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

Gaundis, or Masons, are returned as numbering 347 and as found in Bhimthadi, Junnar, Indapur, Poona, and Purandhar. They are divided into Gujaratis, Jats, Kamathis, Lingayats, and Pardeshis, who neither oat together nor intermarry. The surnames of the Gujaratis, to whom the following details apply, are Devatval, Dhavare, Kundalval, and Telpure; people with the same surname do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Bhau, Mansaram, Nandaram, Sakharam, and Sundarji; and among women, Anandi, Godavari, Parvati, Rakhrna, and Shita. They are a well-made, tall, and fair people. The men wear the top-knot, moustache, and whiskers, but not the beard. Their home tongue is Marwari but with others they speak fairly correct Marathi. Most of them live in houses of the better sort two or more stories high, with walls of brick and tiled roofs. Except two or three houses which are worth about �10,000 (Rs. 1,00,000) a Gaundi's house costs �20 to �200 (Rs. 200-2000) to build. Their furniture includes metal and earthen vessels, cots, blankets, glass hanging lamps, and picture-frames. They keep cows, buffaloes, horses, and parrots. Their every-day food is millet, rice, wheat, split pulse, fish, and the flesh of goats sheep and fowls. The men wear a big loose turban half-Marwari and halt'-Marathi, a coat, waistcoat, waistcloth, shouldercloth, and Deccan Brahman shoes; and the women a petticoat or lungha, a short-sleeved open-backed bodice, and an upper robe and scarf which they fasten into the band of the petticoat and draw over the head like a veil and hold the end in their hand in front. They do not tie their hair in a roll behind the head, but let it hang down the back in braids. They do not use false hair or deck their hair with flowers. They mark their brows with redpowder, wear glass bangles, silver anklets or todes and toe-rings or jodvis valued at �3 to �4 (Rs. 30-40). They neither bore their noses nor tattoo their skins. 

They are hardworking, even tempered, sober, and thrifty. They are masons, contractors, dealers in grain and cloth, moneychangers, writers, husbandmen, and laborers. They also make clay images of Ganpati and other clay figures. They are Vaislmavs and worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses. They have house images of Balaji, Balkrishna,, Bhavani, and Ganpati, and their priests are the ordinary Maratha Brahmans to whom they show great respect. Their fasts and feasts are the same as those of other Brahmanic Hindus. They make pilgrimages and believe in sorcery and witchcraft. 

They consider a woman impure for ten days after the birth of a child till which nothing is done in the house. On the twelfth male and female relations, friends, and castefellows meet at the mother's house, put the child in a cradle, and name it. Each of the male guests is given a couple of betel leaves and a small sweetmeat or bundi ball and each of the female guests a handful of wet gram. A birth costs �1 to �4 (Rs.30-40).Atany time between a, child's first and third year, whether it is a boy or a girl, the hair-clipping or javal is performed. In the case of a girl only a few hairs are cut with a pair of scissors by the people of the house; the boy is seated on the knee of some elder either male or female, married or widow, and the barber shaves his head except the topknot; and is presented with a cocoanut and 6d. to 9d. (4-6 as.) in cash. They marry their girls before they come of ago and their boys before they are twenty-five. 

The asking or magni is the same as the Marathas' asking. Their marriage guardian or devak is the god Ganpati and five bet apples which they place on a betel leaf on heap of rice. They make marriage porches at both the boy's and the girl's houses. Instead of an altar at the girl's house they plant in the middle of the marriage hall a mango post with on each face an earthen cup like a clay lamp or kodi and cover it with another CUP. On the marriage day the boy goes on horseback in procession to the girl's accompanied by kinspeople and music, and sits in the house in front of the house gods on a carpet spread for him. The boy's father goes to where the girl is in the women's room, worships her, and presents her with clothes and ornaments. In these the women of the house dress her and the boy's father goes and takes his place in the marriage porch. The girl's father next comes to the boy, offers him clothes and ornaments, and loads him to the part of the marriage porch where the mango post is planted and seats him before the post on a carpet. The girl is now brought and seated to the right of the boy. The boy's priest on behalf of the boy says to the girl, ' Do not sit or my right but on my left.' She replies through her priest, 'If you promise to give me presents now and then and do not spend money without my leave, them I will do as you wish, otherwise I shall not'. The boy's priest promises that he will give her presents and not spend money, and the boy in confirmation says Yes. The girl takes her seat on the boy's left and the priest, holds a cloth between them and the mango post and repeats marriage verses. At the end of the verses the priest throws grains of rice over the heads of the boy and girl and they are man and wife. Packets of betel leaves and nut are handed round and the guests retire. That night the boy stays at the girl's house. Next day, after a feast and the exchange of presents of clothes, the boy goes in procession with the bride to his house, and the marriage ends with a feast. Among them a girl is considered impure for four days when she. comes of age and on the fifth her lap is filled with a cocoanut and other fruit, and she joins her husband. 

