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

Mahars or Mhars are returned as numbering 74,553 and as found over the whole district. They say that once when Parvati was bathing her touch turned some drops of blood on a bel leaf into a handsome babe. She took the child home and showed him to Mahadev who named him Mahamuni. One day, while still young, the child crawled out of the house and seeing a dead cow began to eat it. Mahadev was horrified and cursed the child, saying that he would live outside of villages, that his food would be carcasses, that nobody would have anything to do with him, would look at him, or would allow his shadow to fall on anything pure. Parvati, who took great interest in her child, begged her lord to have pity on him, and Shiv agreed that people should employ him to supply mourners with wood and dried cowdung cakes to burn the dead. As the child's appetite was so great he turned his name into Mahahari or the great eater. 

Mhars are divided into Andhvans, Daules, Ladvans, Pans, Somvanshis, Silvans, and Surtis, who do not eat together. Their commonest surnames are Bhalerao, Bhoir, Chavan, Dasture, Gaikvad Javle, Jadhav, Lokhande, Madar, Shelar, and Somvane; people with the same surname do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Govinda, Hari, Krishna, Mahadev, Ramchandra, and Vishnu; and among women Eshoda, Ganga, Jaya, Radha, and Yamna. They speak Marathi, those who know how to read and write speaking it purely. [Among themselves they have a few peculiarities. They say nahi for nahi no, toha for tujhe thine, and nagu, or nai payaje for nko do not want.] Mhars are generally tall, strong, muscular, and dark with regular features. Most of them live outside of villages in small houses with tiled roofs and mud and brick walls. The neighbourhood of their houses is generally dirty, but the inside of the houses and the ground close to the doors are fairly clean. Except a few which are of metal, the cooking, dining, and water vessels are of earth. The well-to-do rear cattle and the poor sheep and fowls. They are great eaters of pungent dishes and their food is millet, Indian millet, rice, split pulse, vegetables, and occasionally fish. When cattle, sheep, or fowls die they feed on their carcasses, eating strips of the flesh roasted over a fire, often with nothing else but sometimes washed down by liquor. They do not eat pork. They give feasts in honour of marriages, deaths, and anniversaries costing � 1 to �2 10s. (Rs. 10 - 25) for a hundred guests. It is the cost and not any religious scruple that prevents them using animal food every day. They say the men bathe daily before meals, and the women once a week. They do not eat from Buruds, Mangs, Mochis, or Bhangis. They drink to excess and smoke hemp flowers and tobacco. The men dress in a loincloth, a waistcloth, a pair of short drawers or cholnas, a shouldercloth, a coat, a waistcoat, a cap, a turban folded in Maratha fashion, and shoes or sandals. They have spare clothes in store such as a turban and a silk-bordered waistcloth. The women tie the hair in a knot behind the head and wear the bodice and full Maratha robe the skirt of which they pass back between the feet. ['A well-to-do Mhar generally has a pair of waistcloths worth 2s. to 3s. (Rs. 1-�); a turban worth 1s. 6d. to 10s. (Rs. �-5); two coats worth 1s. 6d. to 4s. (Rs. �-2); two waistcoats worth 1s. 3d. to 2s. (Re. 5/8-1); a pair of shoes worth 1s. to 2s. 6d (Rs. �-1�); three jackets or kudtans for a child worth 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1-2); two chaddis worth 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.); a square loincloth or langoti worth 1�. (1 a.); a cap worth 3d. to 6d. (2 - 4 as.); and a shouldercloth worth 6d. (4 as.). A woman's clothes are two robes worth 4s. to �1 (Rs. 2 -10); two bodices worth 7�d to 1s (5 - 8 as.); and sandals or cheplya worth 9d. to 1s. (6 - 8 as.)] The ornaments worn by rich women are the earrings called bugdya worth �1 to �2 (Rs. 10-20), the gold nose ring called nath worth 14s. to �2 10s. (Rs. 7-25), a necklace called sari worth �1 to �2 10s. (Rs. 10-25), a gold necklace called panpot worth �1 10s. to �4 (Rs. 15-40), a gold necklace called vajratik worth �1 to �3, (Rs. 10-30), and a gold necklace called mangalsutra or mani worth 1s. to 4s. (Rs. � - 2); silver bracelets called ella worth �1 10s. to �6 (Rs. 15-60), silver gots worth 12s. to 16s. (Rs. 6-8), silver bangles worth 8s. to �1 12s. (Rs. 4-16) and bellmetal anklets or jodvis worth 3d. to 6d. (2-4 as.). The ornaments of rich men are the gold earrings called bhikbalis worth 4s. to 10s. (Rs. 2-5) and gold antias or kudkias worth �1 to �4 (Rs. 10 -40); an armlet called kude worth 10s. to �2 (Rs. 5 - 20); silver finger rings called angthi worth 9d, to 2s. (Re. 3/8 - 1), and gold rings worth 2s. to 16s. (Rs. 1-8); a silver waistbelt or kardora worth �1 to �2 10s. (Rs. 10-25) and a small belt for a boy worth 4s. to 16s. (Rs. 2 - 8); an anklet of silver called tode, if for one leg worth �1 to �2 (Rs. 10-20) and if for two legs worth �1 to �6 (Rs. 10 - 60). They are hardworking, hospitable, honest, and thrifty, but dirty and drunken. They are village servants, carriers of dead animals, husbandmen, messengers  labourers, scavengers, sellers of firewood and cowdung cakes, and beggars. The men earn 8s. to �1 (Rs. 4-10), the women 4s. to 10s. (Rs. 2 - 5), and the children 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1 - 2) a month. They make about 1 �d. to 3d. (1-2 as) profit upon each 2s. (Re. 1) worth of firewood or cowdung cakes. They charge 1s. to 10s. (Rs. � - 5) for carrying a dead horse, 6d. to 2s. (Re. � -1) for carrying a dead cow, and 6d to 3s. (Rs. � -1�) for carrying a dead buffalo. They are a steady class of people, and few of them are in debt, except some who have been forced to borrow to meet their children's wedding expenses. They have credit and can borrow 10s. to �5 (Rs. 5 - 50) at two per cent a month. They hold a low position among Hindus, and are both hated and feared. Their touch, even the touch of their shadow, is thought to defile, and in some outlying villages, in the early morning, the Mhar as he passes the village well, may be seen crouching, that his shadow may not fall on the water-drawers. To build a house costs �2 to �8 (Rs. 20-80), and to rent it 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.). The house property varies from �2 to �7 10s. (Rs. 20-75). A birth costs 4s. to 6s. (Rs. 2 - 3), naming 2s. (Re. 1), shaving or javal 4s. (Rs. 2) and if a goat is offered 7s. (Rs. 3�), a boy's marriage �2 to �10 (Rs. 20 -100) and a girl's �1 to �2 (Rs. 10 - 20), a girl's coming of age 8s. to 10s. (Rs.4-5), a death 8s. to 16s. (Rs. 4-8) for a man, 4s. to 6s. (Rs. 2-3) for a widow, and 16s. to �1 (Rs. 8-10) for married woman. They are Shaivs, pay great respect to Mahadev, and have house images of Bhavani, Bahiroba, Chedoba, Chokhoba,Khandoba, Mariai, and Mhaskoba. 

