Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Poona District Gazetteer Part-I (1885))

Cha'mbha'rs, or Tanners, are returned as numbering 17,250 and as found over the whole district There are five classes of Chambhars Dakshanis, Konkanis, Katais, Bengalis, and Mang Mochis, who neither eat together nor intermarry. The following particulars apply to Dakshani or Deshi Chambhars. They say their ancestors came into the district daring the supremacy of the Peshwas. Their surnames are Bhoele, Kale, pote, Satpute, Shinde, and Sonavne, and persons bearing the same surname cannot intermarry. The names in common use among men are Bhagu, Dagdu, Gohivya, Gyanu, Kara, and Yamaji; and among women Ganga, ltha, Koyna, Rakhma, Vanarsi, and Yena. They are dark, and, except that they are dirtier and less well fed, resemble cultivating Marathas both in appearance and speech. They live in one-storied houses with mud walls and tiled roofs. They keep sheep, goats, and fowls. Their house goods, including earthen vessels and metal dining plates and drinking pots, are worth 10s. to �1 10s. (Rs. 5-15). Their staple food is Indian millet and millet bread, vegetables, salt, chillies, and pulse. They eat fish and the flesh of sheep, goats, fowls, hare, and deer, but not the flesh of the hog. Except the followers of a pir named Davalmani, all eat the dead bodies of cattle. They drink both country and foreign liquor and smoke tobacco and hemp-flower. Both men and women dress and wear ornaments like cultivating Marathas. They are hardworking, dirty, and drunken. They work in leather, cut and dye skins, and make shoes sandals and water-bags. Their women help them. They work from seven in the morning to twelve, and again from two to seven. Besides as leather-dressers they work as husbandmen and labourers. They sell shoes at 1�. to 8s. (Rs.�-1�) the pair. Their appliances are the awl or ari worth about � d (�.a.), the rapi or knife worth 3d. to 4�d. (2-3 as'.), a pair of kalbuts or shoe lasts worth 3d. to 4�d. (2-3 as.), and kolambes or water-pots worth about �d. (� a.). They buy sheep and goats' skins from Sultankars or Saktandars at 1s. to 3s. (Rs.�-1�) the skin; and mend shoes at ⅜d. to 3d. (�-2 as.) a pair. Their deities are Mahadev of Shingnapur in Satara, Khandoba, Bahircba, and Bhavani of Tuljapur. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts, and make pilgrimages to Pandharpur, Saptashringi, Nasik, and Benares. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans to whom they show great respect. They have a religious head, a Gosavi generally called bava belonging to their own caste, who is greatly respected. They cannot tell where his head-quarters are, but he sometimes visits them, when they feast him and make him Presents of money varying from a penny to 6d. When a child is born they cot the navel cord and put it under the mother's pillow, along with a little sand and marsh grass. They keep a lamp burning in the mother's room and feed it for ten nights with costor oil and worship it for three days. They give the child honey and molasses mixed with water. After the third day the mother nurses it. On the fifth day they spread some grains of rice On a stone slab in the lying-in room and on the rice lay a silver or brass image of Satvai, and lay the navel cord before the image and the sand and sedge, and offer it rice, a piece of bread, and pulse. They sometimes kill a gost's in honour of the goddess. In the evening a feast is held and five unmarried girl's are fed and given, packets of betelnut and leaves. On the seventh day they make charcoal drawings on the outer walls of the house and worship them with red and turmeric powder and flowers, and offer wet gram. On the twelfth day, outside of the house, they worship seven pebbles, kill a goat, and feast seven married women. They name their children when they are eleven or twelve days or six weeks old, and clip the child's hair at any time between the third month and the third year. They marry their boys between font and twenty-five and their girls before they are sixteen. On the occasion of betrothal, ornaments are exchanged between the two houses, the boy is presented with a turban and sash, and the girl with a robe and bodice On a lucky day, one to three days before the marriage, the boy is rubbed with turmeric at his house, and a little is taken to the girl's by kinswomen and friends, where she is rubbed with it and presented with a robe and bodice. Her lap is filled with grains of wheat, dry cocoa-kernel, dates, and a packet of betelnut and leaves. On the marriage day the boy is set on horseback and accompanied by kinspeople and friends goes with music to the temple of Maruti in the girl's village. Here the marriage coronet or bashing is tied on his brow and his father-in-law presents him with a tarban, a sash, a waist cloth, and a pair of shoes, and takes him to his house. When he reaches the girl's house a piece of bread is waved round his head and thrown away. The boy and girl are made to stand face to face in two bamboo baskets, a cloth or jamnika is held between them, and the priest repeats verses and throws grains of rice and millet on the boy and girl. At the lucky moment the cloth is snatched away and the guests clap their hands and throw grains of rice over the heads of the bride and bridegroom who encircle each other's necks with garlands of flowers and with yellow threads. Then on the marriages altar or bahule the sacrificial fire or lajahom is kindled, and each near relation and friend waves a copper coin over the heads of the boy and girl and sticks grains of rice on their brows. Except near relations and friends, the guests retire with a betel packet and the day ends with a feast. Next day a goat is killed is honour of the goddess Janai and a feast of mutton and liqor is mads. The boy, seated on horse-back with his bride and accompanied by relations and friends and music, goes to his house in procession. On the day after the boy returns to his house his father gives a feast to all his castefellows, the bride and bridegroom's yellow necklaces and turmeric wristlets are untied, they are rubbed with rice flour, and all traces of the turmeric are washed off. Deccan Charabhars allow widow marriage and polygamy, but not polyandry. 