When a Gaundi dies he is bathed in the house, dressed in a loincloth, laid on the bier and covered with a sheet. Near relations come with pieces of white cloth measuring three and a half feet long and spread them on the body. The bier is carried on the shoulders of four near relations, the usual halt is made on the way to the burning ground, and, at the burning ground, the body is burnt with the same details as at a Gujarat Vani's funeral. On the fourth day the chief mourner grinds a handful of wheat in a handmill from left to right that is contrary wise or ulate, and makes the flour into three small cakes. He takes the cakes and a water-pot and goes to the burning ground. On the way he leaves one cake on the spot where the halt was made and the bier was rested. In the burning ground he removes the ashes and throws them into water, and after sprinkling a little cowdung and water lays the two cakes on the spot, and after a crow has pecked them returns home. On the tenth day ho goes to a stream, prepares rice balls, throws them to the spirit of the dead in the water, and returns home. On the eleventh day he feasts the caste. They hold caste councils and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. Few send their boys to school. Some of them are rich and the rest are well-to-do.

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

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.

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

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

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

Ghisa'dis, literally Polishers or Tinkers, numbering 444, are returned as found in Indapur, Purandhar, and in the city of Poona. Their name seems to come from the Marathi ghisne to rub. According to their own story they are called after a certain Ghisadi who overcame and killed a famous gymnast. They say that they came to the Deccan from Gujarat in search of work. They have no subdivisions among them; all Ghisadis eat together and intermarry. Their surnames are Chavan, Charvase, Katkar, Padvalkar, Povar, Salunke, Selar, and Sinde; persons having the same surname cannot intermarry. The names in common use among men are, Bhikaji, Kushaba, Mahaduba, Malhari, Manaji, Rakhmaji, Santu, Tukararn, and Vaghu; and among women Girjabai, Jankubai, Jayibai, Kusabai, Rakhmabai, and Taibai. They addji as' Ramji to men's names and bdi a Jankubai to women's names. Both at home and abroad they speak a corrupt Gujarati, a mixture of Gujarati Marathi and Hindustani. Both men and women dress in Marathi fashion and look like Kunbis except that they are a little shorter and sturdier. The men are strongly made and many of them are trained gymnasts. They wear top-knots and beards and their faces are generally covered with long thick hair. The head hair is lank. Most of them live in poor houses or huts one storey' high with walls of brick and tiled roofs. Those of them who wander from place to place fix two forked polos in the ground, lay a third pole in the forks of the two uprights, and stretch a cloth or large blanket called pal over the horizontal pole so as to form a tent with sloping sides and open ends. The sides are pegged to the ground ' and the back is closed with blankets. In their tents are generally a cot cradle, blanket, quilt, carpet, one or two low wooden stools, and clay or metal cooking vessels. They sometimes have a few cattle, bullocks, goats, asses, or ponies, and occasionally keep a deer or a hare as a pet, and pigeons and poultry. Their staple food is millet, rice, pulse, and spices. They eat goats, sheep, deer, hare, poultry, and eggs on holidays and whenever they can afford it; they also drink liquor and indulge in many native intoxicating drugs. They are moderate eaters and good cooks being specially fond of pungent dishes. They wear a waistcloth or short breeches, a shouldercloth, a jacket, a sadra or loose shirt, a Maratha turban, and shoes. The women plait the hair in a braid and do not deck it with flowers. Out of doors they wear the ordinary Maratha robe and bodice, and at night a lungha or petticoat. As a class they are hardworking, quarrelsome, dirty, extravagant, and fond of drink. Their chief calling is working in iron. Youths begin to learn from their fathers or elders about ten or twelve, and when they have mastered the work they open shops of their own.