They worship metal masks or taks as emblems of deceased ancestors. Their priests are the ordinary Deshasth Brahmans and in their absence vachaks or readers belonging to their own caste officiate at their marriages. They make pilgrimages to Pandharpur, Alandi, Jejuri, and Mahadev of Signapur. They keep the usual Hindu fasts and feasts. They are a religious people, and spend much of their time in reciting sacred books or hearing them read. They have singing clubs where they sing in praise of the Hindu gods. Among them both men and women sing with much skill and go in bands of two or more singing and begging. They have a religious teacher or guru belonging to their own caste, whose advice they are required to take. Both boys and girls before they are a year old are taken to the teacher with a cocoanut, a waistcloth, rice grains, flowers, and frankincense. The child's father marks the teacher's brow with sandal paste, worships him, and presents him with a waistcloth and 3d. to 2s. (Re. ⅛-1) in cash. The teacher takes the child on his knee, breathes into both his ears, and mutters some mystic words into his right ear. At this time either the priest covers himself and the child with a blanket or cloth, or a curtain is held between him and the rest of the people, who sing loudly in praise of the gods. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. When a person is possessed by a spirit he is seated in front of the house gods, and frankincense is burnt before him. If the patient remains sitting the possessing spirit is thought to be a Hindu bhut. When the people are satisfied that it is a Hindu bhut chilly stems and seeds are burnt before him and he is asked his name. If he does not tell his name be is slapped with shoes, his little finger is squeezed, and he is caned. In spits of this the possessed person persists in keeping silence, his case a referred to a devrihi or exorcist. If the possessed person speaks, the spirit is asked his name, and the reason of this body-seizing or angdharne. The spirit says ' I was hungry and it was midday, and as this man was passing at the time I entered his body.' He is asked how he will leave the sick man. The bhut says 'I want a fowl or a goat and rice.' He is asked where the food should be left for him, and answers' At the corner of the lane.' If the bhut is a female one she is called a hadal, and generally asks for sweet-smelling rice or ambe mohorache bhat, pickles, and butter lonkade tup; along with this are placed turmeric roots, redpowder, and betelnut or chikni supari. If the spirit is a male, curds and rice, betel leaves, and a small thick cake or damti of wheat mixed with oil, or of Indian millet mixed with pulse and oil are made ready. The cake is rubbed on one side with black: of the frying pan and on the other side with turmeric and redpowder. The cooked rice and bread are put in a leaf plate and waved over the head of the possessed and left on the spot named by the spirit. A man is sent to leave the articles at the place named, and after washing his hands and feet, and rubbing water on his eyes, he returns home. He takes a pinch of dust off his feet, rubs it between the eyebrows of the possessed person, and the spirit leaves his body. If the spirit is a Musalman spirit, hog's hair is tied in a box round the possessed person's neck, and the spirit at once leaves the body. 

A short time before her delivery the woman is bathed in cold water, and immediately after delivery both the mother and child are washed in hot water and laid on a blanket on the ground. The mother is fed for the first three days on rice, sweet oil, and molasses, and is considered impure for twenty-one days. On the fifth day the goddess Satvai is worshipped and a lamp is kept burning the whole night. In order that the lamp may not go out and the goddess come and steal the child, the child is watched both by the mother and the midwife. On the twelfth day the child is laid in a cradle and named, the name being given by the village astrologer. They marry their children at any time between a few months to twenty years of age and the boy's father has to give the girl's father 7s. to �2 10s. (Rs. 3�-25). Marriage ceremonies last three to eleven days. The boy is rubbed with turmeric and the rest is sent to the girl with a new robe and bodice. They have several marriage guardians or devaks. One is a silver mask or tak, which is brought by a newly married couple from a goldsmith's shop and placed among the household gods and worshipped; another is a wooden grain measure; a third is the leaves of the five trees or panch palavs; and a fourth is a piece of bread tied to a post in the marriage hall. Their marriage customs are in most particulars the same as those of Marathas. The chief exception is that the boy and girl are made to stand in two bamboo baskets at the time of marriage and that a yellow thread is passed seven times round their necks. 

They bury their dead. When a Mhar is on the point of death a few drops of water in which a Brahman's feet have been washed are put into his mouth, and when he dies he is carried to the burning ground and buried sitting. A few bel leaves are scattered on his head, and the chief mourner, going thrice round the grave with an earthen water jar, dashes it on the ground and beats his month. On the third day he again goes to the burning ground, lays some cooked food for the crows, and feasts the caste on the thirteenth. The mourner is presented with a turban and the mourning is over. Mhars allow widow-marriage and practise polygamy, but not polyandry. They hare a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. They send their boys to school. Some of them are well taught and are able to read and interpret sacred books. As a class they 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))

Ma'nbha'vs, probably meaning men of learning, are returned as numbering 222 and as found over the whole district except in Maval and Poona. They speak Marathi, and are wandering beggars. Both men and women shave their heads and live together in religious houses or maths. They are vegetarians and wear black clothes. They are a sect of Krishna-worshippers and hate Brahmans and their gods. They bury their dead and do not bathe in case it should cause loss of insect life. Their religious head is a wandering guru whom they call Mahant. He is succeeded by his chief disciple who always stays with him.

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 (Satara District Gazetteer (1884))

Mara'tha's [Details of the origin and history of the name Maratha and a list of Maratha surnames and marriage guardians or devaks we given in the Kolhapur Statistical Account.] are found all over the district. The 1881 census includes them under Kunbis from whom they do not form a separate caste. Some Maratha families may have a larger strain of northern or Rajput blood than the Kunbis. But this is not always the case. The distinction between Kunbis and Marathas is almost entirely social, the Maratha as a rule being better off, and preferring war or service as a constable or a messenger to husbandry. The Satara Marathas seem to have no historic or legendary evidence as to when or from where they came into the district. Though somewhat fairer in colour and more refined in manners Marathas as a class cannot be distinguished from Kunbis with whom all eat and the poorer marry.

All Marathas have surnames some of them true or clan surnames, others false surnames, that is divisions of clan surnames generally called after places or callings. In most cases families who are known by a place or calling surname know or can find out to what clan surname they belong. The Maratha clan 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 Kadamb the name of dynasties who at different times ruled all the Karnatak, Kolhapur, and Goa (500-1200); More who probably represent the Mauryas a branch of the great North Indian family who were ruling in the Konkan and Deccan in the sixth century; Salunke, which seems to belong to late comers perhaps followers of the Solanki kings of Gujarat (943-1240); Shelar, which seems to preserve the original name of the Silahar 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 1150 till the Musalman conquest in 1294. As far as is known the Devgiri Yadavs passed from the south northwards, and it is possible they were not northerners but southerners Kurubars or other shepherds, 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 these clans may 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, Shelar, and Yadav are found besides among Kunbis, who do not appreciably differ from Marathas in race, among Dhangars, Kolis, Malis (who are Kunbis), Mhars, Mangs, Ramoshis, and several wandering tribes, as Beldars, Bharadis, Bhorpis Ghisadis, and Kaikadis, classes which seem to be but slightly connected. The existence of the same clan name in most middle and low-class Deccan Hindus may 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 Mhars 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 immigrations improbable. The case of the Uchlas or slit-pockets of Poona, all of whom are either Gaikvads or Jadhavs, is an extreme proof that sameness of surname by no means implies sameness of tribe or race. Uchlas are recruited from all except the impure classes. They are joined, besides by Marathas and Kamathis, by Brahmans, Marwari Vanis, and Mussalmans, and all recruits, whatever their caste, are adopted either into the Gaikvad or into the Jadhav clan. [Uchla details are given in the Poona Statistical Account.] The evidence presented by the case of the Uchlas is supported in a less extreme form by the general Deccan practice of calling a chiefs retainers by the chief's surname. Taken together with the case of the Uchlas, who supply almost the last living trace of the old system of recruiting the predatory tribes, this practise seems to show that to have a northern surname is no proof of a northern origin or even of a strain of northern blood. The possession of northern surnames probably usually arose, like the possession of the Norman names of Gordon and Campbell by the. Scotch Keltic highlanders, from the practice of followers taking or being given the name of their chief. [In his own country a Maratha chief's retainers where they are known may be called by their own surnames. Among strangers retainers are called by their chief's surname. Mr. Y. M. Kelkar, Assistant Commissioner S. D.]