They either bury or burn the dead. In either casel the body is washed with warm water and carried on a bier on a the shoulders of four men. Half-way to the burial ground the bier is lowered, a copper and few grains of rice are laid near the head, and each mourner drops five pebbles over the coin. The four bearers change places, and the body is carried to the buning ground. When they bury, the body is laid in the grave On it back and the chief mourner followed by the rest throws a handful of ashas over it and the grave is filled. When they burn, the chief mourner seta fire to the pile, and going round it thrice with an earthen jar filled with cold water, dashes the jar on the ground and beats his mouth. The party bathe, return to the chief mourner's house, and each taking a nim leaf in his mouth retires to his home. On the third day the chief mourner levels the moutjd over the grave, or if the body has been burnt, the ashes are thrown into some stream or river. They mourn the dead for ten days. On the tenth day wheat or rice balls are offered to the deceased, one is left for the crows, and the rest are thrown into water. The mourning ceremonies end on the thirteenth day with a dinner to castemen, and the gift of a turban to the chief mourner. They have a caste council, and settle social disputes according to the opinion of the men of the caste. The faults against caste are eating pork, eating drinking or smoking out of the same pipe with a low-caste man or a Musalman, using abusive language towards the caste council, and having intercourse with a Mhar, Mang, or Bhangi woman. The punishments vary from asking pardon by bowing to the caste to the giving of a feast to the whole community. They send their boys to school till they are about twelve when they become useful in their calling. They complain that they are growing poor because people are taking to wearing English-shaped boots and shoes; still they are a steady if not a rising class.