The men work from seven to twelve and again from two to eight. The women help in blowing the bellows. They also go about selling; the wares made by the men. They generally prepare articles for sale at their own cost and risk. In spite of the competition of European hardware their articles are in good demand, though their profits have been reduced. They earn enough for their support, but several fall into difficulties by borrowing to meet marriage and other expenses. They rank themselves with Marathas and do not associate with the classes who are generally considered impure. Other classes look down on them and do not give them the position they claim. Their slack time is during the rains between June and October, and all the year round they close their shops on lunavasya  or the last day of the month. The family deities of Ghisadis are. Bahiri, Balaji of Giri in the Madras Presidency, Bhavani, Khandoba, Satvai, and Yamnai, and they also worship village and boundary gods whom they offer milk and sugar without the help of a priest. Their family priest is a Deshasth Brahman who is called to officiate at marriages, lap-fillings, and deaths. They make pilgrimages to Alandi, Dehu, Jejuri, Pandharpur, and Tuljapur. They fast on elevenths or ekadashis and on all Mondays and Saturdays. Their chief festival is the nine nights before Dasara in September-October, a They believe in and consult astrologers and soothsayers. They often suffer from spirit-possession. When a disease does not yield to the ordinary cures or when the symptoms are considered to point to spirit-possession a devrishi or exorcist is called. He takes ashes and waves them round the sick together with a cocoanut, a hen, and some lemons. If this does not drive away the spirit they pray to their family gods to help them and promise to reward their gods if they grant their prayers. When a woman is in child-birth a midwife is called in. When the child is born the midwife bathes the mother and child cuts the navel cord, and buries it in an earthen pot in the spot where the mother was bathed. The woman is laid on a cot and given balls of wheat flour mixed with clarified butter and sugar, and for three days the babe is given honey and castor oil. On the fifth day the mother and the child are purified and their clothes are washed. They cover the vessel in which the clothes were washed with a piece of new cloth. Five stones are laid on the cloth, and the mothers worships them as the abode of Satvai. Near the stones is placed as image of Satvai to which the mother offers turmeric, red powder sandal paste, and flowers. A goat is offered to the goddess and killed the head is cut off and laid before the image, and friends and relations are called to feed on the flesh. After dinner, the women of the house remain awake all night and keep a light in the room. Next day the head of the victim is cooked and eaten. On the fifth the child is clothed in a cap and a small armless frock or kunchi somewhat peaked at the top and drawn over the head like a cowl of hood. On the seventh the image of Satvai is laid at the door of the lying-in room and is worshipped with wet wheat and gram. On the day no outsider is asked to dinner. At night neighbouring women come and laying the child in the cradle name it and sing a cradle song to Ram or Krishna. When the song is over betel and boiled wheat are served and the women retire. Either after the eleventh or after the twentieth the mother goes about the house as usual. The heads of all children, whether boys or girls, are shaved, between their ninth month and the end of their fourth year. The child is seated on the lap of its maternal uncle and its head is shaved by the barber who is paid about 2d. (1/3 anna). Goats are killed and friends and relations feasted. 

They marry their girls between five and twenty-five and their boys between seven and thirty. When a father thinks it right that his son should be married he calls some of the castemen and asks if they know any suitable match. They discuss the different available girls and fix on one as the best match. The boy's father with some friends goes to the girl's father and asks if he will give his daughter in marriage. The girl's father consults his wife. If the wife agrees the fathers compare their surnames and mention their marriage connections, and if there is nothing to prevent the marriage they agree that it shall take place. The boy's father gives the castemen 10s. to 16s. (Rs. 5-8) and the caste women 4s. to 6s. (Rs. 2-3). These sums are spent in liquor which is drunk at a meeting of the caste. On the first holiday after the asking or magni the boy's parents present the girl with a new robe and bodice. Next June or Jyeshth a basket is filled with mangoes, uncooked rice, pulse flour, and two bodicecloths or khans, and taken to the girl's by the women of the boy's house. They present the girl and the women of her family with turmeric and redpowder, deck the girl's hair with flowers, and fill her lap with rice, betelnut, almonds, and cocoanuts, and give one bodicecloth to the girl and the other to her mother. In the following Shravan or August a Shravan basket, of toys two bodicecloths and uncooked rice and pulse, is made ready in the boy's house and taken to the girl's with pipes and drums. The girl is seated on a low stool, her lap is filled with the fruit, and her brow is marked with a circle of redpowder. Before the marriage the boy's father in presence of some of the caste has to pay the girl's father �2 10s. to �10 (Rs.25-100). The witnesses take �1 (Rs. 10) in the name of the caste and spend it on liquor which all drink together. Then the girl's father buys the marriage clothes, and marriage porches are set up at the boy's and girl's houses, the girl's porch having an altar or bahule. On the day before the marriage the bridegroom goes to the bride's with his friends and relations, where the girl's father has prepared some place for them to live in. The girl is first rubbed with two or throe lines of turmeric, and the bridegroom is next bathed and rubbed with turmeric by the washerwoman. After being rubbed the bridegroom goes to a temple of Maruti with a party of friends, takes a small mango branch which has been cut and placed near the god, and makes it his marriage guardian or devak tying it to one of the poles in the marriage porch. Then the washerwoman of each of the houses ties, by a yellow string of five Strands, a piece of turmeric wrapped in cloth to the right wrist of the bride and of the bridegroom, and the day ends with a feast of telchis or cakes and gulkadhi or molasses curry to friends and acquaintances. On the next or marriage day the bridegroom visits the temple of Maruti, whore the father of the bride presents him with a shouldercloth, a turban, and a pair of shoes and fastens to his brow the marriage coronet or bashing. The bridegroom bows to the god and follows the bride's father to his house. At the door of the marriage porch a cocoanut is waved round the bridegroom and broken. He then enters the porch and stands on a low wooden stool. The bride is brought in and made to stand feeing him separated by a cloth. The Brahman priest repeats marriage verses and when the verses are over the boy and girl are husband and wife. The boy then fastens the lucky string or mangalsutra round the girl's neck and at the same time his sister adorns her feet with silver toe-rings or virudhyas. Then the boy and girl are made to sit. The Brahman priest circles them ten times with a thread. He cuts into two the band of ten threads, and, passing each thread in each half of the band through a pierced betelnut and repeating texts, ties the ten betelnuts as a bracelet round the right wrist of the boy and the girl. They are then seated on the altar and the girl's father presents the boy with a copper water-pot or tambya and a tin cup or rati and some other articles. This part of the ceremony is called kanyadan or girl-giving. Next the Brahman priest kindles a sacred fire in front of the boy and girl who are seated side by side and the boy throws clarified butter over the fire. Then the boy and girl walk round the fire thrice, into the house, and bow before the gods. The day ends with a feast. On the day after the wedding the girl's father gives a caste-feast of mutton and cakes. In the evening the varat literally crowd starts, from the house of the girl, when she receives a new robe and bodice from the boy's father, and with drums and pipes is brought on horse-back with her husband to his house. At his house the boy and girl bow before the house gods, and in the presence of a party of married women each unties the other's betelnut bracelets. On the next day the boy's relations bathe him and his wife, and they dine from the same dish in company with the boy's parents, five married women, and the bridesmaids or karavlis who are generally the sisters of the boy and girl. At night the boy's father gives a mutton feast to the caste-people and the marriage guardian or devak is taken away. When a girl comes of age she is considered unclean and is made to sit by herself for four days. On the fifth day she is presented with a new robe and bodice, and her mother fills her lap with fruit and feasts her son-in-law's family. During the seventh month of her first pregnancy she is asked to dine at her mother's and presented with a green robe and bodice and glass bangles. 