Except the deshmukhs or district officers, the heads of villages and inamdars or grant holders who live in good houses two or more storeys high with walls of brick and tiled roofs, most Marathas live in poor one-storeyed dwellings. The well-to-do strictly enforce the women seclusion system called gosha that is curtain or Marath mola that is Maratha custom. It is uncertain whether women seclusion was borrowed from the Musalmans or is a remnant of the old. Kshatriya rule of antaspur or inner apartment. Marathas eat flesh and drink liquor and their boys are girt with the sacred thread on or shortly before the marriage day. Maratha women, as a rule, do not pass the skirt of their robe back between the feet especially on festive occasions. Except the difference caused by their practice of not allowing their women to appear in public the Maratha family customs at birth, coming of age, pregnancy, and death differ little from those described under Kunbis. The marriage ceremonies of the two classes have several notable points of difference. Among Marathas marriage preparations begin on a lucky day chosen by the village astrologer or gram joshi and kinspeople are invited. A short time before the marriage, the boy is girt with the sacred thread, and, except that the Brahman repeats classical Sanskrit texts instead of Vedic texts, the Maratha thread-girding is the same as the Brahman thread-girding. [At the thread-girding of the late Maharaja of Kolhapur, thirty poor Brahman boys were girt with the sacred thread at the state expense and by the same priests in the same hall, the rites performed being nearly the same.] The first of the marriage ceremonies is the turmeric rubbing which is performed with the same details at the houses both of the boy and of the girl. Turmeric is mixed sometimes with water and sometimes with milk and rubbed on the girl by her female relations and what is over is sent with music to the boy's. At the boy's a married woman traces a quartz square in the marriage hall, and in front of the square, sets a low wooden stool on which the boy is seated. Five or more other married women surround him and the Brahman priest places a waterpot in the middle of the square, fills the waterpot with water, and drops into it a copper coin and a betelnut. On the mouth of the pot is laid a piece of cocoa-kernel and five betelnuts. The priest sets a betel-nut Ganpati near the waterpot, lays sandal paste, flowers, vermilion, burnt frankincense, and sweetmeats both before the waterpot Varun and the betelnut Ganpati and prays them to be kindly. The married women with a dish of turmeric, redpowder, and rice grains, rub turmeric over the boy's body, mark his brow with redpowder, and stick grains of rice on the powder. The boy is dressed and a flower garland or mundaval is tied round his head. He lays a cocoanut before his family goddess or kuldevi, bows before her, and starts for the girl's home with the priest, kinsfolk, and friends and musicians. When they reach the girl's village boundary, or more often the temple of Maruti which is generally close outside of the village, they stop and perform the simanti or boundary ceremony. They are met by the girl's party at the temple. With the help of his priest the girl's father lays sandal flowers and sugar before the waterpot Varun and the betelnut Ganpati and presents the boy with clothes and ornaments. Betel is served to the boy's friends and kinspeople and the priests are dismissed with money presents. As the lucky moment draws near, a kinsman of the girl, called the vardhava or bride-sent, visits the boy's party and asks them to come, and they start for the girl's. The boy is seated on horseback with a dagger in his right hand, before him walk the musicians, and after him his friends and relations. On reaching the girl's house the boy is taken to a ready-made place in the marriage hall where the male guests take their seats, and is seated on a low wooden stool near the marriage altar. The women go into the house, remove their veils and take their seats on carpets in the women's hall, apart from the marriage hall, where, except the old priests of both the boy and the girl and occasionally the fathers of the couple, no male members are admitted, not even the men servants except on business, who stand at a distance and do not allow any male stranger to come in. At a lucky moment, the girl, closely veiled from head to foot and helped by her women servants and friends, is made to stand on a low stool before the boy face to face near the marriage altar and a yellow sheet marked with the lucky cross or nandi is held between them by the priests, who repeat verses and throw yellow rice at the couple, crying Savdhan or Beware. At the lucky moment, the astrologer claps his hands and guns are fired; the priests draw aside the curtain, the musicians redouble their noise, and the priests and the women guests throw yellow rice over the pair.

A short time before the lucky moment, one of the priests hands a little yellow rice to the men guests in the hall, and when the pair are wedded another priest gathers it from the men guests in a dish and pours it over the heads of the pair. The girl's maternal uncle or some other near male relation takes the girl's right hand and gives it to the boy who clasps it fast in both his hands. The priest lays both his hands over those of the boy and the girl and mutters verses. The girl's father lays sandal, flowers, rice, burnt frankincense, and sweetmeats before the betelnut Ganpati and the waterpot Varan, and pours water from the waterpot over the clasped hands of the boy and the girl, and this completes the girl-giving or kanyadan. The boy lets the girl's hand go and the priest knots together the hems of their clothes. The sacrificial fire is lit and fed with clarified butter, sesame seed, cotton stalks, and palas or other sacred wood. The couple leave their seats and perform the saptpadi or seven steps by walking seven times from right to left round, the fire. They worship the family gods and the marriage is over. Next day a feast is held at the girl's house. On the morning of the feast, a few young or newly married pairs are asked to the girl's house and play in the hall the usual games of betelnut hide and seek and of turmeric-throwing. Goats and sheep are brought in, and each of the pairs is made to show their skill with the sword. The bridegroom and bride first chop off the heads of two goats and the other pairs follow them, any one who with one blow cuts the goat's head clean off being loudly applauded. On the morning of the day on which the boy is to leave for his parents' house with his wife, the boy's mother performs the ceremony of seeing the girl's face or sunmukh. Accompanied by kinswomen and friends and the family priest and music the boy's mother goes to the girl's bringing bamboo baskets with sesame and gram balls, betelnuts, cocoakernels, dates, a robe and a bodice, ornaments including the lucky marriage necklace or mangalsutra, and sweetmeats and fruit. At the girl's the family priest worships the waterpot Varun and the betelnut Ganpati, and the boy's mother dresses the girl in the clothes she has brought, puts on he ornaments, ties the marriage string round her neck, and sweet her mouth with sugar. Then comes the basket or jhal, that the handing ceremony. A piece of cloth is spread in a bamboo basket, and nine dates, nine pieces of cocoa-kernel, and nine lumps of turmeric, a handful of rice, and cooked food are pat in the basket. The priest worships the basket and the boy and girl 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 boy, accompanied by his relations and friends, starts with his wife for his father's house and the marriage is over. Among the rich a marriage costs �50 to �100 (Rs. 500-1000), among the middle class �10 to �20 (Rs. 100-200), and among the poor �3 to �6 (Rs. 30-60). Except infants and the very poor, Marathas born, the dead, and the chief mourners are held impure for ten days. They worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses, and their favourite deities are Bhavani, Khandoba, and Vithoba. In honour of Bhavani every ceremony ends with a gondhal dance. They keep the regular Brahmanic fasts and feasts. Social disputes are settled at caste meetings, and breaches of caste rules are punished by a fine which generally takes the form of a caste dinner. Some of them send their boys to school, but as a class they are not well-to-do.