PARDESHI CHAMBHARS, generally known as Mochis, are of several subdivisions. They claim descent from the saint Rohidas who flourished about the twelfth or thirteenth century of the Christian era. They are divided into Ahirva, Dhor, Jatve, Katai, Kulad, Madrasi, Bengali, Jangde, and Gujarati Mochis. Of these the Ahirva, Dhor, and Jatve Mochis eat together but do not intermarry. The surnames of the Ahir Chambhars are Chandere, Chhane, Korbhokre, Kuche, Phulmari, and Pole; people with the same surname cannot intermarry. The names in common use among men are Beni, Dhansing, Jivan, Hanu, Lalman, Mansing, Mohan, and Narayan; and among women Devaka, Jarani, Hiriya, Kashi, Muuiya, and Puniya. They look like low-class Pardeshis and speak Hindustani. They live in houses with mud walls and tiled roofs. Their house goods generally include queensmetal cups and saucers and earthen cooking vessels, a blanket, a quilt, and a carpet, and a wooden box and cot worth altogether 10s. to �2 (Rs.5-20). They sometimes employ men of their caste in their shops as labourers, paying them 4�d. to 9d. (4-6 as.) a day. They sometimes keep sheep, goats, and fowls. Their stayle food is Indian millet or millet bread, pulse, vegetables, fish, and flesh, costing a family of five 16s. to �1 (Rs.8-10) a month. They give feasts of wheat cakes, rice, and vegetables at births, marriages, and deaths, a feast to a hundred guests costing about �1 (Rs. 10). They drink both country and foreign liquor and smoke hemp-flowers hand tobacco. The men wear Maratha turbans or headscarves, goats, waistcoats, short waistcloths, and English or native shoes the women dress in a petticoat and open-backed bodice, and wear an upper cloth drawn over the head. Women wear in the ears silver balis worth Is. 6d. (12 as.), gold necklaces or tiks worth about 4s. (Rs. 2), bracelets or todes of silver or tin, queensmetal anklets also called todes worth about 4s. (Rs. 2), and toe-rings or jodvis worth about 3d. (2 as.). They keep in store spare clothes worth �1 to �1 4s. (Rs. 10-12). They are hardworking, dirty, drunken, and hospitable. They make and Bell boots with elastic sides at 3s. to 10s. (Rs.1�-5) the pair and shoes at Is. 9d. to 3s. (Rs. �-1�)the pair. They buy hides from Dhors at 1s. 3d. to 1s. 9d. (10-14 as.) the pound, a sheep or goat's skin for 1s. (8 as.), nails at 4�d. (3 as.) a pound, elastic at 1s. 3d. to 1s. 6d. (10-12 as.) the yard, thread at 9� d. (6� as.) a pound, wax at 1s. 9d. (14 as.) the pound, and eight hundred rings for 7�.d (5 as.). They earn 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.) a day more than they spend. Their women help by twisting thread. Their boys are skilled workers at fifteen or sixteen and earn 3d. to 4�d. (2-3as.) a day. Pardeshi shoemakers sew a pair of shoes in a day and a pair of boots in a couple of days. Their working hours are eight in the morning to six in the evening They believe in sorcery and witchcraft. Their family deities are Balaji and Bhavani of Tuljapur. Their priests are the ordinary Deshasth Brahmans, who conduct their birth, marriage, and death ceremonies. They make pilgrimages to Pandharpur, Kondanpur, and Tuljapur. They fast during the Navaratras in April, Janmashtami in August, and Ganesh-chaturthi and Anant-chaturdashi in September, and feast on Sankrant in January, Shimga in March, Rakhi'ap-purnima and Nag-panchmi in August, Dasara in October, and Divali in November. They hold their women impure for five weeks after a birth and ever touch them during the whole of that time. The child's navel cord is cut by a Maratha or a Musalman midwife who is paid 7�d (5 a.). The midwife buries the navel cord in the lying-in room, and in the day of birth calls the child by a name which she is told by the Brahman priest. After the child is born the mother is laid on a quilt, never on a cot. On the fifth day a lighted iron lamp, two very small copper or silver plates stamped with the image of the goddess Satvai, five wheat cakes, some mutton, dry fish, rice, cooked and raw vegetables, and two copper anklets or vales are laid in a winnowing fan and worshipped. One plate is hung round the child's neck and the other is hung round the mother's neck and the anklets are put on the child's feet. The winnowing fan is given to a Mang woman, and at nigh a feast is held. On the tenth day boiled gram and betel packets are served to married women. On some suitable day daring the child's second year they shave a child's hair for the first time. For the first shaving she child's parents take it either to Tuljapur or Kondanpur, employ a barber at a cost of 3d. (2 as.) to shave it, while it sits on its maternal uncle's knee, and, when the shaving is over, they kill a goat and 'offer the goddess cooked mutton and liquor. They feast on sweet cakes mutton and liquor, present a goat's head and a cocoanut to the temple ministrant, throw the hair into the water, and return home. This ceremony costs about �1 4s. (Rs. 12). They marry their boys between ten and twenty and their girls between five and twelve. The families of the boy and girl do not interchange hospitalities and no flesh or liquor is used. They do not hold the cloth or antrapat between the boy and the girl during the marriage ceremony, but make them walk seven times round a square pillar with in front of each face a pile of twenty-one earthen jars whitewashed and marked with green yellow and red. 