When a death occurs in a house the caste people are told of it and the women sit weeping and wailing. When the mourners gather at the deceased's house one or two relations go and bring what is wanted for the burial. A bier is made ready outside of the door and an earthen vessel is filled with water and set on a fire. The body is taken out of the house, washed with hot water, and laid on the bier. The face is kept uncovered. The body is covered with a cloth fastened to the bier with a string and a thread of five colours, and a roll of betel leaves is placed in the mouth. Then the chief mourner puts burning cowdung cakes into an earthen jar, and holding the fire-pot in a sling begins to walk and the bearers follow him. On the way, as they near the burning ground, the bearers stop and lay the bier on the ground and place on the ground some balls of wheat flour. The bearers change places and carry the bier to the burning ground. At the burning ground they heap the pile with dry cowdung cakes and lay the body on the heap. The chief mourner dips the turban of the deceased in water and squeezes some of the water into his mouth. A ball of wheat flour is laid under the corpse's head and the body is covered with dry cowdung cakes and set on fire. When the fire is kindled on all sides the chief mourner brings a pitcher of water on his head. Along with another man he stands for a few seconds at the feet of the dead. His companion makes a small hole in the bottom of the jar, and as the water begins to trickle out the mourner walks round the pyre. He walks thrice round, his companion each time piercing a fresh hole. At the end of the third round the chief mourner dashes the pot on the ground, cries aloud, and beats his month with the back of his right hand. The funeral party bathes and goes to the house of the dead, where a neighbour purifies them by pouring cow's urine over them, and they leave. On the third day kinswomen or the widow herself cuts off her lucky necklace and breaks her glass bangles, and, along with a winnowing fan in which two dough cakes are laid, the chief mourner and the bearers take the necklace and bangles and go to the burning ground. On the way the body is rested and the chief mourner leaves one of the cakes. At the burning ground when the body is consumed the ashes are gathered and thrown into water. The spot where the body was burned is cow-dunged and the necklace, the pieces of the bangles, and the second dough cake are laid on it. They go to the river where the chief mourner rubs the shoulders of the bearers with butter and they return to the chief mourner's house where they dine. They mourn for ten days. On the eleventh the chief mourner is taken to the river and is made to kindle a fire. A barber comes and shaves his head except the top-knot and his face except his eyebrows. All bathe in the river and return home. The chief mourner makes eleven dough balls and two cakes. The balls he Worships and offers them the cakes and a little wet wheaten flour. He takes a ball eleven times in succession and places it at the bottom of the river or water and bathes, and a sacred fire is kindled by a Brahman priest. The chief mourner bows to the fire, throws clarified butter, dates, cocoa-kernel, sesamum, and barley upon the fire, walks round it, and salutes it. The rest of the party pour a potful of water on the burnt offering and go home On this day she Brahman priest receives an umbrella, a pair of shoes, and a lanket. Caste-people are asked to dine at the house of mourning but only a few come. On the twelfth the friends and relations of the chief mourner raise a sum of money, and, buying provisions, poinding mutton, feast on them in company with the chief mourner, and give him a cup of liquor, and some one of his relations resents him with a turban. On the death-day a memorial or mraddh ceremony is held. The Ghisadi community is very often disturbed by quarrels. They have no headman and their caste disputes are settled according to the opinions of the majority and their decisions are obeyed on pain of loss of caste. Breaches of caste rules are punished by fines varying from 2s. to �1 (Rs. 1-10). A woman who commits adultery is fined 9d. (6 as.) and a caste dinner is held to mark the event. Within the last eight years they have begun to send their boys to school, but they take them away from school and make them begin to work when they are  They do not take to new callings and on the whole are well-to-do.