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

MARATHAS, properly so called, are a comparatively small body but have a good position in their Tillages. A few are deshmukhs, patils, and clerks, constables or messengers, and the rest are husbandmen and labourers. Except the deshmukhs and well-to-do landholders who live in good houses, most of them live in poor one-storied huts. Rich Marathas do not allow widow marriage, strictly enforce the zenana system, goshe, and wear the sacred thread which is given them at marriage. [Nasik Marathas have a special interest as the original seat of the Marathas is supposed to have been in West Khandesh and Nasik (Grant Duff's History, 25; Briggs' Ferishta, 11. 320, 325; Hamilton's Description of Hindustan, 11. 183). In 246 B.C. Maharatta is noticed as one of the ten places to which Ashoka sent an embassy (Tumour's Mahavanso, 71, 74). Maharashtraka is mentioned, in a Chalukyan inscription of the sixth century (580), as including three provinces and 99,000 villages (Ind. Ant. V. 68). In the seventh century (642) Maharashtra seems to have included the country as far south as Badami (Hiwen Thsang in Ind. Ant. VII. 290). In 1015 Al Biruni mentions Mahratdes as beginning seventy-two miles, 18 parasangs, south of the Narbada(Elliot's History, 1. 60). In the thirteenth century Ziau-d-din Barni, in writing of Ala-ud-din's expedition to Devgiri, notices that till then the Marathas had never been punished by Musalman armies (Elliot's History, III. 150) In the beginning of the fourteenth, century (1320) Friar Jordanus (Memorabilia, 41) mentions the very great kingdom of Maratha. Twenty years later (1342) Ibn Batuta notices the Marathas of Nandurbar in Khandesh as a people skilled in the arts, medicine, and astrology, whose nobles were Brahmans (Lee's Ibn Batuta, 164). In connection with the view that Nasik was part of the original seat of the Marathas it may be noticed that two of the chief Maratha families, the Rajas of Satara and the Gaikwars of Baroda are connected with the district. Though they originally came from Poona, it was on the north boundaries of Nasik that the Gaikwars first rose to power and the present Gaikwar is the son of a patil of the village of Kalvan in Malegaon, The Bhonsle patils of Vavi in Sinnar have more than once been connected by marriage with the Rajas of Satara, by the last of whom one of the family was adopted.]

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

Ma'rwa'r Va'nis are returned as numbering 275 and as found in ones and twos in every large village in the district. They speak Marwari at home and incorrect Marathi abroad. They keep their houses clean, and paint the walls with bright fantastic colours. The men dress in a close fitting turban, a waistcloth, and coat, and the women wear the open-backed bodice, a petticoat, and a short robe drawn up from the petticoat band and falling like a veil over the head and face. Above the elbow and on the wrists they wear gold ornaments, but their chief ornaments are ivory bracelets. Their food is wheat, pulse, butter, oil, and sugar. They take much less care of their persons than of their houses. Their women, except on great occasions, are slovenly, but the men generally bathe daily. The features of the men are more strongly marked and they are sturdier and more active than Gujarat Vanis. The men shave the head leaving three patches of hair, a top-knot and a lock over each ear. They have a bad name for hard and unfair dealing. Besides lending money they deal in cloth, grain, pulse, oil, butter, and various other articles. In religion they are either Vaishnavs or Shravaks. The midwife who generally belongs to the Maratha caste attends a lying-in woman for twelve days during which the mother is held impure. The midwife bathes the mother and child daily, and keeps cowdung cakes burning under the mother's cot. On the fifth day the mother worships the goddess Chhatti, and, on the following morning, ties a golden image of Chhatti round the child's neck. On the twelfth day the house is cowdunged, the clothes of the mother and child are washed, and a few near women relations are asked to dine. The mother, after worshipping the planets, the sun, and the earth with flowers, becomes pure, and is at liberty to mix with the house people. On the same day an Upper Indian Brahman priest gives the child a name and is paid 3d. (2 as.), and the women guests retire with a present of wet gram or ghugris. They marry their girls before they are fifteen, and hold a betrothal ceremony at which they present the girl with a rupee and a silver finger ring, and fill her lap with rice, a cocoanut, and betel leaves. After this the marriage may take place at any time and is generally held within a year or two. If the parents of the girl are poor the boy's father has to give the girl's father money. They build no marriage altar, get no waterpots from the potter's, plant no lucky post in the booth, and worship no sprays of lucky trees as marriage guardians. The two chief heads of expenditure in a Marwari marriage are caste dinners and ornaments. 

Except unweaned children they burn the dead, and if the deceased has died on an unlucky day they carry on the bier along with the deceased a dough human figure and burn it with the body. They believe that if a figure is not burnt, some one of the deceased's family will shortly die. The chief mourner does not shave his moustache, neither does he carry the fire in his hands, but it is taken by their caste barber in a copper vessel. After the body is burnt the mourners bathe, return home, and purify themselves by drinking cow's urine. The family of the deceased observe no mourning, and feast the caste on the twelfth day after death. They hold caste councils and settle social disputes at caste meetings. Their boys learn to read and write either at school or from their fathers at home. As a class they are well-to- do.

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

Moghals are found in small numbers in every town and village of Poona. They claim descent from the Moghal conquerors of the Deccan in the seventeenth century (Abmadnagar 1630; Bijapur 1686). By intermarriage, and probably because many of them are local converts who took the name Moghal from their patron or leader, they have entirely lost their foreign appearance. Among local Moghals, the men shave the head and wear the beard full They dress like other Musalmans in a headscarf or a turban, a long overcoat, a shirt, a waistcoat, and a pair of tight trousers. The women are like Syed and Shaikh women and like them wear the Hindu robe and bodice. The men add mirza to their names, and the women bibi to theirs. They are soldiers, constables, servants, and husbandmen. In religion they are Sunnis of the Hanafi school. Some who have learned English have found employment as clerks and in the police.