They burn the dead and mourn ten days. They allow child and widow marriage, and practise polygamy but not polyandry. They have a headman or chaudhari who settles social disputes in consultation with five of the elders. They send their boys to school till they are about twelve years of age. They are said to be suffering from the importation of European shoes which are better and stronger than those they make.

Other Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Nashik District Gazetteer (1883))

Other Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Satara District Gazetteer (1884))

Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Poona District Gazetteer Part-I (1885))

Chitraka'this, or Picture Showmen, are returned as numbering 148 and as found over the whole district except in Indapur, Purandhar, and Poona. They take their name from chitra a picture and katha a story, because they show pictures of heroes and gods and entertain their audience by telling them stories from the Purans. According to their own account they formerly lived at Singnapur in Sholapur and came to Poona during the time of Shahu Raja (1708-1749). They have no divisions. Their surnames are Jadhav, More, Povar, Salunkhe, Sinde, and Thombre, and families bearing the same surname eat together but do not intermarry. 

The names in common use among men are, Hanmanta, Mania, Santu, and Rethu, and among women Bhimabai, Jankibai, Rakhma, Sakhu, and Vithabai. Patel is added to men's names, and bai to women's names as Mania Patel and Ramji Patel, Sakhubai and Rakhmabai. They speak Marathi both at home and abroad. In appearance they do not differ from ordinary local Maratha Kunbis. The men shave the head except the top-knot and the face except the moustache and whiskers. They live in houses of the poorer class with walls of clay and thatched roofs. Their house goods include blankets, quilts, cradles, boxes, and metal and earthen vessels. They own cattle but have no servants. They are moderate eaters and are fond of hot dishes. Their staple food is millet or nachni bread, vegetables, and nachni porridge or ambil. They bathe before they take their morning meal, and do not leave the house if they eat without bathing. They use animal food when they can afford it, which is not often. They eat the flesh of sheep and goats, fish, and poultry, drink liquor, and smoke hemp or ganja and opium. The men wear a loincloth, a shouldercloth, a Maratha turban, and a pair of shoes. The women wear the hair in a knot behind the head and neither wear flowers nor false hair. They wear the full Maratha robe, passing the skirt back between the feet and a bodice with a back and short sleeves, Neither men nor women have any store of fine clothes for holiday wear. As a rule Chitrakathis are dirty, thrifty, and hospitable. Their chief calling is begging by showing pictures of gods and heroes and reciting stories and songs about them. They also show wooden dolls whom they make to dance and fight to represent the wars of the heroes and demons. These puppet shows have ceased to be popular, and they now seldom do anything but show pictures by which they make 8s. to 10s. (Rs. 4-5) a month. A boy begins to act as showman at twelve and in two years has mastered his work. A Chitrakathi's stock generally includes forty pictures of Ram worth 10s. to 12s. (Rs. 5-6), thirty-five of Babhruvahan the son of Arjun one of the five Pandavs worth 8s. to 10s. (Rs. 4-5), thirty-five of Abhimanyu another son of Arjun worth 10s. to 12s. (Rs.5-6), forty of Sita and Ravan worth 10s. to 12s. (Rs.5-6), forty of Harishchandra king of Oudh, and forty of the Pandav brothers worth 10s. to 12s. (Rs. 5-6). 

