordinary ayya who conducts the ceremony. Besides everybody's own ling which is worshipped by the wearer at least once a day, in Kolhapur almost every Lingayat. household has a wooden shrine for the house gods, who are worshipped every morning by a man of the house. The shrine is placed in majghar or central hall close to the Jangam shrine. The house gods are small brass images generally representing Shiv's family, Shiv himself, his two wives Ganga and Parvati, his two sons Ganpati and Virbhadra, and his bull the Nandi. The worshipper bathes, wears a silk, woollen, [Unlike Jains and like Brahmans Lingayats hold that silk and woollen cloths are not made impure in touch.] or freshly-washed cotton waistcloth, marks his brow with cowdung ashes, and begins the worship. He bathes the images in a brass or copper saucer, wipes them with a piece of cloth, and sets them on their proper seats in the shrine. He marks the images with cowdung ashes, lays flowers on them, throws coloured rice on their heads, burns frankincense before them, waves a small lamp fed with clarified butter about them, and offers them sugar, milk, or molasses. He repeats different texts during the different parts of the worship. The ling worship is performed close to the shrine of the house gods. The worshipper bathes, puts on a sacred cloth, marks his brow with cowdung ashes, and produces a cane basket. From the cane basket he takes a white blanket which is wrapped round a number of small worship pots, a number of large and small rudraksh bead strings, and a bag of cowdung ashes. He sits on the white blanket, marks his brow and generally smears his whole body with ashes, and in the small pots which are shaped to hold the different articles of worship, puts flowers, red rice, and other articles. He puts the rudraksh bead strings round his neck, wrists, ears, and arms, and a small string round the ling. He worships the ling in the same way as he worships his house gods. After worship he folds the pots, the bead strings, and the ash-bag in the white blanket, puts them in the cane basket, and places the cane basket in the niche. Except that she says no texts a woman in worshipping her ling goes through all the details given above. Most Kolhapur Lingayats, if they happen to pass by Ram's, Vithoba's, Maruti's or a boundary god's, or Lakshmi's or a village goddess' temple, bow to the deity. Lingayats fast on Shivratra in Magh in February. On Shravan or July-August Mondays they take only one evening meal. Most Kolhapur Liagayats go on pilgrimage to Kedarling on Jotiba's hill in Vadi-Ratnagiri about nine milea north-west of Kolhapur, to Nidsushi near Sankeshvarin Belgaum, to the math or monastery of Siddhgiri in Kadappa about six miles south of Kolhapur, and to Yedur in Chikodi in Belgaum. A few go to Gokarn in North Kanara and Ulvi twenty-five miles south of Supa in North Kanara. In theory the Lingayat has no good or bad. days. In practice Kolhapur Lingayats have a belief in good and bad luck and often consult Jangam astrologers to find a lucky day to perform a ceremony. They fast on eclipses and bathe before and after the eclipse. They openly consult astrologers and their Jangams study the same books as Brahmans and are consulted by Lingayats as much as Brahman astrologers are consulted by Brahmanic Hindus. Jangams and a few pious laymen pretend not to believe in ghosts and witchcraft, but women and ordinary people have a strong faith in witchcraft. Some Lingayats pretend to cure diseases by saying texts or mantras of Shiv over the diseased part and by tying on the person of the sick a magical design or yantra drawn on paper with the name of the god Dattatreya and some other letters on it. Unlike Brahmans Lingayats have no separate lying-in room, any suitable room in the house being used for the purpose. When a woman is in labour a Lingayat and in her absence a Jain or a Maratha midwife is sent for. If the labour is long and trying Jangams are called to say texts. After birth the room is purified by sprinkling water in which a Jangam's foot has been washed. The birth-time is noted and a Jangam astrologer is asked to prepare a birth paper and is paid according to the means of the family. If a birth takes place at an unlucky time, the evil stars are humoured with offerings. On the fifth day after the birth of a child a Jangam comes, repeats verses, takes a ling, winds it in a piece of silk cloth, and ties it round the child's neck or its upper right arm. The ling is soon after taken off and tied to the child's cradle. In the evening women neighbours come and perform rites in honour of Mother Sixth or Sati to keep off evil spirits. Sati is represented by a sickle with a bodicecloth wound round it. Near the goddess are laid a cocoanut, and a piece of blank paper, a pen, and an inkstand to write the destiny of the child. The paper pen and ink are kept there during the night. On the twelfth the child is laid in the cradle and named. Unlike Brahmans, among whom the, name is generally fixed by an astrologer Lingayats themselves fix the name of the child. It is generally chosen by the parents or by some elder of the family and is given by women neighbours who come to witness the ceremony. The women fill the mother's lap with wheat, betelnuts, a cocoanut, dry dates, and a bodicecloth; and the women are given betel and turmeric and vermilion paste to rub on their cheeks and mark their brows. Among priestly Lingayats when a boy is between seven and nine years old the initiation or aitan, [Full details are given in the Bijapur Statistical Account.] literally priest's state from the Kauarose ayya, priest and tan state, is performed. A Jangam astrologer is asked to choose a lucky day. The guru or teacher comes early in the morning of the day fixed, a square is made with a waterpot in the centre and one in each corner, each standing on a small heap of rice. White thread is passed round the necks of the pots. The boy's head is shared, and he is bathed and seated on a small wooden stool in front of the pot square, The teacher repeats several texts, whispers into the boy's ear, and makes him recite a short hymn. During the ceremony the pipe and drum are played and at the close a feast is given and alms are distributed. After his initiation the boy is a priest and may not eat food without bathing and performing regular ling worship. Diksha which means purification, may be undergone by any class of Lingayats except Jangams. A diksha raises a Pancham to be a Lokvant, a Lokvant to be a Shilvant, and a Shilvant to be a Jangam. By performing diksha girls of the Pancham, Lokvant, and Shilvant classes may marry into the classes above them. Many Lingayat men and women perform diksha before marriage or at any time before death to cleanse them from sin. As in aitan so, in diksha the day is fixed by a Jangam astrologer, and except that diksha texts are different from aitan texts, the ceremony differs little from aitan. Five metal jars are set on the ground four of them one at each corner of a square and the fifth in the centre each on a small heap of rice. A white thread is wound round the necks of the pots and betel and leaves and vermilion are set in their mouths. The man or the woman on whose account the ceremony is performed is bathed and made to sit on a woollen carpet in front of the pot square. The Jangam recites verses, and all present throw grains of rice mixed with vermilion over the person's head. The ceremony ends with a feast and the distribution of alms.