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

Mahawats, or Elephant-drivers, are found in small numbers in the city of Poona. They are local converts of the Hindu class of the same name. They style themselves Shaikhs and speak Hindustani at home and Marathi with others. They are tall or of middle height and dark. The men shave the head and wear the beard full, and dress in a turban, a tight-fitting jacket, and a pair of tight trousers or a waistcloth. The women wear the Marathi robe and bodice. They appear in public, but add nothing to the family income. Both men and women are neat and clean in their habits. They are hardworking, thrifty, and sober. Under the British Government the demand for their services has fallen. They have taken to new pursuits, some serving as constables and others as servants and messengers. They live from hand to mouth and have to borrow to meet emergencies. Most of the men and almost all of the women eschew beef, and have a leaning to Hindu customs, inclining to keep Hindu festivals and believing in Hindu gods. They have no special class organization and no headman, and marry with any of the regular classes of Musalmans. In religion they are Sunnis of the Hanafi school, but few are religious or careful to say their prayers. They respect and obey the regular Kazi, and employ him to register their marriages and settle social disputes. They do not send their boys to school, and none have risen to any high position.

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

Momins, that is Believers, are weavers who are found in considerable numbers over the whole district. They are descended from Hindus of the Kosti and Sali castes, and are said to have been converted by the saint Khwaja Syad Hussain Gaisudaraz of Gulbarga about the year 1398 (800 H.). They speak Hindustani among themselves and Marathi with others. The men are tall or of middle height, thin, and dark. They shave the head, wear the beard full, and dress in a large Maratha-Kunbi turban, a shirt, an overcoat, and a pair of tight trousers or a waistcloth. The women are tall or of middle height, thin, well featured, and olive-skinned. They wear the Maratha robe and bodice, appear in public, and help the men in all parts of their work including weaving. They add to the family income as much as a man. Neither men nor women are clean or tidy. They are weavers by craft and are hardworking and thrifty, but the competition of English and Bombay goods presses them hard. The rich employ the poor to weave for them and pay them 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1-2) for a robe of silk or cotton, which they make ready in four days, for a turban if of cotton 2s. (Re. 1) and if of silk 3s. (Rs. 1�) woven in four days, for a striped cotton cloth 3d. to 6d. (2-4 as.), and for a waistcloth 1s. to 1s. 6d. (8-12 as.). They weave in hand looms using English or Bombay yarn. They weave cotton or silk turbans worth 6s. to �2 (Rs. 3-20), waistcloths with silk borders worth 6s. to �1 (Rs. 3-10), cotton robes worth 5s. to 8s. (Rs. 2�-4), cotton-silk robes worth 10s. to �2 (Rs.5-20), and striped cotton and silk for bodices worth 1s. to 6s. (Rs.�-3) the yard. These goods are sold either to wholesale dealers, who send them to Bombay and Surat, or to retail dealers in the market. They are extremely hardworking, weaving twelve to fifteen hours a day, working at night by lamp-light. They marry only among themselves, and as the women are as hardworking as the men, some of them have two or even three wives. They have a well managed union under a headman or patel chosen from the richest members, who, with the consent of the majority of the male members, fines any one who breaks their caste rules. Their manners and customs differ little from those of other Musalmans. In religion they are Sunnis of the Hanafi school, and most of the old men are said to be religious and careful to say their prayers. Their spiritual head is the representative of Khwaja Syad Hussain, the saint who converted them. He visits them yearly or once every second or third year, when they give him presents of cash and cloth. The spiritual guide, on making a new disciple, teaches him the creed and gives advice about conduct. Besides the religious and moral teaching the guide gives each of the disciples a list of his forefathers back to saint Khwaja. The disciple treats this list with the highest respect. He keeps it and values it as dearly as his life, and sometimes has it buried with him in the belief that the holy names will satisfy the angels and prevent them from torturing him in the grave. [The Musalman belief is, that after the body is buried it is brought to life and two angels, Munkir and Nakir, visit and question the dead. They ask who is his Creator and his Prophet, and what is his religion. If the dead answers that his God is the same as theirs, his Prophet is the Prophet Muhammad, and his religion is the religion of Abraham whom God saved from fire, the angels retire, and, by God's will, the grave is made a paradise in which the believer remains till the judgment day. Sinners who fail to give satisfactory answers are tortured by the angels with hell fire which ceaselessly burns them till the judgment day.] Some of them practise Hindu customs by keeping the usual Brahmanic and local festivals and offering vows to Brahmanic and local gods. Some have of late begun to teach their children Marathi and English. Besides as weavers some earn their living as constables, messengers, and servants.

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

Niralis, or Dyers, are returned as numbering 162 and as found NIRALIS. in Khed, Poona, and Junnar. They say they came into the district from Ahmadnagar seventy-five or a hundred years ago. They are divided into Chilivant or Lingayat Niralis and Maratha Niralis, who do not eat together or intermarry. The surnames of the Maratha Niralis, to whom the following particulars belong, are Ghongde, Kalaskar, Mamdekar, Mhasalkar, Misal, Nakil, and Pataskar. The names in common use among men are Balaji, Bapuji, Bhiva, Madhav, Maruti and Vithal; and among women Bhima, Radha, Rakma, Rama, Renuka, and Vithal. They are about the middle height and are strongly made, and shave the face and the head except the top-knot. Their home speech is Marathi. Most of them live in houses of the better sort, two or more storeys high, with walls of brick and tiled roofs. Their houses contain metal cooking vessels, boxes, cradles, cots, blankets, and bedding, and earthen jars for preparing colours. They sometimes keep a cow, but none keep servants either to help in their calling or for house work. They are fond of pungent dishes. They eat fish and the flesh of sheep, goats, hares, deer, and domestic fowls, and drink both country and foreign liquor. They smoke hemp flowers and tobacco and chew betelnut and leaves. Their staple food is millet bread, split pulse, vegetables and fish curry, and every now and then rice. They give caste feasts on marriages and deaths, when sugar cakes and a preparation of molasses or gulavni are made. They dress either like Marathas or Brahmans. The men wear a top-knot and moustache, but not whiskers or a beard. The women dress in a full long robe and bodice, passing the skirt of the robe between the feet and tucking it behind and drawing the upper end over the head. Their ornaments are like Maratha ornaments and are not worth more than �10 (Rs. 100). They are neat and clean, hardworking, honest, hospitable, and well-behaved. In Poona ail are dyers though in other districts most of them weave. Their women help by bringing water, pounding colours, and dyeing cloth. Their boys begin to work at sixteen, and are skilled workers at twenty, when they earn 6d. to 9d. (4-6 as.) a day. They buy dried safflower or kusumba at three to three and a half pounds the rupee, indigo or nil at two and a half to three pounds, sappan-wood or patang at five to six pounds, myrobalans or hirdas at sixteen pounds, alum or turti at seven to eight pounds, green vitriol or hirakas at four to five pounds, country alkali or sajikhar at sixteen pounds, and lime or chuna at sixteen pounds. They dye clothes dark-red or kharvi, black or kala, rose or gulabi, onion colour or pyaji, a reddish colour or abashai, red or kusumbi, blush or motiya, yellow or pivala, and green or hirva. They dye both fleeting or hatha and fast or paka colours. They charge 2s. (Re.1) for dyeing four pounds of thread a fading black and three pounds a fast black. They also dye yarns green, red, and yellow charging 2s. (Re. 1) for three to six pounds weight. To dye a turban rose they charge 2s. to 4s. (Rs. 1 -2), red 2s. to 10s. (Rs. 1-5), onion-coloured 6 d. to 2s. (Re. �-1), reddish 1s.to 8s. (Rs. � - 4), a speckled red or shidkav 1 �d. (1 a.), green 6d. to 2s. (Re. �-1), and yellow 6d. to 2s. (Re.�-1). To dye a robe rose they charge 6d. (4 as.), red 2s. (Re. 1), onion green yellow red white and reddish 6d. to 1s. (as. 4-8), and a speckled red 6d. to 1s. 3d. (4-10) as.). They make about 3d. to 6d. (2-4 as.) on every 2s. (Re.1) worth of colour they use. Their busy times are the Hindu festivals of Shimga in March, Dasara in October, and Divali in November; and the movable Musalman feast of Moharram. They worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses, and their family deities are Khandoba of Jejuri and Bhavani of Tuljapur. Their priests are Deshasth Brahmans, who officiate at their births marriages and deaths. They make pilgrimages to Alandi, Jejuri, Pandharpur Tuljapur, and Benares. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, sooth-saying, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. On the fifth day after the birth of a child they worship a grindstone placing on it five lemons, five pomegranate buds, and a lighted dough lamp. On the tenth day the mother is purified and on the eleventh the child is cradled and named, when sweetmeats are served among friends and kinspeople. They marry their girls before they come of age, and their boys before they are twenty-five. They allow child and widow marriage and polygamy; polyandry is unknown. 