They paint these pictures themselves and offer them for sale, and they have a caste rule that on pain of fine every house must hare a complete set of pictures. The women mind the house and never help the men to show pictures. They fetch firewood, beg, and cook. As they get paid in grain their monthly food expenses are small. A birth costs 2s. to 6s. (Rs.1-3), a hair-cutting 2s. to 6s. (Rs.1-3), a marriage 10s. to �2 (Rs.5-20), a girl's coming of age 1s. to 2s. (Re.�-1), and a death 4s. to 6s. (Rs.2-3). They are a religious people. Their family deities are Bhavani of Tuljapur and Khandoba of Jejuri. They employ a Brahman of any class or sect to officiate at their marriages and deaths. They are nominally followers of Vishnu but their favourite deity is Bhavani. They make pilgrimages to Alandi, Jejuri, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur, and their fasts and feasts are the same as those of cultivating Marathas. After the birth of a child the mother is bathed, and the child's navel cord is cut and it is bathed. Sometimes the mother does this herself; in other cases a woman is called to help. Bedding is spread on the floor and the woman lies down with the child beside her. The child is given water mixed with raw sugar and the mother is fed on oil and rice. On the fifth day a grindstone is placed where the mother and child were bathed, and before it are laid flowers, redpowder, and turmeric. An earthen pot full of nachni gruel and millet is set on the stone and in front of the stone a wheat flour lamp is filled with oil and lighted. On the seventh day the house is cowdunged. Impurity in consequence of a birth lasts ten days. On the eleventh the house is again cleaned. On the twelfth some neighbouring women are called and the child is named. Packets of betel leaves and of whole boiled millet grains called ghugaris are served and the guests retire. After this the mother is free to move about the house as usual. On some day when a child, whether a boy or a girl, is about seven months old the hair-cutting or javal is performed. For the hair-cutting they have to go to Jejuri, Tuljapur, or some other place of pilgrimage, where a goat is killed, the child bows before the god, the victim is cooked, and the ceremony ends with a feast. 

They marry their girls between three and twenty and their boys between three and twenty-five or thirty. The offer of marriage comes from the boy's side. The father of the boy goes to the parents of the girl and asks them to give their daughter in marriage to his son. If the girl's parents are willing the boy's father calls the castemen and asks their approval. If they raise no objection he goes to the priest who chooses a lucky time for the marriage and preparations are begun. Wedding porches or mandavs are built in front of the bride's and bridegroom's houses, a lucky pillar or muhurt-medh is set up in each porch, but no altar or bahule is raised in the girl's porch. Next day the bridegroom is led on foot in procession to the bride's and made to stand in the wedding porch on a spot strewn with rice. The bride is brought and made to stand facing the bridegroom and a cloth or antarpat is held between them. The Brahman priest repeats marriage verses and at the end the couple are man and wife. Then the priest winds a thread of five strands round two pieces of turmeric and ties one piece to the wrist of the bride and the other to the wrist of the bridegroom. The skirts of their clothes are knotted together and they go and bow before the house gods. The girl's mother loosens their garments, a feast is given, and the guests withdraw leaving the bridegroom who spends the night at the bride's. Next day a new robe is given to the bride, and the bride and bridegroom are carried to the boy's house each seated on a man's hip. On entering the boy's house they bow to his house gods and each takes off the other's turmeric bracelets. A feast is given, the marriage guardian or devak is thrown into the river, and the wedding observances are at an end. When a girl comes of age she is considered unclean and is kept by herself for four days. On the seventh she is given a new robe and a bodice and at any time after goes to live with her husband. 

After death the body is washed in hot water and dressed in a loincloth, sandal paste and turmeric powder are rubbed on the brow, and if he is a man his turban is put on. He is seated on a blanket with some cooked rice tied to one of its corners. The chief mourner starts carrying an earthen pot with cooked rice in it; the bearers lift the body in a blanket and follow. Before they reach the burial ground the body is rested on the ground and the bearers charge hands. At the burying ground the chief mourner turns over a little earth and the bearers dig a grave and lay the body in it. Earth is thrown in and on the top the chief mourner strews the boiled rice which he brought in the earthen jar. All bathe in the river, go to the house of the dead, and return home. On the third day three cakes are baked and the chief mourner lays one at the place where the body was rested, and of the other two one is laid at the head and the other at the foot of the grave. They do not have their moustaches shaved and they do not offer balls of rice to the dead. On the thirteenth a caste feast is held, when goats are sometimes killed and others give pulse bread and rice. Their only memorial ceremony in honour of the dead is during the mahal or All Saints' fortnight in the latter half of Bhadrapad or September. They have no headman, but settle social disputes at meetings of castemen. Persons convicted of breaches of caste rules are made to give food to five boys or men. As a class the Chitrakathis are badly off and are growing poorer.