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))

Guravs are returned as numbering 5958 and as found over the whole district. They say they have been in the district more than three hundred years, but they have no tradition of their origin of any former settlement. They have no subdivisions. Their surnames are Bedse, Bohiravkar, and Borkar, who eat together and intermarry. The names in common use among men are Dhondiba, Kondiba, Martand, and Mahadev; and among women Dhondi, Kashi, Kondi, Krishnabai, and Venubai. They look like Marathas. Some of the men wear the top-knot and moustache, while others dress like Gosavis with matted hair and beards and bodies rubbed with ashes. 

Their home tongue is Marathi and their houses are like those of middle-class Hindus averaging �10 to �150 (Rs. 100-1500) in value. Most families keep a few cattle and their houses are fairly supplied with earthen and metal cooking and drinking vessels. Their staple food is Indian millet millet rice and vegetables, and they neither eat fish nor flesh nor drink liquor. A family of five spends 10s. to 16s. (Rs.5-8) a month on food, and �1 to �3 (Rs. 10-30) a year on dress. They dress either like Deccan Brahmans or Marathas. The women wear the bodice and the full Maratha robe passing the skirt back between the feet and tucking it into the waist behind. They beg and are hereditary servants in Shiv's temple living on the offerings made to the god. They are good musicians playing the drums called pakhvaj and chaughada and the clarion or sanai at marriages or as an accompaniment to dancing-girls. They make leaf-plates and saucers and sell them to villagers. They are believed to have power over the god whose servants they are, and are much respected by the lower classes. They are Shaivs in religion and have house images of Bhavani, Ganpati, and Khandoba. They have priests belonging to their own caste, and in their absence call Deshasth Brahmans to their houses. On the fifth day after the birth of a child they worship the child's navel cord which was cut on the first day after birth. They place it on a stone or pata, with sandal, turmeric, and redpowder, and lay before it cooked rice, split pulse, methi or fenugreek, and wheat cakes or polis. In the evening a drawn sword with a lemon stuck in its point is placed in the corner near the mother's head, or if there is no sword a small stalk of jvari or Indian millet is laid near each of the legs of the mother's cot. The women of the house stay awake during the night to prevent the child being carried off by Satvai. On the twelfth day the mother worships seven pebbles outside of the house and some old woman of the house names the child. A boy's hair is cut when he is one to three years old and five married women are feasted. The expenses in the first twelve days after a death vary from 10s. to �1 4s. (Rs. 5-12). They gird their boys with the sacred thread between five and ten and spend 10s. to �5 (Rs. 5 - 50) on the ceremony. 

They marry their girls between five and nine, and their boys between ten and twenty-five. A girl's marriage costs �1 to �2 (Rs. 10-20), and a boy's marriage�10to �12 10s. (Rs. 100-125). They burn their dead except children below three whom they bury. A death costs them �1 to �2 (Rs. 10 - 20). They have a headman or mehetrya who settles social disputes in consultation with the men of the caste. A person who has been put out of caste is not allowed to come back until he gives a caste feast or some betel packets. As a class Guravs are poor.

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))

Gosavis, properly Gosvamis or Passion Lords, are returned as numbering 3709 and as found over the whole district. Though many live by begging and are poor, some are well-to-do, and a few are rich living as moneylenders, as dealers in pearls, cloth, shawls, and musk, as writers, and as husbandmen. Many Gosavis enlisted in the Peshwa's army and Gosavis formed a portion of most hill fort garrisons. Details are given in the Poona City account.