Girls are married before they come of age. When the parents of the boy and girl agree to marry their children, the marriage day is fixed by a Jangam astrologer and marriage booths are raised in front of the boy's and girl's houses. The first pole of the booth is driven in at a lucky moment. A marriage ceremony generally lasts for four days. On the first day comes the videghalne or betel-serving in token that the marriage settlement is made and is binding. The bride is decked with ornaments, and in the presence of Jangams and other respectable members of the caste is given pieces of sugarcandy. On the second day come the Ganpati worship, the turmeric-rubbing, and the gugul or bdellium gum ceremony in honour of Virbhadra. In the gum ceremony, which either the bride or bridegroom and their mothers must attend, two whitewashed earthen jars, in form and size like those in which women fetch water, are cut in two a little below the middle where they are widest. The upper halves are turned upside down standing on their mouths and into the upper half the lower half is dropped so that the open side is upward. The wide-mouthed vessels thus prepared are filled with ashes.. The ashes in the middle of each pot are damped and a stick about six inches long is fixed and wrapped round with a piece of cloth like a small torch. The two torches are lighted and the redpowders gulal and kunku, sandal-paste or gandh, and flower wreaths are thrown over them. Two Jangams or priests or two kinsmen dancing as they go carry the pots either in their hands or on their heads in procession, with pipes and drums, to a river or well outside of the village. When the pots are placed on the ground near the river or well, the head of the family washes the feet of the svami or monastery head who goes with the procession, puts flowers on his feet, gives him a cocoanut and money, and prostrates himself before him. After the svami worship the torches are put out and the pots are broken. Betel is served to all present and money is given to the priests or Jangams. The party go home silently without music. The gum or gugul ceremony was formerly performed only when a vow was made to Virbhadra, but in most Lingayat families it has become a regular part of the marriage ceremony. It is also performed by several Maratha and by a few Brahman families, [This gugul is interesting from the early character of its details. It seems to be an old spirit-scaring practice handed down from times before the higher ideas of Lingayatism or Brahmanism. The idea seems to be to collect evil influences in the torch and make it a scape-torch like the Jewish or early Hindu scapegoat or buffalo and carry the evil spirits beyond the village limits and leave them there. The device of asking the svami's blessing and paying him a fee seems to have saved the old practice fromperishing. The service is said to be in honour of Virbhadra an early spirit of the Kanarese country who has been identified with Shiv's son. The root of the fear of Virbhadra seems to be the fear of the Virs who are chiefly the angry ghosts of the unwed dead.] with the same details, except that in Maratha and Brahman gugul processions the pots are borne by kinsmen and no svami is worshipped. On the third day comes the devak or marriage guardian ceremony. All Lingayat families have the same devak. It is a winnowing bamboo basket containing rice, turmeric, betel leaves and nuts, and a closed earthen pot whose lid is tied on with cotton thread. The pot contains water and a few copper coins. Sometimes the devak ceremony takes place a day or two before the marriage. After the guardian is in his place the bridegroom is bathed and his brow is marked with ashes. He is dressed in rich clothes and a marriage coronet of bhend or water hemp is tied on his brow. An hour or two before the marriage which is generally in the evening, the bridegroom starts in procession with music for the bride's. In a Lingayat marriage no water-clock is set to note the exact time, and the proper time is guessed by one of the elders. At the bride's, the bride and bridegroom sit side by side on ordinary low wooden stools set in the centre of a square of metal pots like the square made for the purification or diksha. The bride is dressed in a simple white robe and her brow is decked with a bhend or water-hemp marriage coronet. The hems of the garments of the pair are tied together. The ayya hands rice mixed with vermilion to the guests, and recites verses. The guests throw the red rice on the pair's heads as long as the ayya recites verses. All this time music is played and muskets are fired. At the close of the recitation the lucky black glass bead string is tied round the bride's neck, the wedded pair are taken to bow to the house-gods, and the knot of their garments is loosened. On the fourth night the bridegroom goes to a math or monastery with his wife in a great procession both riding on the back of a bullock, or of late, though the change is a grief to the old and strict, on horseback. At the math or monastery the pair lay a cocoanut before the svami or head priest and prostrate themselves before him. From the math the procession goes to the bridegroom's house, where the ceremony ends with a feast and the distribution of alms. On the way they break cocoanuts at places supposed to be haunted by evil spirits and throw the spirits pieces of cocoanut. In a wealthy family a boy's marriage costs about £200 (Rs. 2000). Of this £100 (Rs. 1000) go in ornaments for the bride, £30 (Rs. 300) in clothing, £30 (Rs. 300) in charity, and £40 (Rs. 400) in food and other charges. In a middle class family a boy's marriage costs about £40 (Rs. 400) of which £20 (Rs. 200) go in ornaments, £10 (Rs. 100) in clothing, £2 10s. (Rs. 25) in charity, and £7 10s. (Rs. 75) in food and other things. In a poor family a boy's marriage costs about £20 (Rs. 200), of which £5 (Rs. 50) go in ornaments, £7 10s. (Rs. 75) in clothing, £1 (Rs. 10) in charity, and £6 10s. (Rs. 65) in food and other charges. A girl's marriage costs less than a boy's, the total varying from £2 10s. to £30 (Rs. 25-300). The charges include a dowry of £2 10s. to £5 (Rs. 25 - 50), a suit of clothes, and a necklace and ring to the bridegroom, robes and bodices for the bridegroom's mother and other kinswomen, and turbans for his father and brothers.

Widow marriage is forbidden among Jangams, Shilvants, and Lokvants. Panchams occasionally marry widows. Barbers, oilmen, potters, washermen, and Mhars allow and practise widow marriage. Unlike the high class Brahmanic widow the Lingayat widow may use a robe of any colour, continues to wear the bodice, is not shaven, and may wear ornaments except the nose-ring, the lucky neck-thread, and toe-rings. Still a widow is held unlucky and is not asked to marriage and other festive ceremonies.