Other Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Satara District Gazetteer (1884))

Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Kolhapur District Gazetteer(1886))

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.

Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Poona District Gazetteer Part-I (1885))

Dhors are returned as numbering 1104 and as found over the whole district except Purandhar. They have a tradition that they came into the district from Nasik about a hundred years ago. The names in common use among men are Bhau, Devba, Kushaba, Namaji, Rama, Sakru, and Vithu; and among women, Chimana, Giraja, Kusa, Mukta, Manjula, Saguna, and Vitha. Baji and rao are added to men's names and bai to women's names. In addressing elders the respectful term tiravanji is used. Their surnames are Gavare, Kalamkar, Narayane, Rapiri, Sadaphale, Salunke, Sinde, and Trimak. Persons bearing the same surnames cannot intermarry. They have no divisions. Their family gods are Bahiroba, Bhavani of Kondanpur and Tuljapur', Janai, Khandoba of Jejuri, Mahadev, and Vithoba of Pandharpur. They look like Marathas and speak a corrupt Marathi both at home and abroad. 

A Dhor may be generally known by his red fingers, stained by the dye he uses in making leather. As a class they are dark, middle-sized, and well-made. The men shave the head except the topknot and the face except the moustache and whiskers. They live in common and generally dirty one-storied houses with brick walls and tiled roofs. They have no house servants, but own cattle and pet animals. Their staple food is Indian millet bread, rice and chopped chillies or pot-herbs. They usually bathe before their morning meal, worship their family gods, water the sweet basil plant before their door, and offer the gods food cooked in the house. At their marriage feasts they have stuffed cakes or puranpolis, rice-flour cakes fried in oil called telachis, and boiled mutton. They eat the flesh of the sheep, goat, deer, hare, wild pig, pigeon, and poultry, and on holidays drink country liquor or European spirits. They drink to excess, take opium, drink bhang or hemp-flower, and smoke tobacco and hemp-flower or ganja. The women tie their hair into a knot at the back of the head and never wear flowers or false hair. Both men and women are clean and neat in their dress. The men wear a loincloth or a waistcloth, a shirt or bandi, a shouldercloth, a Maratha turban, and a pair of sandals or shoes. The women dress in a robe hanging like a petticoat from the waist to the ankles, and a bodice with a back and short sleeves. Neither men nor women have a special set of clothes for holiday wear; they give their every-day clothes a special washing. They buy their clothes in Poona and other district towns. As a class Dhors are dirty, hardworking, orderly, thrifty, goodnatured, and hospitable. Their principal and hereditary calling is tanning hides. They buy skins from Mhars, and steep them for four days in an earthen pot filled with lime-water. On the fourth they take them out and put them in boiled water mixed with pounded babhul bark and hirdas or myrobalans. After being left three days in the water they are taken out and dried in the sun. The women help the men in preparing the lime and babhul bark water and mind the house. Most Dhors carry on their trade with their own capital. Tanning is brisk all the year round, but the cold weather is better than the hot, as in hot weather the skins rot quickly when dipped in water and are often spoiled. 