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 (Wardha District Gazetteer, Vol. A (1906))

Gonds number 40,000 persons or 10 per cent of the population and are the most numerous caste next to Kunbis and Mehras, The Gonds have never held the large feudal estates in this District of which they were formerly in possession in most other parts of the Province, and which have been perpetuated in the Southern and Eastern Districts in the existing zamindaris. Only one village is now held by a Gond. They are scattered all over the District and have generally taken to settled cultivation. They are good farm-servants being honest and hard-working. Many of them are employed in the cotton-ginning and pressing factories and mills, and a few also as constables, jail warders and forest guards. Among themselves the Gonds still retain according to the census returns their own Dravidian language, though for intercourse with Hindus most of them must necessarily be acquainted with a broken form of Marathi. Some primitive customs also remain. In Arvi it is said that a marriage is celebrated on the heap of refuse behind the house, the heads of the bridegroom and bride being knocked together to complete it. The women of the two parties stand holding a rope between them and sing against each other to see which can go on longest. Previous to the marriage the bride is expected to weep for a day and a night, this custom being intended to signify her unwillingness to leave her family and being probably a relic of the system of marriage by capture. The bride is bathed in turmeric and water a day or sometimes two days before the marriage and has to keep her wet clothes on until the ceremony is performed. This custom may perhaps be expected to assist her in producing the conventional expression of distress. Both the bride and bridegroom go round to the houses of friends in their respective villages and are bathed in their clothes and given food. In the marriage ceremony as performed in Arvi, the couple go five times round a post of saleh timber placed in the street, and then enter the marriage shed holding each other by the little finger. Each places an iron ring on the little finger of the other and the marriage is complete. The Gonds believe in the reappearance of the dead, and if a mark such as a discoloration of the skin appears on his hand the Gond says that his ancestor has come back and gives a funeral feast to lay his spirit. The Ojhas are the priests of the Gonds, while the Pardhans are their musicians and play at their weddings. They are considered lower than ordinary Gonds, and will take food from them, though the Gonds will not take it from Pardhans. Hindus consider the Pardhans to be impure but not ordinary Gonds. They explain this by saying that they formerly had a Gond king and they clearly could not consider him impure. Whereas the Pardhans have never been rulers or owners of land and so have obtained no rise in status. The Gonds are divided into two sections according as they worship six or seven gods. These marry with each other.

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

Gopals are wrestlers who earn their living by performing feats of strength and agility. They make money by rearing and selling buffaloes. They generally remain from five to fifteen days at one camp, but do not move daring the rainy months, stopping wherever they happen to be when the rain begins. During the rains they carry on their usual business, and, when times are bad, eke out their gains by begging.

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

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

Halalkhors are returned as numbering 1004, and as found over the whole district except Khed and Indapur. They are known as Halalkhors or all-eaters, Bhangis perhaps bamboo-splitters, Dhedis or Gujarat tanners, and Mhetars or princes. They are also called Lal Begis or the followers of Lal Beg, their religious head or guru. According to the Hindu books Halalkhors are the offspring of a Shudra father by a Brahman widow. They may have been recruited from bastards and other unfortunates, but the basis of the class seems to be degraded Indian Rajputs. Their traditional founder is Suparukha who belonged to one of the eighty-four castes whom the god Ram once invited to a feast given by his wife Sita who had cooked different dishes with her own hands. Suparukha instead of eating each dish separately mixed all the dishes into one mess and ate it in five mouthfuls. Annoyed by his want of manners Sita said to him, 'You will henceforth eat food mixed with dirt; you will live on the refuse of food thrown into the street; you will take to the lowest callings; and instead of associating with you people will shun you.'They say they came to Poona from Gujarat during the Peshwa's supremacy. They are divided into Lal Begs and Shaikhs, who eat together and intermarry. Their commonest surnames are Araya, Baraya, Chan, Madya, Manji, and Memdabadi; people with the same surname do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Bapu and Khushal; and among women Aka, Baina, Bhima, Hima, and Rama. The men wear the moustache, some wear the top-knot, and others whiskers and the beard. The women tie the hair in a ball behind the head. Their home speech is a mixture of Hindustani Gujarati and Marathi. 