When a Lingayat is on the point of death he is advised to distribute money in charity and present a Jangam with a cow. His body is covered with sacred ashes. If he is well-to-do, the dying man performs the vibhutiville or ashes and betel-giving at a cost of £2 to £2 10s. (Rs.20-25). This rite is believed to cleanse the sin of the performer and is generally performed by old men and women. If a performer survives the rite he or she has to leave his or her house and pass the rest of their lives in a math or monastery. Jangams are not required to undergo this rite as they are considered holy and not to need purifying. Sometimes a Jangam is asked to recite verses. A few minutes before death the dying person is laid on a white blanket and a little holy water is put into the mouth. After death the ornaments, if there are any, are removed from the body, and the body washed in cold water in an open space near the house, and is clad in full dress. The body is laid crosslegged slightly leaning against a wall for two to eight hours, or even longer if the dead is an old and influential person. During this time kinsmen and kinswomen sit near and bewail the dead. If the dead is a Jangatn or an old man or woman Jangams are asked to recite verses, and the recitation is accompanied with music. If the dead has a wife, his wife's lucky thread, glass bangles, and toe-rings are taken off her body and laid in the canopied chair specially prepared for the occasion. Plantain stems are tied to the upright poles of the chair, the leaves are fastened together into arches, and the whole chair is decorated with flower wreaths. The dead body is seated crosslegged in the chair, and the chair is borne by four friends or kinsmen. No fire is taken with the procession, and no women go with it. If the family is well-to-do, musicians play before the body; and music is always employed when a Jangam dies. As the body is borne to the grave the men in the procession cry out Shiv Shiv, or Har Har, and at intervals betel-leaves and copper coins are thrown on the road. Meanwhile the grave is being dug by labourers of any caste. The grave is 4½ feet long 2¾ feet wide and three feet deep. In the east side of the grave a niche large enough to hold the dead body is cut, and the inside of the grave is cowdunged and purified with padodak that is water in which a Jangam's feet have been washed. On the outside of the grave, at each corner is set an earthen ling with an earthen bull in front of each ling. The dead is lowered into the grave by his friends and kinsmen, and laid in the niche facing west. The ling is taken out of its case, which is kept by the heirs, and laid in the body's left hand. The priest washes the ling, rubs ashes, and lays bel leaves on it. He hands bel leaves to all present, and drops some on the head of the dead and all drop their leaves after him. If the dead is a svami or head priest a note signed by his successor asking that the doors of heaven may be opened to let the dead into the presence of Shiv is tied round the neck. The grave is filled with salt and ashes till the body is covered, and then with earth, and over the earth one or two slabs of stone are laid. The priest stands on the stone and the mourners wash his feet, lay flowers and bel leaves on them, and give him money. Money is also given to beggars. When there is music the music goes on till after the priest's feet are worshipped. The whole party go to a river or well, bathe, and return in wet clothes to the house of mourning, where each of them sips a little karuna literally grace, which is of higher efficacy than padodak or foot-water and over which a larger number of texts have been repeated. Jangams are fed and alms are given to the poor. On the first and sometimes on the fifth the old clothes of the dead are given to priests and poor men. To the svami are given a cow, a pair of shoes, an umbrella, and pots. On the third, fifth, or seventh day after death Jangams and the near kinsmen of the dead are asked to dinner, and after this the family are considered pure, and strangers may take food in the house. No monthly or yearly mind-rites are performed in honour of the dead. If the family is well-to-do, a tomb is built with a masonry ling and nandi or bull on it, and the ling and the bull are worshipped daily by some member of the family. Lingayats are bound together by a strong fellow - feeling. Social disputes are referred to the svami or monastery head whose decision is generally accepted. An appeal lies to the head of the Kadappa math or monastery on a hill six miles south of Kolhapur, who is the head Jangam of the province. Kolhapur Lingayats have not begun to make much use of 'State schools, the total number of Lingayat boys in the Kolhapur schools in March 1883 was 1478. Girls are seldom sent to school. The Lingayat faith seems to keep its hold on the minds and affections of the people. They may have to be a little more careful than formerly in the punishments they inflict for caste rules, and with this exception the influence of the priests shows no sign of declining.

JAINS.

Jains are returned as numbering 46,732 or 6.02 per cent of the Hindu population and as found over the whole State. They take their name from being followers of the twenty-four Jins or conquerors the last two of whom were Parasnath and Mahavir who was also called Vardhman. Parasnath or Parshavanath literally the nath or lord who comes next to the last Jin Vardhman is said to have been the son of king Ashvasen by his wife Varna or Bama Devi of the race of Ikshvaku. He is said to have been born at Benares, to have married Prabhavati the daughter of king Prasen Jit, to have adopted an ascetic life at the age of thirty, and to have practised austerities for eighty days when he gained perfect wisdom. Once while engaged in devotion his enemy Kamath caused a great rain to fall on him. But the serpent Dharanidhar or the Nag king Dharan shaded Parasnath's head with his hood spread like an umbrella or chhatra, whence the place was called Ahichhatra or the snake umbrella. [General Cunningham has identified the ancient Ahichhatra with the present Ramnagar in Rohilkhand in Upper India. Cunningham's Ancient Geography, I. 359.] Parasnath is said to have worn only one garment. He had a number of followers of both sexes, and died performing a fast at the age of 100 on the top of Samet Shikhar in Hazaribagh in West Bengal. His death occurred 250 years before that of the last or twenty-fourth Jin Mahavir. Mahavir or Vardhman, who was also of the Ikshvaku race, is said to have been the son of Siddharth prince of Pavan by Trisala and to have been born at Chitrakut or Kundgram perhaps the modern Chitarkot a great place of pilgrimage seventy-one miles west of Allahabad. He is said to have married Yashoda the daughter of prince Samarvir, and to have by her a daughter named Priyadarshana, who became the wife of Jamali, a nephew of Mahavir's and one of his pupils who founded a separate sect. Mahavir's father and mother died when he was twenty-eight, and two years later he devoted himself to austerities which he continued for twelve and a half years, nearly eleven of which were spent in fasts. As a Digambar or sky -clad ascetic he went robeless and had no vessel but his hand. At last the bonds of action were snapped like an old rope and he gained keval or absolute unity of spirit end became an Arhat that is worthy or Jin that is conqueror. He went to Papapuri or Apapuri in Behar and taught his doctrine. Of several eminent Brahmans who became converts and founded schools or ganas, the chief was Indrabhuti or Gautam, who preached his doctrines at the cities of Kaushambi and Rajgrih and died at the age of seventy-two at Apapuri in South Behar between B.C. 663 and 526. [Rice's Mysore and Coorg, I. 374, 375.]

Like the Buddhists, the Jains reject the Veds which they pronounce apochryphal and corrupt and to which they oppose their own scriptures or Angas. As among Buddhists confession is practised among Jains. Great importance is attached to pilgrimage and four months or the chaturmas that is four months from the eleventh of Ashadh or July-August to the eleventh of Kartik or October-November in the year are given to fasting, the reading of sacred books, and meditation. They attach no religious importance to caste. Jains like Buddhists are of two classes yatis or ascetics and shravaks or hearers. Jains like Buddhists admit no creator. According to them the world is eternal and they deny that any being can have been always perfect; the Jin became perfect but he was not perfect at first. Both Buddhists and Jains worship though under different names twenty-four lords each with his sign and his attendant goddess or shasan devi:

Jain Saints.
[Rice's Mysore and Coorg, I. 374,.]

continued..

On the whole Jainism is less opposed to Brahmanism than Buddhism is, and admits some of the Brahman deities, though it holds them inferior to their chovishi or twenty-four saints. Jainism, of which there are traces in South India as early as the second century before Christ and to which the great stone figure of Gomateshvar at Shravan Belgola in Maisur is believed to belong, was a ruling religion in the Deccan at least as early,as the fourth or fifth century. Kolhapur seems to have been a Jain settlement before the time of the Silaharas. It is once called Padmalaya or the abode of Padma the Jain name for Lakshmi apparently from the temple of Mahalakshmi which has since been used by Brahmans. During the time of the Silaharas (1050 - 1210) Jainism was the prevailing religion in Kolhapur and the country round. [Fleet's Kanarese Dynasties pp. 102-103.] It gradually gave way to Shankaracharya the founder of the Smarts, Ramanuj the great Vaishnav (A.D. 1130), and Basav the first of the Lingayata (1150-1168).