When a Nirali dies his body' is covered with a white sheet and flowers are sprinkled over it. They do not cover the bodies of married women with a shroud but dress them in a yellow robe, and sprinkle turmeric and flowers over them. Pounded betel is laid in the dead mouth, and the body is carried to the burning ground, where it is either burnt or buried. They have a caste council and settle social disputes at meetings of the castemen. They send their boys to school. They are a poor people, and com-plain that their calling suffers from the competition of European dyes. Since the famine of 1876 and 1877 they say many people-wear white instead of dyed cloth, or dye their turbans seldomer than before.

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

NIRALIS, found only in Sinnar and Yeola, are said to have been indigo-sellers and to have come from Khandesh and Nagar about a century ago. About middle height, somewhat slightly made, and brown-skinned, the men shave the face and the head except the top-knot. Their home speech is Marathi, and both men and women dress in ordinary Maratha fashion. They are clean in their habits, and as debtors hare a high name for honesty. The decline in the demand for Khandesh indigo forced them to give up their old trade. They are now hand-loom wearers and from the competition of machine-made cloth are very poorly off. Though they have no religious feeling against animal food they eat flesh only at marriages. They seem to be partly Lingayats, accosting their oastefellows by the word Sharnath and returning the salutation in the words Shiv Sharnath. [The word Sharnath seems to be a corruption of the Sanskrit sharanartha, from sharan protection or refuge and artha object.] On the tenth day after birth sweetmeats are distributed among friends and relations. Both girls and boys are married after they are nine years old. Widow marriage under the Gandharva or Mohotur form is allowed. When a man dies the body is covered with flowers and sandal and perfume, gandh, and it is dressed in a new waist cloth. A woman's body is adorned with turmeric and saffron, and a folded betel-leaf is laid in the mouth. They never. bury their dead. They worship Mahadev and Bhavani, and keep the Pradosh and Shivratra fasts in honour of Shiv. Social disputes are settled by a committee whose decision is final. They send their boys to school.

Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Ahmednagar District Gazetteer(1884))

Nira'lis, properly Nilaris or Indigo-dyers, are returned as numbering 1206, and as found all over the district and in large numbers in towns. They have no memory of any former home or of their first settling in the district. They seem to be Maratha Kunbis and to have separated from the main body of their caste when they took to dyeing. The names in common use among men are Aba, Balaji, Dada, Dhondi, Eknath, Ganpati, Isaba, Jijaba, Shankar, and Vithu; and among women, Changuna, Kasai, Manjula, Saku, and Rakhmai. Men add appa or father, and women add bai or lady and ai or mother to their names. Their surnames are Bhumkar, Kadarkar, Kalaskar, Kurandi, Mishal, Nakde, Nehulkar Patankar, and Pingre. Persons bearing the same surname cannot intermarry. Their family gods are Bahiroba of Sonari in Ahmadnagar, Devi of Tuljapur in the Nizam's country, Kalkadevi of Ahmadnagar, and Khandoba of Jejuri in Poona. 

They are dark strong and well-built like the local Kunbis, but Niralis can readily be known by their black-stained hands. They speak a corrupt Marathi both at home and abroad, and live in one-storeyed houses with mud walls and tiled or flat roofs. Their house goods include low stools, blankets quilts, and metal vessels. They prepare their food and colours, in earthen vessels, own cattle, and keep servants to help them. They are great eaters and poor cooks, and their staple food is millet bread, pulse, chopped chillies, and vegetables. They eat flesh and drink liquor. They bathe daily and worship their house gods before their morning meal. On marriages and deaths they feast their friends and relations. Their special dishes are the same as those of Maratha Kunbis. Men shave the head except the top-knot and grow the moustache and beard; women tie the hair into a back-knot and use neither false hair nor flowers. Men dress in a waistcloth, a shouldercloth, a coat, a Maratha turban, and shoes or sandals. Women dress in a Maratha robe and a bodice with short sleeves and a back. Both men and women wear ornaments like those of Kunbis and have a store of clothes for special ceremonies. As a class they are clean, hardworking, orderly, honest, frugal, and hospitable. 

They are hereditary dyers, the women helping the men in pounding the colours and dyeing the cloth. Many Niralis are weavers of robes and shouldercloths, and are well-to-do. They work from morning to evening like Koshtis with a rest for dinner at noon. Their calling is well paid. Their business is brisk in the fair season and slack during the rains. Those who dye are specially busy during the great Hindu and Musalman festivals. They rank below Kunbis and above the impure classes. They worship their family gods with sandal paste and flowers, and have much reverence for local and boundary gods. They keep all Hindu fasts and feasts, and ask the local Brahmans to conduct their, marriages and deaths. They are Smarts and make pilgrimages to Alandi, Benares, Jejuri, and Tuljapur. They believe in witchcraft soothsaying and sorcery, and allow and practise widow-marriage polygamy and child-marriage. Their customs do not differ from those of Maratha Kunbis. They have a caste council and settle social disputes under the guidance of the council. They send their children to school and take to new pursuits. They are a steady class.