The Dhors do not rest on any day in the year except Shimga or Holi in March-April and Dasara in September-October. In spite of good earnings most of them are in debt, borrowing �2 10s. to �10 (Rs. 25-100) at twenty-four per cent interest to meet marriage and other charges, and being seldom able to clear off their debts. Some of them work as labourers and live from hand to mouth. They rank one degree higher than Mhars and eat from the hands of Brahmans, Marathas, and Lingayats. The Dhors are a religious class. Their family deities are Bahiroba, Bhavani of Tuljapur and Kondanpur, Janai, Khandoba of Jejuri, Mahadev of Signapur, and Vithoba of Pandharpur. Their priest is a Jangam, who officiates at all their ceremonies; at the same time they pay great respect to Brahmans. They are worshippers of Shiv and hold him in special reverence. They keep the usual Brahmanic and local holidays and fasts, their great days beings Navaratra in September-October and Shivaratra in January-February. Their religious teacher is a slit-eared or Kanphatya Gosavi, who visits their homes and receives a yearly tribute either in cash or in clothes. They worship the usual Brahmanic and early village gods, boundary gods, and local gods, and believe in witchcraft, soothsaying, and evil spirits. When any one is possessed by an evil spirit they call in a devarishi or seer skilled in incantations and charms. The seer visits the sick person, burns frankincense before him, repeats a charm over a pinch of ashes, and rubs the ashes on the sick person's brow, waves a cocoanut round his head, sacrifices a goat or a cock, and the sick recovers. Early marriage widow-marriage and polygamy are allowed and practised; polyandry is unknown. 

When a woman is brought to bed a midwife is called. She cuts the child's navel cord, bathes both mother and child in warm water, and lays them on a cot. The navel cord is buried under the threshold and the nurse is paid 2d. to 1�s. (1�-10 as.). For the first three days the child is fed on honey and the mother on rice mixed with clarified butter. On the fourth the mother suckles the child. On the fifth a gold or silver image of Satvai is placed in the lying-in room on a stone slab or pata. Some sand, prickly-pear or nivadung, and the knife used in cutting the navel cord are laid on the stone. The midwife or some other woman of the family lays before the image turmeric powder, vermillion, cotton thread, and redlead. Frankincense is burnt before it, and goats are slaughtered in the name of the goddess and boiled mutton is offered to her. Four stalks of Indian millet are placed at the four corners of the cot and the women of the family keep awake during the whole night. On the seventh the lying-in room is washed with cowdung and the mother is given new clothes, and is again laid on the cot. Ceremonial impurity lasts ten days. On the eleventh the house is cowdunged, and the mother is bathed and dressed in new clothes. She sets five stones outside of the door in the field and worships them with turmeric powder, vermillion, and pomegranate flowers in the name of Satvai. Lastly the goddess is offered a cocoanut and rice and pulse, and the silver image which was worshipped on the fifth is tied round the child's neck. The child is named on the fifteenth or twenty-first day, when castewomen meet at the child's house, and, after asking the inmates, lay the child in a cradle and name it. Handfuls of boiled gram, betel packets, and sugar are served and the guests leave. A boy's head is shaved for the first time between one and five. He is seated on his maternal uncle's lap, who cuts a little of the hair, and the cutting is finished by the men of the house. Goats are slaughtered and friends and relations are feasted. Betel leaves and nuts are handed and the guests take their leave. Next day the boy's head is shared except a tuft on the crown. A hair-cutting or javal costs 4s. to 8s. (Rs. 2-4). 