They live either in wattle and daub huts or in houses with mud walls and tiled roofs, and have a cot, a box, earthen and metal vessels, blankets, carpets, and quilts. Their broom and basket are kept either outside or in the house in a corner in the front or back veranda. They are fond of parrots, dogs, and other pets, and keep goats, pigeons, ducks, and domestic fowls. They eat the leavings of all, whether Hindus or Musalmans, and their staple food is millet rice, wheat, split pulse, vegetables, and occasionally fish and the flesh of goats, sheep, and domestic fowls. They do not eat the flesh of a hare because Lal Beg was suckled by a female hare. They smoke tobacco, hemp, and opium, and drink liquor. At their marriages they give feasts of sugared rice or sakharbhat, split pulse and rice or dalbhat and khichdi, mutton rice or pulav, wheat cakes and wheat and sugar called shirapuri, sweetmeats or anarse and karanja shevaya or vermicelli, and mutton. Their holiday dishes during Shravan or August are shirapuri and khichdi, in the Divali holiday in November karanja and anarse sweetmeats, and during Shimga vermicelli and sugared rice. They seldom have holiday or marriage dinners without flesh and liquor. The men dress in a loincloth, trousers, or waistcloth, headscarfs of different colours, or a Maratha turban, a jacket, a coat, and English or native shoes, and they carry a silk handkerchief carelessly wound round the neck or thrown over the shoulders generally with silk and silver tassels at the corners. The women wear either the petticoat bodice and head scarf or the robe reaching to the knee with the skirt drawn back between the feet and a small tight-fitting bodice with short sleeves and no back. They are generally sluggish, weak, timid, and drunken, but honest and orderly. The men are fond of show and pleasure. When a Halalkhor is in his holiday dress, it is almost impossible to say to what caste he belongs. They are scavengers and nightsoil men cleaning the town from morning to eleven. Before starting on their day's work they bow to the basket and broom, and on Dasara Day in October burn frankincense before them, and offer them flowers, blades of rice, and apta leaves. Children begin to learn at eight and are expert workers at sixteen, though they seldom begin the heavy head-carrying work before they are eighteen or twenty. Boys earn 14s. (Rs. 7) a month, women 16s. (Rs. 8), and men 18s. to �1 10s (Rs. 9-15). A family of five spends 14s. to 18s. (Rs. 7-9) a month on food and �1 to �2 (Rs. 10-20) a year on clothes. Their houses cost �10 to �20 (Rs. 100-200) to build; their furniture and goods are worth �2 to �4 (Rs. 20-40); their animals and birds �2 to �3 (Rs. 20-30); and their clothes and ornaments �5 to �20 (Rs.50-200). A birth costs them 2s. to 8s. (Rs. 1 -4); the marriage of a son �10 to �15 (Rs. 100-150); the marriage of a daughter 10s. to �1 (Rs. 5-10); and a death �1 (Rs. 10). In religion they are half Musalmans half Hindus, going to mosques and repeating prayers and at the same time having as family deities Khoriyal of Gujarat, Khandoba of Jejuri, Khajapir, Baba Makdumba, and the goddesses Kalsari and Ghochati. 

They pay equal respect to Musalman saints and to Hindu gods and offer them fowls whose throat has been cut by a Musalman. Their priests are the strange half-Hindu half-Musalman Hussaini Brahmans who officiate at their weddings. They keep both Hindu and Musalman fasts and festivals. Their special day is the chhadi navmi, which falls in the month of Shravan or August. This is the anniversary of the death of Joherpir, a royal saint who lived during the reign of Firozsha, the Emperor of Delhi (1356-1388), and worked miracles. One day Joher's cousins entered his country with a large army and called on him either to fight or pay them half his revenue. Joher's mother advised him to agree to their demands. But he attacked the army single-handed and killed the leading traitor. On his return his mother instead of praising him ordered him to leave her presence, and he enraged at her behaviour, stamped on the ground and was swallowed up. On the day when Joher disappeared Hindus do not object to touch Halal-khors. Many of the Halalkhors make vows at Joher's shrine and some weep for the saint and lash themselves with ropes, but by the power of the saint suffer no harm. Their religious teachers or gurus are either men of their own caste or belong to the school of Nanak-panthi beggars. The teacher tells the disciple a mantra or text. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. It is considered lucky to meet a Halalkhor, especially when he has a full basket on his head. 

On the third day after the birth of a child they ask their priests for a name and call the child by the name he suggests. On the fifth day they cowdung a spot of ground near the mother's cot and spread a child's bodycloth or balote over it. On the cloth they lay a millet cake and a ball of tamarind flowers, molasses and butter, and the midwife, who is generally of their own caste, worships them as the goddess Chhati. They keep awake all night to prevent the goddess carrying off the child. A family in which a birth takes place is considered impure for eleven days, during which they do not touch their caste-people. On the twelfth day the mother and her child are bathed, the house is cowdunged and sprinkled with cow's urine, and the clothes are washed. The mother takes the child in her arms and with a few near relations goes to some distance from the house and lays five pebbles in a line on the ground, worships them, offers them cooked rice, mutton, and liquor, and retires with a bow. They clip a child's hair when it is a month and a quarter to three months old, the clipping being performed by the child's maternal uncle, who is presented with a cocoanut 