Reference: Link to Maharashtra Gazetteers (Ahmednagar District Gazetteer(1884))

Na'mdev Shimpis, or Namdev Tailors, are returned as numbering 834, and as found scattered over the district in small numbers. They claim descent from Namdev Shimpi the famous devotee of Vithoba of Pandharpur who died about 1300. [Namdev, one of the oldest Maratha poets, was a contemporary of Jnyandev who died about A.D, 1300. His father's name was Damasheti and his mother's Gonai, of the Shimpi or tailor caste. They continued childless late in life, and, in the hope of getting a child, took to the worship of Vithoba of Pandharpur, who was then not much known. According to one tradition Damasheti while returning from the Bhima, where he chanced to bathe before'his morning meal, found a boy of twelve whom he brought home and reared as his son. According to his own account Namdev was the eldest child of Gonai. From his boyhood Namdev was a constant worshipper at the temple of Vithoba and cared nothing for the world. He was always absorbed in his godly thoughts. For his dreamy unpractical ways he was often scolded by his mother and by his wife Rajai. He used to put a wreath of tulsi beads round his neck, and sing his verses or abhangs in praise of Vithoba, himself playing an accompaniment on cymbals or tals. The present practise of accompanying songs in honour of Vithoba with one drum and cymbals, and of visiting Vithoba's shrine at Pandharpur in A'shadh or July and Kartik or October, are said to owe their origin to Namdev. The date of his death is not known, but as he wrote on the death of his friend Jnyandev, he cannot have died before A.D. 1300. He was a fluent writer and is said to have composed several thousand verses or abhangs. It was Tukaram, the great moral poet of the seventeenth century, who made Namdev's writings popular. Namdev's style is pure smooth and easy, and though not pointed often insinuates satire. His writings give much prominence to faith or bhakti, and his works are full of an unselfish love of god and man, All classes of Hindus honour Namdev's name.] They are said to have come into the district from Poona and Bombay. The names in common use among men are Nama, Pandoba, Ramkrishna, Vithoba, and Yashavant; and among women Bhagirathi, Gangi, Rahi, and Rakhmai. Women add bai or lady, jiji or madam, mai or mother, and tai or sister to their names, and men shet or merchant to theirs. Their surnames are Avasare, Bagade, Bakare, Barber, Bartake, Basale, Choke, Dare, Denthe, Ganchare, Gote, Gujar, Indre, Jachav, Javalkar, Kalas, Kalasekar,Kale, Kambale, Karangkar, Kavitkar, Khedkar, Khokale, Kolhe, Kumthekar, Lachake, Litake, Mahadik, Malvade, Mete, Nevaskar,Nikhal, Padalkar, Parpate, Phutane, Pote, Sarode, Sarolkar, Sayad, Sindekar, Tikar, Upare, Uredkar, Vade, Vachrane, and Vahutre. Persons with the same surname cannot intermarry. Their family gods are Devi of Tuljapur in the Nizam's country and Saptashring in Nasik, Khandoba of Jejuri in Poona, and Vithoba of Pandharpur in Sholapur. They have no divisions and belong to the Shandilya and Mahendra family stocks. Members of the same family stock cannot intermarry. Like local Kunbis they are dark, strong, and well made. Both in-doors and out of doors they speak broad Marathi. Their dwellings, food, and drink do not differ from those of Kunbis. The men wear a waistcloth, a shouldercloth, a coat, and a Brahman or Maratha turban. They shave the head except the top-knot, and the face except the moustache and whiskers. The women tie the hair in a back-knot and deck it with flowers and false hair, and are fond of gay colours; they dress in a bodice with a back and short sleeves, and a long Maratha robe with the skirt passed back between the feet and fastened to the waist. Both men and women have a store of fine clothes and ornaments like those of Kunbis for special ceremonies and great occasions. They are clean, neat, hardworking, orderly, thrifty, and hospitable, but have a bad name for cheating, as the Marathi proverb says, My friend have no dealings with the goldsmith, the tailor, the trader, or Mister village accountant. [The Marathi runs: Sonar, Shimpi, Kulkarni Appa, hyanchi sangat nakore bapa. The tailor probably spoiled his name by cutting away bits of the cloth sent to him to make up.] Their chief and hereditary calling is needlework, but some deal in cloth and others are servants. None work as labourers. The women mind the house and help the men in their needle work. They rise early and set to work; stop at noon and dine and rest till two; work till nine, sup, and retire for the night. Their trade is brisk at all times of the year and they never close their shops. Their calling is well paid but they run in debt by spending more than they can afford on marriage and other ceremonies. They rank below Brahmans and Kunbis. A family of five spends 16s. to �1 (Rs. 8 -10) a month. They worship all Brahmanic gods like Kunbis and hold Vithoba of Pandharpur in special reverence. Like their great ancestor Namdev they belong to the Vaishnav or Bhagvat sect, wear necklaces of tulsi or sweet basil beads, and every year visit Pandharpur in Sholapur on the lunar elevenths or ekadashis of Ashadh or July - August and of Kartik or October-November. They keep the usual Hindu holidays and fasts, and believe in witchcraft, soothsaying, and evil spirits. Child marriage, polygamy, and widow marriage are allowed and practised, polyandry is unknown. On the fifth night after a birth a silver image of Satvai is placed on a stone slab or pata, with a knife and a sickle, and the women of the house lay before it pomegranate flowers, five kinds of fruit, betel, turmeric paste, and vermilion, and an embossed figure of the goddess with a string passed through it is tied round the child's neck. During the first three days after its birth the babe is made to suck one end of a rag dipped in a saucer of honey mixed with castor-oil, and on the fourth the mother begins to suckle it. She is fed with rice and clarified butter for the first ten days. The impurity caused by child-birth lasts twelve days. On the thirteenth the mother worships five stones on the road in the name of Satvai laying before them flowers, thread, dry dates, cocoanuts, betel, and rice mixed with curds. The midwife is presented with a robe, a bodice, and cash, her lap is filled with rice, three cocoanuts, betel, turmeric root, and a packet of vermilion, and new glass bangles are put round her wrists. The mother's women friends and relations are asked to the house and name and cradle the child. Boiled gram or ghugri and betel are served and the guests withdraw. 

Boys are married between ten and twenty-five and girls before they come of age. The offer of marriage as a rule comes from the boy's father, who, at the betrothal, presents the girl with a robe and bodice and silver anklets or valas, marks her brow with vermilion in the presence of specially invited caste people and hands her a packet of sweetmeats. Betel is served and the boy's father is dined. The two fathers meet at an astrologer's who compares the horoscopes and fixes a lucky day for the marriage. The caste are asked, and the couple are rubbed with turmeric paste at their homes by women who bear certain names fixed as lucky by a Brahman priest. From the girl's turmeric paste is sent to the boy's in a dining dish, and the dish is sent back filled with undas or cakes stuffed with boiled pulse and molasses. The marriage guardian or devak is a pair of scissors, some needles, and the measuring rod or gaj. These the parents or some elderly married couple take to the temple of the local Maruti, lay them before the god with a dish filled with rice, pulse, flour, sugar, and betel, bring them home, and tie them to the mango branch which forms one of the posts of the marriage porch. As the lucky time draws near, the girl's father with music and friends goes to the boy's, presents him with clothes, and brings him to his house on horseback with music in front and friends and kinspeople behind. The pair, on whom their maternal uncles wait, are made to stand face to face in the booth with a curtain held between them by Brahman priests who sing verses. At the lucky moment the curtain is drawn aside and yellow and red rice is showered on the pair. The bride and bridegroom do not throw flower-wreaths round each other's necks. They attend to the sacred fire which is lit by the priest on the marriage altar or bahule. The bridegroom's mother is respectfully asked to the bride's; she comes, takes the bride on her lap, and makes her drink a cup of milk mixed with sugar. This is the sunmukh darshan or seeing the daughter-in-law's face. Next morning the bridegroom goes out to ease himself when music and a company of friends wait on him. On his return he is bathed in warm water. Friends and kinspeople are asked to dine with the bridegroom, and the phal or lap-filling is performed by filling the bride's lap with rice, turmeric root, five fruits, cocoanut, and betel. The bridegroom, with music and friends takes the bride to his house, where the maternal uncles perform the jhenda or war dance by lifting the bride and bridegroom on their shoulders, dancing in a circle, and beating each other with wheat cakes. The house women fill a dish or tali with rice, cocoanut, and betel in honour of Khandoba of Jejuri, and an odd number of men not less than three take up the dish with shouts of Sadanand Elkot, that is Thy favour, Oh Elkot or Khandoba. [Elkot is supposed to mean the leader of erores of spirits.] Betel is served and the guests withdraw. Contrary to the practise among local Brahmans and Kunbis, Shimpi girls do not get a new name from their husbands but keep the name which was given them as babes. When a girl comes of age she sits apart for three days, and is bathed on the fourth. Her lap is filled with rice turmeric and a cocoanut, her brow is marked with vermilion and she is decked with flowers. Kinsmen are feasted and the girl goes to live with her husband. 