Jains name their children after the arhats or worthies of the present past and future ages, after the parents of the arhats, after the pious and great men, and after Brahmanic gods and local deities. Like Brahmanic Hindus Jain parents sometimes give their children mean names to avert early death as Kallappa from kallu (K.) stone, Kadappa from had (K.) forest, Dhondu from dhonda (M.) and Dagadu from dagad (M.) stone.

Kolhapur Jains are divided into Upadhyas or priests, Panchams or traders, Chaturths or husbandmen, Kasars or coppersmiths, and Shetvals or cloth-sellers. These classes eat together but do not intermarry. Formerly the sect included barbers, washermen, and many other castes who have ceased to be Jains. Properly speaking there is no separate priestly caste among the Jains, the Upadhyas or priests are usually chosen from among the learned Panchams or Chaturths subject to the recognition of. their principal svamis or head priests called Pattacharya Svamis.

The men are dark, middle sized, strong, and well built, and the women slender, fair, and graceful. They speak Kanarese at home and Marathi abroad, which they call Are Matuor the language of the Ares. In their Kanarese the last syllable is always very indistinct. The sacred literature of the Jains is in a dialect of Sanskrit called Magadhi. They keep cattle, but are not allowed to have pet birds in cages. Jains are strict vegetarians and do not use animal food on pain of loss of Caste. Every Jain filters the water he uses in drinking or cooking for fear of killing insect life. He also takes his food before sunset in case of destroying any animal life by eating in the dark. No Jain tastes honey or drinks liquor, and monks and religious Jains abstain from fresh vegetables. The men wear the waistcloth, jacket, coat, shoulder cloth, and the Kanarese headscarf. The women wear the hair in a knot at the back of the head, and dress in the full Maratha robe with or without passing the skirt back between the feet, and a bodice with a back and short sleeves. Young widows may dress in the robe and bodice and their hair is not shaven. Old widows generally dress in white and never put on bodices. As a class Jains are orderly and law-abiding and seldom appear in criminal courts. In spite of political changes many Jains are hereditary village and district officers. Strict Jains object to tillage because of the loss of life which it cannot help causing. Still they do not carry their objection to the length of refusing to dine with Jain husbandmen. Among Kolhapur Jains the husbandmen are the largest and most important class with a head priest of their own who lives at Nandni about eighteen miles east of Kolhapur. Except some of the larger landholders who keep farm servants, the Jain landholders, with the help of their women do all parts of field work with their own hands. They are the hardest Working husbandmen in the State, making use of every advantage of soil and situation. In large towns like Kolhapur and Miraj Jains are merchants, traders, and shopkeepers dealing chiefly in jewelry, cotton, cloth, and grain. Most Kasars deal in bangles or work as coppersmiths, and others weave and press oil. Some Jains live by begging, but any one who asks alms from a man who is not a Jain is put out of caste. To every Jain temple one or more priests or Upadhyas are attached. They belong to the Chaturth or the Pancham division and are supported by the Jain community, taking the food offerings, cloth, and money presents which are made to the gods and goddesses. Besides temple priests every village which has a considerable number of Jains has an hereditary village priest called gramopadhya who conducts their ceremonies and is paid either in cash or in grain. These village priests, who are married and in whose families the office of priest is hereditary, are under a high priest called dharmadhikari or religious head a celibate or ascetic by whom they are appointed and who has power to turn out any priest who breaks religious rules or caste customs. The village priest keeps a register of all marriages and thread-girdings in the village, and the high priest whose head-quarters are at Nandni about eighteen miles east of Kolhapur and whose authority extends over all Kolhapur Jains, makes a yearly circuit gathering contributions, or sends an agent to collect subscriptions from the persons named in the village priests' lists. The office of high priest is elective. The high priest chooses his successor from among his favourite disciples.

As a class the Kolhapur Jains are backward in education and few are in the service of the State. Still their diligence and orderliness make them a prosperous and important class. In the early morning before he gets up a Jain rests his right shoulder on the ground. He then sits facing the east and repeats verses in praise of Jindev the victorious. He leaves his seat and sets out for the temple to see the image of Parasnath, on his way as far as possible avoiding the sight of man or beast. On his return from the temple he retires, cleanses himself with earth, and washes his hands feet and face. After washing he bathes in warm water which he first purifies by repeating verses over it. When his bath is finished he puts on a freshly washed cotton cloth, sits on a low wooden stool, and for about an hour says- his morning prayer or, sandhya. He lays sandal flowers and sweetmeat before the house gods and then goes to the temple to worship Parasnath,; where the head ascetic or svami reads the Jain Puran, tells his beads, sips a little of the holy water or tirth in which the image has been bathed, and returns home. He washes his hands and feet, performs a fire worship, and feeds the fire with cooked rice and clarified butter in the name of all the Vedic gods or Vishvedevs. He usually dines between eleven and one. If a stranger happens to visit the house at dinner time, he is welcomed and asked to dine If the guest belongs to the same class as the houseowner they sit in the same row and eat like local Brahmans. After dinner he chews betel, and then either goes to his business, or takes a midday rest and reads his holy books. As a rule he sups an hour at least before sunset, repeats his evening prayer, visits the temple and hears a Puran, returns about nine and goes to bed. Women as soon as they rise, go to the temple to have a sight of Parasnath, return home and mind the house sweeping and cowdunging the kitchen and dining place. They then bathe, dress in a freshly washed cotton robe and bodice, rub their brows and cheeks with vermilion and turmeric, again visit the temple, bow before the god, and sip and throw over the head water which has been used in bathing the god. On returning home, they fetch water and wash clothes, cook, and after serving the men with food, take their dinner. After dinner they grind corn and do other house work, prepare supper, sup after the men before sunset, visit the Jain temple, listen to a Puran, return home, and retire for the night. As a rule young women neither go so often to the temple nor stay there so long as elderly women.