They marry their girls between seven and twelve and their boys before they are twenty. The asking comes from the boy's house, and when the match is settled both fathers put sugar into one another's months. A few days before the marriage the girl's father gives a feast to the boy's relations, when sugared rice or sakharbhat is prepared. The girl is presented with a new robe and bodice and a flower garland is hung round her neck, betelnnt leaves and cheroots are handed round and the guests retire. A couple of days before a marriage a dough image of Ganpati is made and is put in a new earthen jar and worshipped by the house women and hung in a coir sling some where in the house. An image of Ganpati is traced with red paint on a wall in the house and worshipped by the women. The boy and girl at their respective houses are seated on low wooden stools and rubbed with turmeric by the women of their family. The day before the marriage a feast is held at both the boy's and the girl's houses, and a gel fruit, Gardenia dumetorum, is tied to the right wrists of both the boy and girl. On the marriage day the boy accompanied by kinspeople friends and music, goes either on horseback or on foot to the girl's, where her mother marks his brow with redpowder or kunku, throws grains of rice over his head, leads him into the marriage porch, and seats him on a square mango bench or macholi. The girl is then led out by he mother and seated on a quilt close to the boy. In front of them a square is traced, a new earthen jar is set on each corner of the square, and cotton thread is passed five times round the jars. The priest lights a sacrificial fire in front of the boy and girl, and the boy and girl throw grains of rice over the fire and the jar. The mother or other elderly woman ties the hems of their garments together, and they go round the earthen jars four times and take their seats as before The priest repeats marriage verses or mangalashtaks, and when the verses are ended closes the ceremony by throwing grains of rice over the heads of the bride and bridegroom. A feast is held and the boy and girl are seated on horseback and taken in procession to the boy's house. Here the boy and girl sit in front of the house gods and worship them by throwing flowers and grains of rice over them. Next day the boy and girl go on foot to the girl's and after washing their mouths toothpowder or Datvan is rubbed on their teeth and they are made black. A dish of vermicelli or shevaya is prepared and the boy and girl feast. The boy leaves the girl at her paresents' and returns home. A couple or four days after, the girl is taken to the boy's house and the boy's mother puts glass bangles round her wrists. The marriage festivities end with a feast at the boy's house. When a girl comes of age she is seated by herself for three days No rites are performed. 

When a Halalkhor dies, if a man, the body is washed at the burying ground, and, if a woman, at home. The body is carried on a bamboo bier on the shoulders of four near kinsmen. On the way to the burial ground the bier is rested on the ground, and a gram and sugar or bundi ball and copper coin are placed at the road side, they say, for the spirit of the dead. They dig a grave, seat the deceased in it, and making a small hole in front of the body place a lighted dough lamp in it. The chief mourner followed by the others pours a little water into the dead month, and after the chief mourner has thrown in a handful of earth, the rest fill the grave, bathe and go to the deceased's house. At the honse each takes a mouthful of water and after rinsing his month goes home. On the third day the chief mourner's moustache is shaved and he goes to the burial ground, lights a dough lamp, burns frankincense, and lays a flower garland on the grave. On his return home he lights another dough lamp, burns frankincense, and lays flowers on the spot where the dead breathed his last. They mourn twelve days, during which they are considered impure and do not touch their castefellows. On the morning of the twelfth day seven dough and seven rice balls are prepared and worshipped and thrown into a stream or into a pond. A caste feast at the end of a month completes the death ceremonies. Halalkhors are bound together by a strong caste feeling and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen in presence of their headmen or patils. An adulteress is fined �4 (Rs. 40), and if she becomes with child without letting any one know, she is fined �6 (Rs. 60). Before he is allowed to marry a widow the husband has to give the caste �1 8s. (Rs. 14). If a marriage is broken off after a settlement has been made the offending party has to pay the caste a fine of 10s. (Rs. 5), and on every marriage there is a caste fee of 8s. (Rs. 4). A woman who leaves her husband and lives with another man has to pay �2 (Rs. 20). They send their boys to school until they are able to read and write a little Marathi. They are a steady people.

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

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

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.

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

Ga'okasa'bs, or Beef-butchers, found in small numbers in the Poona Cantonment, claim descent from Abyssinian slaves whom Haidar Ali made beef-butchers. They are said to have come from Maisur with General Wellesley's army in 1803. They speak Hindustani at home and Marathi with others. The men are tall or of middle-height, muscular, and dark. Some shave the head, others wear the head hair, and all have full beards, and dress in a headscarf or a turban, a shirt, a waistcoat, and a pair of tight trousers. The women are either tall or of middle height and dark. They wear the Maratha robe and bodice, appear in public, and help the men in selling the smaller pieces of beef. They are proverbially quarrelsome and shameless. Both men and women are dirty and untidy. Though hardworking beef-butchers waste most of their earnings on good living and liquor. Few of them are rich, and most are in debt. They kill cows and buffaloes selling the cow beef to Europeans and Musalmans and the buffalo beef to Musalmans and lower class Hindus such as Mhars and sweepers. They have shops and when their stock is not sold in the shops, they go about the Musalman and sweeper streets hawking what is left. They have a well managed union under a headman or chaudhari chosen from the rich who holds caste meetings and fines any one who breaks the rules. They marry only among themselves, and are considered lowclass Musalmans. In religion they are Sunnis of the Hanafi school, but few are religious or careful to say their prayers; they almost never attend the mosque. Their rites and observances do not differ from those of ordinary Musalmans. They respect the regular Kazi whom they employ to register their marriages and to settle social disputes. They do not send their boys to school nor take to new callings.