They marry their boys between five and twenty and their girls between three and sixteen. As a rule the offer of marriage comes from the boy's father to the girl's father, who accepts it if in his opinion the match is a good one. On a lucky day comes the magani or asking. The boy's father with music and friends goes to the girl's and presents her with a new robe and bodice and a packet of sugar. A Jangam priest marks her brow with vermillion and she is dressed in the suit presented to her by her future father-in-law. Her lap is filled with rice and a cocoanut, and rolls of betel leaves are served to the people who are present. Marriage comes within four years of the asking day. The first sign of the wedding is the making of turmeric paste. Some of the paste is rubbed on the bridegroom and the rest with music and friends and a bodice and robe and flower wreaths is sent to be rubbed on the bride. Two days before the marriage the leaves of five trees are taken to the temple of Maruti, preceded by drummers and followed by friends and relations. They are laid before the god, brought back to the bridegroom's booth, tied to one of its posts, and made the marriage guardian or devak. Goats are slaughtered and friends and kinspeople are asked to dine. On the marriage day leaves of the same five trees are with the same ceremonies tied to a post in the bride's booth and a marriage altar or bahule is raised. The bridegroom is seated on horseback and led in procession to the temple of Maruti in the bride's village. His brother or vardhava goes in front to the house of the bride and returns with a turban for the bridegroom, whose head is decked with a brow-horn or bashing and he is brought with pomp to the house of the bride. At the entrance to the booth, rice mixed with curds is waved round him and is thrown as an offering to evil spirits. He passes into the booth and is seated in a bamboo basket with the bride standing fronting him in another basket hid by a curtain or jamanika. A Jangam and a Brahman repeat lucky texts or mangalashtaks and throw lucky rice or mangalakshata over the couple. Five cotton threads are twisted into a cord and bits of turmeric are tied to each of its ends. It is cut in two and one-half fastened round the bridegroom's right wrist and the other half round the bride's left wrist. The priest lights the hom fire. Bound the bride's neck is fastened the lucky necklace and she is told to walk five times round the altar with her husband. After the five turns are finished the hems of the couple's garments are knotted together, and they go to the house and lay a cocoanut before the family deities and bow before them. The bridegroom takes the cocoanut, with him and they return to the booth and are seated on the altar or bahule. Friends and kinspeople are feasted on fried rice flour cakes or telachis, and the wedding or varat procession taking the couple to the bridegroom's house starts next morning from the house of the bride. When they reach the bridegroom's, five married women fill the lap of the bride and the couple visit the temple of Maruti and bow before the god. Next day they are robbed with turmeric paste and are bathed in warm water. Lastly each unties the other's marriage wristlet or kankan and the wristlets are thrown into a copper vessel filled with water. When a Dhor dies, he is bathed in warm water, dressed in a loincloth, and laid on a bier. A turban is put on his head and his face is covered with a piece of white cloth. The Jangam priest comes and rubs ashes on his brow, and flower garlands, betel leaves, and redpowder or gulal are thrown over the body. The son or the chief mourner holds in his hand the fire-pot and starts for the burying ground followed by the bearers. On the way they stop, set down the bier, leave some rice and a copper coin near by, change places, lift the bier, and go to the burying ground. A pit is dug and the body is lowered into the pit in a sitting position. The right hand is laid on the left hand and the pit is filled with earth. The Jangam drops bel leaves over the grave and says that the dead has become one with Shiv. All bathe and each gives the Jangam a copper coin and he rubs their brows with ashes. On returning to the house of mourning they cleanse their months, eat a limb tree Melia azadirachta leaf and go home. On the third day they go to the burial ground with a winnowing fan containing three small cakes of wheat flour rubbed with clarified butter, cocoa-kernel, molasses, and three small earthen pots filled with cow's milk, cards, and cow's urine. A cake is left at the rest-place or visavyachi jaga where the body was rested. The two other cakes, with the pots of milk and curds, are set on the grave, and the ground is sprinkled with cow's urine from the third pot. The party bathe and return home. They mourn the dead ten days. On the tenth, the face of the son or chief mourner is shaved except the eyebrows, and as directed by the Jangam priest he prepares ten wheat-flour balls. Of the ten balls nine are thrown into water and the tenth is given to a crow. On the eleventh friends and kinspeople are feasted. Nothing is done on the yearly death-day, but the dead is remembered on the lunar day that corresponds to the day of death in the Mahalaya Paksha or All Souls fortnight in dark Bhadrapad or August-September. A death costs about �1 10s. (Rs. 15). Dhors form a united social body. Social disputes are settled at meetings of castemen. Smaller breaches of caste rules are condoned by fines varying from 6d. to 10s. (Rs.�-5) or by caste feasts. Some send their boys to schools, where they remain till they are able to read and write. They take to no new pursuits and have still hardly recovered from the 1877 famine.

Other Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Satara District Gazetteer (1884))