The religion of the Kolhapur Jains may be treated under five heads: the temple worship of the twenty-four saints and their attendant goddesses; holy places and holy days; the worship of house gods; the worship of field guardians; and the irregular worship of evil disease-causing spirits. The chief Jain doctrine is that to take life is sin. Like Buddhists they believe that certain conduct has raised men above the gods. Twenty-four saints have gained perfection. To each of these a sign and an attendant goddess have been allotted and these form the regular objects of Jain temple worship. The Jains belong to two main sects the shvetambars or white-robed and digambars or sky-clad that is the naked saint worshippers. The bulk of the Kolhapur Jains are Digambars. Temple worship is the chief part of the Jain's religious duties. Their temples are called bastis or dwellings, but can easily be known from ordinary dwellings by their high plinths. The temple consists of an outer hall and a shrine. The walls of the outer hall are filled with niches of the different Brahmanic deities and attendant goddesses. In the shrine is an image generally of the twenty-third saint Parasnath, which in Kolhapur temples is generally naked. The images in most cases are of black polished stone two feet to three feet high either standing with the hands stretched down the sides, or in the seated cross-legged position. Temple worship is of four kinds, daily worship, eight-day or ashtanhiki worship, wish-filling or kalp worship, and the five-blessing or panch kalyani worship. In the daily temple worship the image of the saint is bathed by the temple ministrant in milk andon special days in the five nectars or panchamrits water, tree sap or vriksh ras that is sugar, plantains, clarified butter, milk and curds. The priest repeats sacred verses, sandal paste is laid on the image, and it is decked with flowers.

Jains perform the ashtanhiki or eight-day worship three times in a year from the bright eighth to the full-moon of Shravan or July-August, in Kartik or October -November, and in Phalgun or February - March. Only the rich perform the wish-filling or kalp worship as the worshipper has to give the priest whatever he asks. Except the goat-killing the five-blessing or panchkalyani worship is the same as the Brahmanical sacrifice. According to the Jain doctrine bathing in holy places does not cleanse from sin. Kolhapur Jains make pilgrimages to Jain holy places, Uru Jayantgiri or Girnar in South Kathiawar sacred to Nemishvar or Neminath, Pavapur near Rajagriha or Rajgir about fifty miles south of Patna sacred to Vardhman Svami, Sammedhgiri properly Samet Shikhar or Parasnath hill in Hazaribagh in West Bengal sacred to Parasnath where are feet symbols or padukas of the twenty-four Jain arhats or worthies, and in the south, the stone figure of Gomateshvar in Shravan Belgola in Maisur, and Mudbidri in Sonth Kanara. They make pilgrimages to Benares which they say is the birthplace of Parasnath who was the son of Vishveshvar the chief Brahman deity of the place. The leading religious seats of the Jains are Delhi, Dinkanchi in Madras, Vingundi in South Kanara, and Kolhapur. Any poor Jain may visit these places and is fed for any number of days, but on pain of loss of caste he must beg from no one who is not a Jain.

Jain ascetics keep ten fasts in every lunar month, the fourths, the eighths, the elevenths, the fourteenths, and the full-moon and no-moon. They keep all Brahmanic holidays and in addition the week beginning from the lunar eighth of Ashadh or June-July, of Kartik or October-November, and of Phalgun or February-March, and they hold a special feast on Shrut Panchmi or Learning's Fifth on the bright fifth of Jyeshth or May-June. Of the twenty-four minor goddesses who attend on the twenty-four saints the chief are Kalika or Jvalamalini and Padmavati who probably are the same as the two popular Brahman goddesses Bhavani and Lakshmi.

Besides in the twenty-four attendant goddesses Jains believe in all Brahmanic deities placing them below their saints or tirthankars. They pay special respect to the Brahman goddess Sarasvati who is represented by a sacred book resting on a brazen chair called shrut skandh or learning's prop and in whose honour in all Jain temples a festival is held on the bright fifth of Jyeshth or May-June. To these guardian goddesses and saints two beings are added Bhujval or Goval of Shravan Belgola in Maisur distinguished by the creepers twining round his arms and Nandishrami a small temple like a brass frame. Besides these they worship a brass wheel of law or dharm-chakra which is said to represent five classes of great deities or Parameshthis a verbal salutation to the whole of whom forms the Jain's daily prayer. The Jains think their book and temple gods the arhats or worthies, the siddhs or perfect beings, the acharyas or godfathers, the upadhyas or priests, and the sadhus or saints are too austere and ascetic to take an interest in every-day life or to be worshipped as house guardians. For this reason their house deities are either Brahmanic or Lingayat gods.

As among Brahmanic Hindus the house deities are kept in a separate room generally next to the cooking room in a devara or shrine of carved wood. The images are generally of metal three to. four inches high. Among the images is not unusually the mask or bust of some deceased female member of the family who has afflicted the family with sickness and to please her had her image placed and worshipped among the house gods. [Details are given below under Jakhin.] Besides the usual Brahmanic or Lingayat house deities several families have a house image of Parasnath but the worship of Parasnath as a house image is not usual. As among Brahmanic Hindus the daily worship of the house gods is simple chiefly consisting in a hurried decking with flowers. On holidays the images are bathed in milk, and flowers, sandal-paste, rice, burnt frankincense, and camphor and cooked food are laid before them. Women are not allowed to touch the house gods. During the absence of the men of the house the temple priest is asked to conduct the daily worship. Another class of Jain deities are the kshetrapals or fieldguardians the chief of whom are Bhairav and Brahma. In theory Jains do not believe in spirits. The learned are particularly careful to disavow a belief in spirits and even ordinary Jains dislike to admit the existence of such a belief. Still enquiry shows that a belief in spirits is little less general than among the corresponding Brahmanic classes. They believe in spirit-possession and call their family spirits pitrad or fathers. Though they profess not to believe that infants are attacked by spirits they perform the ceremonies observed by Brahmanic Hindus in honour of Mothers Fifth and Sixth which seem to form a part of the early rites on which the customs of all Hindu sects are based. Besides the spirit attacks to which children are specially liable on the fifth and sixth days afterbirth, Jain children are liable to child-seizures or bal grahas probably a form of convulsions which Jain women say is the work of spirits. Educated and religious Jains who object to the early or direct form of spirit action believe in the more refined drisht or evil eye as a cause of sickness. According to the popular Jain belief all eyes have not the blasting power of the evil eye. Care must be taken in cutting the child's navel for if any of the blood enters its eyes their glance is sure to have a blasting or evil power. Unlike most Brahmanic Hindus, Jains do not believe that a woman in her monthly sickness is specially liable to spirit attacks. In their opinion a woman runs most risk of being possessed when she has just bathed and her colour is heightened by turmeric, when her hair is loose, and when she is gaily dressed, and happens to go to a lonely well or river bank at noon or sunset. Boys also are apt to be possessed when they are well dressed or fine-looking or when they are unusually sharp and clever. Jains profess not to hold the ordinary Brahmanic belief that the first wife comes back and plagues the second wife. Still they hold in great terror Jakhins that is the ghosts of women who die with unfulfilled wishes. Among Jains as among other Hindus, Jakhins plague the living by attacking children with lingering diseases. When a child is wasting away Jain parents make the Jakhin a'vow that if the child recovers the Jakhin's image shall be placed with their family gods. If the child begins to recover as soon as the vow is made the house people buy a silver or gold mask or tak of Jakhin, lay sandal-paste and flowers on and sweetmeats before it, and set it in the god room with the other house gods. Five married women, who are asked to dine at the house are presented each with turmeric, vermilion, betel, and wet gram, and a special offering or vayam consisting of five wheat cakes stuffed with sugar clarified butter and molasses is made in the name of the dead woman who is believed to have turned Jakhin and possessed the child. The women and men guests dine with the family and take the special offering or vayan home. The image is daily worshipped with the house gods with great reverence as it generally represents the mother some near relation of the worshipper. This Jakhin worship is common among Jains. Jains have no professional exorcists or charmers chiefly because their place is filled by the Jain priests. When sickness is believed to be caused by spirit-possession the priest is consulted. He worships the goddess Padmavati or Lakshmi and gives the sick holy water or tirth in which the goddess' feet have been washed. If the holy water fails to cure, the priest consults his book of omens or shakunvanti, adds together certain figures in the book and divides the total by a certain figure in the tables of the book, and by referring to the book finds what dead relation of the sick person the quotient stands for. If it is a woman she has become a Jakhin and should be worshipped along with the family gods. The priest then mutters a verse over a pinch of frankincense ashes or angara burnt before the gods and hands it to the sick to be rubbed on his brow. If the ash-rubbing and the Jakhin worship fail to cure the sick, the priest prepares a paper or bhoj or birch leaf called a yantra or device marked with mystic figures or letters and ties it in a silk cloth or puts it in a small casket or tait, mutters verses over it, burns frankincense, and ties it round the possessed person's arm or neck. If the amulet is of no avail the priest advises an anushthan or god-pleasing. The head of the house asks the priest to read a sacred book before the temple image of one of the saints or to repeat a text or mantra or a sacred hymn or stotra some thousand times in honour of one of the saints. The priest is paid for his trouble, and when the sick is cured the god-pleasing ends with a feast to priests and friends. If even the god-pleasing fails, the sick, if he is an orthodox and particular Jain, resigns himself to his fate or seeks the aid of a physician. Unlike the men Jain women are not satisfied without consulting exorcists and trying their cures. Exorcists are shunned by men Jains because part of the exorcists' cure is almost always the offering of a goat or of a cock. A Jain man will seldom agree to such a breach of the chief law of his faith, but Jain women secretly go to the exorcists and do as they are advised. When all remedies are of no avail Jairis sometimes take the sick to a holy place called Tavnidhi fifteen miles south-west of Chikodi, and the sick or some relation on his behalf worships the spirit-scaring Brahmanidhi until the patient is cured. The Jains profess to have no sacred pools, animals, or trees that have a spirit-scaring power. When an epidemic rages a special worship of Jindev is performed.

Of the sixteen sacraments or sanskars which are nearly the same as the sixteen Brahman sacraments, Kolhapur Jains perform thread-girding, marriage, puberty, and death. Except that the texts are not Vedic the rites do not differ from those performed by Brahmans. Their birth ceremonies are the same as those of Brahmans like whom on the fifth day they worship the goddess Satvai. Boys are girt with the sacred thread between eight and sixteen. A boy must, not be girt until he is eight. If, for any reason, it suits the parents to hold the thread-girding before the boy is eight, they add to his age the nine months he passed in the womb. A Jain astrologer names a lucky day for the thread-girding, a booth is raised before the house, and an earth altar or bahule a foot and a half square is built in the booth and plantain trees are set at its corners. Pots are brought from the potter's and piled in each corner of the altar and a yellow cotton thread is passed round their necks. Over the altar is a canopy and in front is a small entrance hung with evergreens. Invitation cards are sent to distant friends and kinsfolk. A day or two before the thread-girding the invitation procession consisting of men and women of the boy's house with music and friends starts from the boy's. They first go to the Jain temple and the father or some other relation with the family priest lays a cocoanut before the god, bows before him, and asks him to the ceremony. They visit the houses of their friends and relations and ask them to attend the ceremony. The Jains have no devak or family guardian worship. The boy and his parents go through the preliminary ceremonies as at a Brahman thread-girding. The boy's head is shaved and he is bathed and rubbed with turmeric. The astrologer marks the lucky moment by means of his water-clock or ghatka and as it draws near music plays and guns are fired. The priest repeats the lucky verses and throws red rice over the boy. The boy is seated on his father's or if the father is dead on some other kinsman's knee on a low stool. The knot of his hair is tied and he is girt with a sacred thread or janve and a string of kush grass is tied round his waist. The- priest kindles the sacred fire, betel is served to the guests, and money gifts are distributed among priests and beggars. The boy has to go and beg at five Jain houses. He stands at the door of each house and asks the mistress of the house to give him alms saying Oh lady be pleased to give alms. [The Sankrit runs: Bhavati bhiksham dehi.] The alms usually consists of a waistcloth, rice, or cash. Great merit is gained by giving alms to a newly girded boy, and many women visit the boy's house for three or four days to present him with silver or cloches. After begging at five houses the boy returns home and a feast to friends and kinsfolk ends the first day. The sodmunj or grass-cord loosening is performed usually after a week and sometimes between a week from the thread-girding and the marriage day. The loosening is generally performed near a pimpal Ficus religiosa tree. The boy is bathed, the rite of holiday calling or punyahavachan is gone through as on the first day, music plays, and flowers, sandal-paste, burnt frankincense, and sweetmeat are offered to the pimpal tree. The boy bows before the tree and the priest unties the cord from round his waist. The boy is dressed in a full suit of clothes, declares that he means to go to Benares and spend the rest of his life in study and worship, and sets out on his journey. Before he has gone many yards, his maternal uncle meets him, promises him his daughter's hand in marriage, and asks him to return home and live among them as a householder or grihasth. The boy is escorted home with music and a band of friends and a small feast to friends and kinsfolk ends the ceremony.

Boys are married between fifteen and twenty-five and girls before they come of age. As a rule the boy's father proposes the match to the girl's father and when they agree, an astrologer is consulted, who compares the birth papers of the boy and the girl and approves the match if he thinks the result will be lucky and if the family stocks and branches or shakhas of the boy and the girl are different. Then on a lucky day the boy's father visits the girl's house with a few friends, including five kinswomen, and are received by the girl's father and mother. The girl is seated on a low stool in front of the house gods, and the boy's father presents her with a robe and bodice and a pair of silver chains or sankhlis and anklets or valas. Her brow is marked with vermilion and decked with a network of flowers. The women of the boy's house dress the girl in the clothes and ornaments brought by the boy's father, and the boy's father puts a little sugar in her mouth. Packets of sugar and betel are handed among the guests and the asking or magni ends with a feast to the guests. As a rule marriage takes place two or three years after betrothal. Every year the boy's parents have to send a present of a string of cocoa-kernel and some fried rice on the Cobra's Fifth or Nagpanchmi in July-August and this they have to continue to do till the girl comes of age. When the boy is fifteen or sixteen and the girl is ten or eleven the parents think it is time they were married and send for and consult an astrologer. He compares their horoscopes, consults his almanac, and names a lucky day for the marriage. The ceremony as a rule lasts five days. On the first day two married girls in the bride's house bathe early in the morning, wear a ceremonial dress, and with music and a band of friends go to a pond or a river with copper pots on their heads; lay sandal-paste, flowers, rice, vermilion, burnt frankincense, and sweetmeats on the bank in the name of the water goddess, fill the pots with water, and mark them with vermilion, set a cocoanut and betel leaves in the mouth of each, cover them with bodicecloths, and deck them with gold necklaces. They then set the waterpots on their heads, return home, and lay them on the earthen altars. Flowers, vermilion, burnt frankincense and sweetmeat are offered to the pots and five dishes tilled with earth are set before them, sprinkled with water from the waterpots, and mixed seed grain is sown in the earth. Friends and kinsfolk are asked to dine at the house and the sprout-offering or ankurarpan is over. The bridegroom is bathed at his house and lights a sacred fire or hom, puts on a rich dress, and goes on horseback with music and friends carrying clothes, ornaments, sugar, and betel packets to the bride's house. The bride's party meet him on the way and the bridegroom is taken to the bride's house and seated outside of the house on a seat of andumbar or umbar Ficus glomerata. The bride's parents come out with a vessel full of water, the father washes his future son-in-law's feet and the mother pours water over them. The bridegroom is then taken to a raised seat in the house, seated on it, and presented with clothes, a gold ring, and a necklace. The bridegroom's parents present the ornaments and clothes they have brought for the bride, packets of betel and sugar are handed among friends arid kinspeople, and the first day ends with a feast to the bridegroom's party. The bridegroom returns home with his party, is rubbed with turmeric and clarified butter, and bathed by five married women, seated in a square with an earthen pot at each corner and a yellow thread passed fire times round their necks. The bride is bathed in a similar square at her house. On the third day the bride and bridegroom bathe, dress in newly washed clothes, and starting from their homes meet at the Jain temple. The priest attends them and the pair bow before the idol. The priest makes them repeat the five-salutation hymn which every Jain ought to know and warns them to keep the Jain vow or Jain vrat of not-killing or ahinsa and of leading a pure moral life. The pair are treated to sweetmeats each by their own people, and the family gods and the cork marriage coronet or bashing are worshipped at both houses. Men and women from both houses go with music and ask their friends and kinspeople. In the afternoon, when all meet, the women take their seats in the booth and the men inside of the house and all eat at the same time. On the fourth day the actual marriage ceremony begins. Friends and relations are asked to both houses. The bridegroom is rubbed with fragrant oil, and with about fifteen of his relations again kindles the sacred fire, dresses in rich clothes, and goes to the bride's house on horseback with music and friends. On the way he is met by the bride's party and taken to a raised umbar Ficus glomerata seat. While he is seated on the umbar seat a couple from the bride's house, generally the bride's parents, come and wash his feet. The bridegroom thrice sips water, puts on the new sacred thread offered him by the bride's priest, and swallows curds mixed with sugar which the couple have poured over his hands. The father-in-law leads the bridegroom by the hand to a ready-made seat in the house. Before the seat a curtain is held and two heaps of rice, one on each side of the curtain, marked with the lucky cross or svastik and crowned with the sacred kush grass. A short time before the lucky moment the bride is led out by her friends and made to stand on the rice heap behind the curtain, the bridegroom standing on the rice heap on the other side. The guests stand around and the priests recite the nine-planet lucky verses or navgrah mangalashtaks. The astrologer marks the lucky moment by clapping his hands, the musicians redouble their noise, the priests draw aside the curtain, and the pair look at each other and are husband and wife. The bridegroom marks the bride's brow with vermilion and she throws a flower garland round his neck. They fold their hands together and the bride's father pours water over their hands. They then throw rice over each other's head, and the priests and guests throw rice at the pair. The priests tie the marriage wristlets on the hands of the pair. The bridegroom then sits on a low stool facing east and the bride on another stool to his left. The priest kindles the sacred or hom fire and the bridegroom feeds the fire with offerings of parched rice held in a dish before him by the bride. Then the priest, lays seven Small heaps of rice each with a small stone at the top in one row. The bridegroom, holding the bride by the hand, touches the rice and the stone on each heap with his right toe, moves five times round the heaps, the priest shows the pair the Polar star or dhruv, and the payment of a money gift to the priest completes the day's ceremonies. The hems of, the pair's garments are knotted together and they walk into the house and bow before the waterpots which are arranged on the first day, and are fed with a dish of milk and clarified butter. Next day the bride's parents give a feast to the bridegroom's party and to their own kinspeople. In the morning the pair are seated in the booth and young girls on both sides join them. The pair first play with betelnuts for a time and the bridegroom takes some wet turmeric powder and rubs it five times on the bride's face, who gathers it and rubs it on the bridegroom's face. The bridegroom is given a betel packet to chew, chews half of it and hands the rest to the bride. Thus he chews the five betel packets, and the bride in her turn chews another five each time handing half of the betel packet to the bridegroom to chew. Next morning the sacred fire is again kindled and the serpent is worshipped. The pair then dine at the bride's and play with betelnuts. The pair are seated on horseback, the bride before the bridegroom, and taken to the Jain temple where they walk round the god, bow before him, and ask his blessing. They then walk to the bridegroom's with music and friends. Before they reach every part of the house is lighted and a long white sheet is spread on the ground from the booth door to the god-room. When the pair attempt to cross the threshold the bridegroom's sister blocks the door and does not allow them to enter. The bridegroom asks her why she blocks the door. She says, Will you give your daughter in marriage to my son? He answers, Ask my wife. The sister asks the wife and she says, I will give one of my three pearls in marriage to your son. Then she leaves the door, the pair walk into the house, bow before the house gods, and a feast of uncooked provisions to those that do not eat from them and of cooked food to friends of their own caste and to kinspeople ends the ceremony. Though forbidden by their sacred book, all Jains except Upadhyas or priests allow widow marriage. They say the practice came into use about 200 years ago. If a woman does not get on well with her husband, she may live separate from him but cannot marry during her husband's lifetime. When a girl comes of age she sits apart for three days. On the fourth she is bathed and her lap is filled with rice and a cocoanut, and the rest of the age-coming does not differ from a Brahman age-coming.

When a Jain is on the point. of death, a priest is called in to repeat verses to cleanse the sick person's ears, to quiet his soul, and if possible to drive away his disease. When recovery is hopeless, a ceremony called sallekhan vidhi or tearing rite is performed to sever the sick person from worldly pleasures and to make him fit for the life he is about to enter. Sometimes the sick man is made to pass through the ceremony called sannyas grahan or ascetic vow-taking with the same rites as among Brahmans. When these rites are over and death is near, the dying man is made to lie on a line of three to four wooden stools and the names of. gods and sacred hymns are loudly repeated. After death the body is taken outside of the house, bathed in warm water, dressed in as waist and a shouldercloth, and seated cross-legged on a low stool leaning against the wall. A bier is made and the dead is laid on it, and the whole body including the face is covered with a white sheet. Jewels are put into the dead mouth and fastened over the eyes. Four kinsmen lift the bier and followed by a party of friends, walk after the chief ' mourner who carries a firepot slung from his hand. To perform Jain funeral rites, from the first to the thirteenth day, six men are required, the chief mourner who carries fire, four corpse-bearers, and a body-dresser. Music is played at some funerals, but on the way no coins or grain are thrown to spirits and no words uttered. The party moves silently to the burning ground and the chief mourner is not allowed to look behind. About half-way the bier is laid on the ground and the cloth is removed from the dead face apparently to make sure that there are no signs of life. They go on to the burning ground and set down the bier. One of the party cleans the spot where the pyre is to be prepared and they build the pyre. When it is ready the bearers lay the body on the pile and the chief mourner lights it. When the body is half consumed the chief mourner bathes, carries an earthen pot filled with water on his shoulder, and walks three times round the pile. Another man walks with him and at each turn makes a hole in the pot with a stone called ashma or the life-stone. When three rounds and three holes are made, the chief mourner throws the pot over his back and beats his mouth with the open palm of his right hand. The ashma or, life-stone is kept ten days and each day a rice ball is offered to it. As a rule the funeral party stops at the burning ground till the skull bursts. If they choose some of the party may go home, but as a rule the six mourners must remain there till the body is consumed when each offers a flour-ball and a handful of water to the life-stone and returns home. A lamp is set on the spot where the dead breathed his last, and kept there burning for at least twenty-four hours. On the second day the six chief mourners go to the burning ground and in the house put out the fire with offerings of milk sugar and water. On the third day they gather the deceased's bones and bury them somewhere among the neighbouring hills. Except offering a rice ball to the life-stone from the first to the tenth day nothing special is performed from the fourth to the ninth day. The family are held impure for ten days. On the tenth the house is cowdunged and all members of the family bathe and each offer a handful of water called tilodak or sesame water to the dead. The house is purified by sprinkling holy water and the sacred or horn fire is lit by the priest. On the twelfth the clothes of the deceased are given to the poor, and rice balls in the name of the deceased and his ancestors are made and sandal-paste, flowers, vermilion, frankincense, and sweetmeat are offered them. The temple gods are worshipped and a feast to the corpse-bearers and dresser ends the twelfth day ceremony. On the thirteenth the shraddh or mind-rite is performed and a few friends and relations are asked to dine. A fortnightly and monthly ceremony is performed every month for one year and a feast is held every year for twelve years. According to rule the widow's head should be shaved on the tenth, but the practice is becoming rare, still her lucky thread and toe ornaments are taken away and she is not allowed to wear a black bodice or robe. When a sanyashi or ascetic dies his body is carried in a canopied chair instead of an ordinary bier. The body is laid on the pyre and bathed in the five nectars or panchamrits' milk, curds, clarified butter, plantain, and sugar. Camphor is lighted on the head and the pile is lit. At a sanyashi's funeral only five men are required. A fire-carrier is not wanted as fire can be taken from any neighbouring house to light the pile. The family of the dead are impure for only three days, and no balls are offered to the dead. When are infant dies before teething it is buried, and boys who die before their thread-girding are not honoured with the rice-ball offering. No special rites are performed in the case of a married woman, a widow, or a woman who dies in childbed. No evil attaches to a death which happens during an eclipse of the sun or the moon. In the case of a person who dies at an unlucky moment, Jains perform the same rites as Brahmanic Hindus. [Details of these rites are given in the Poona Statistical Account.] Jains are bound together by a strong caste feeling and settle social disputes at caste meetings. Appeals against the decisions of the caste council lie to their svami or religious head who with the two titles Jinsen Svami and Lakshmisen Svami, and with jurisdiction over the Jains of almost the whole Bombay Karnatak, lives at Kolhapur. Small breaches of caste rules are punished with fines which take the form of a caste feast, and the decisions of the svami are held final and are enforced on pain of expulsion from caste. The bulk of the Kolhapur Jains set little value on schooling, yet they give their sons primary schooling and the majority of them are able to read and write and cast accounts. The knowledge of Sanskrit for which the Jains were once famous has now sunk to a low ebb. Though they are wanting in enterprise and do not take to new pursuits, a gradual change for the better has passed over the caste during the last twenty years. Non-Kolhapur Jains include a considerable number of Jain Marwaris and of Jain Gujarat Vanis who have come from Marwar and Gujarat for trade and who settle in the State for a time and return to their homes when they have collected money enough, They do not marry with the Jains of Kolhapur, and unlike the Jains of Kolhapur they have no objection to take water from the hands of the Maratha Kunbis and to take food from non-Jains. Their favourite place of pilgrimage is Mount Abu. They are moneylenders and dealers in piece-goods and. jewelry. They live in well built houses, send their children to school, and are a prosperous class. [Details of Marwar Jains are given in the Ahmadnagar Statistical Account. ]

MISCELLANEOUS.

Miscellaneous Hindus included thirty castes with a total strength of 903, of whom 444 were males and 459 females. Of these 375 (males 191, females 184) were Bagadis; 5 (males 3, females 2) Chhatti Balajvars; 22 (males 14, females 8) Devlis; 2 (females) Gabids or Fishers; 9 (males 6, females 3) Gollas; 20 (males 8, females 12) Gantnichors or Pickpockets; 2 (male 1, female 1) Halvais or sweetmeat makers; 33 (males 19, females 14) Helvis; 8 (males 2, females G) Jharis or dust sifters; 3 (male 1, females 2) Kalavants or dancing girls; 4 (males 3, female 1) Kulkutkisj 6 (males 4, females 2) Khurkhurmundis; 10 (males 7, females 3] Kilikyats; 11 (males 7, females 4) Konges; 8 (males 6, female) 2) Kadvechatis; 53 (males 26, females 27) Manvars; 23 (males 11, females 12) Mitkaris or salt-makers; 2 (males) Mudlyar or Madras traders; 1 Nath (male); 47 (males 23, females 24) Natkars or actors; 1 (male) Patvekari or silk tassel twister 144 (males 55, females 89) Pichatis; 2 (males) Pendharis or pony-keepers and grass-cutters; 33 (males 13, females20) Saibars; 8 Salmandupes (males); 28 (males 14, females 14) Shindis; 28 (males 10, females 18) Takars or grind-stone makers; 1 Thakur (male); 9 (male 1, females 8) Vaivaris; and 10 (males 9, female 1) unspecified.