Like local Kunbis they burn the dead and mourn ten days. When the body is consumed the funeral party bathe, visit the temple of the village Maruti, and return to the house of mourning, each with a small nim branch in his hand. At the house of mourning they dip the nim twig in a saucer of cow's urine and purify themselves by sprinkling a little cow urine on their heads. They mark their brows with ashes and go home. According to the chief mourner's means the after-death rites last one to ten days or on the tenth day only. The details differ little from those observed by Kunbis. The death-day is marked by a mind feast or shraddh and the dead is remembered on the day corresponding to the death-day in the Mahalaya Paksha in dark Bhadrapad or September. They are bound together by a strong caste feeling and settle social disputes at caste meetings. Breaches of rules are punished with fine or suspension of caste privileges, and enforced on pain of loss of caste. They send their boys to school. They do not take to new pursuits and are fairly off.

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

Ota'ris, or Casters, are returned as numbering 109. and as found in Haveli, Bhimthadi, Maval, Khed, Purandhar, and the city of Poona. They say they are Kshatriyas and that their origin is given in the Padmapuran. They came into the district about two hundred years ago from Satara. They have no divisions. Their surnames are Ahir, Bedre, Dhangar, Gotpagar, Magarghat, and Mhadik. Marriage between people with the same surname is forbidden. The names in common use among men are Bhagaji, Chingapa, Eknath, Krishna, Ramji and Trimak; and among women Chandrabhaga, Kondabai, Muktabai, and Umabai. Otaris look like cultivating Marathas and speak Marathi. They live in ordinary middle-class houses with mud walls and tiled roofs, paying a monthly rent of 6d. to 2s. (Re. 1/4-1). Their staple food is millet bread, pulse, and vegetables including chillies of which they are very fond. They occasionally eat rice and fish, and the flesh of sheep, goats, hares, deer, and domestic fowls, and on Dasara Day in October they offer a goat to Ambabai of Tuljapur. It is the cost not religious scruples that prevents them regularly using animal food. They drink both country and foreign liquor, smoke tobacco and hemp, and some take opium. Liquor-drinking and smoking are said to be on the increase. The men wear a Maratha turban, waistcoat, coat, waistcloth, and shouldercloth, and mark their brow with sandal. The women wear a bodice and the full robe with the skirt passed back between the feet. They rub their brows with redpowder, but do not use false hair or deck their hair with flowers. Their ornaments are either of silver or of queensmetal. They wear the nosering called nath, the bracelets called got, and the anklets called jodvis. They are hardworking but drunken, and their chief calling is the making of the queensmetal noserings or jodvis which are generally worn by Maratha, Burud, Mhar, and other low-class or poor women. A few of them make molten images of Hindu gods. Their women help them in their calling, preparing earthen moulds Or saches, blowing the bellows, and hawking the toe-rings. Boys begin to help at twelve or fourteen, and are expert workers at eighteen or twenty. The men hawk the toe-rings or jodvis from door to door and from village to village, or squat about the roadside, as they cannot afford to open regular shops. Their work is not constant, and they have no regular hours. They rest on full-moons and no-moons. They buy the queensmetal from coppersmiths or Kasars at the rate of 6d. to 7�d. the pound (8-10 as. the sher) and sell them to wholesale dealers at 1s. to 1 �s. the pound (Rs. 1 to 1 � the sher). The retail price of toe-rings or jodvis is 1 �d. to 3d, (1-2 as.) a pair for a girl and 3d. to 6d. (2-4 as.) for a woman. They buy from Gujarat Vanis broken or modi brass, borax or savagi, charcoal, pewter or jast, and kathil or tin. The rates are, borax. 10�d. to 1s. 1 �d. (7-9 as.) the pound, charcoal twenty to twenty-five pounds the rupee, pewter four to six pounds the rupee, tin 2s. (Re. 1) a pound, and old brass 10�d. to 1s. (7-8 as.) a pound. They keep the mixture which they use secret. The details are said to be a pound of old brass, one-eighth of a pound of pewter, and two tolas of tin. Their tools are a hammer or hatodi worth 1 �d. to 3d. (1-2 as.), pincers or sandsi worth 3d to 1s. 3d. (2-10 as.), a file or karas 9d. to 1s. 6d. (6-12 as), a rod or danda worth �d. (� a.), and a file or reti worth about 1s. (8 as.). They carry about the toe-rings or jodvis for sale hung on an iron ring or leather band which holds about ninety-six rings. They are said to suffer from the competition of Marathas and goldsmiths who have no gold or silver work. They consider themselves higher than Shudras, and say they eat only from Brahmans, Lingayats, and Gujarat Vanis. They cannot tell whether they are Shaivs or Vaishnavs. Their family goddess is Kalkadevi of Paithan. They have house images and worship Bahiroba, Bhairji, Bhavani, Dhanai, Janai, Khandoba, Maruti, and Nagji. Their family priests are the Ordinary Deshasth Brahmans to whom they pay great respect. They make pilgrimages to Alandi, Jejuri, and Kondanpur. Their fasts and feasts are Makarsankrant in December-January, Shivratra in January-February, Holi in February-March, Gudipadva in March-April, Dasara in September-October, Divali in October-November, and the lunar elevenths or ekadashis in June-July and October-November. When a child is born its navel cord is cut by the midwife who is paid 9d. to 2.s. (Re. � - 1). The mother and child are bathed and the navel cord is laid in an earthen jar, turmeric and redpowder are sprinkled over it, and the jar is buried somewhere in the house. For the first two days the child is fed on honey and castor oil and the mother on rice and butter. On the fifth red lines are traced on a wall and under the lines is laid a stone slalb or pata. On the slab are placed the knife with which the child's navel cord was cut and rice pulse and cakes are offered. On the evening of the twelfth any the child is named by the women of the house, and five to seven pebbles are laid in a row and worshipped by the mother The child is brought before the pebbles as the representatives of the goddess Satvai and the mother begs them to grant the child a long life. The naming ends by offeing the goddess a dish of cakes or puran-polis. The hair-clipping take place between the second and the twelfth year, when a dinner of cakes or puran-polis is given. 

Betrothing or sakharpuda the gift of a sugar-cake takes place a couple of weeks to a couple of year before marriage, when the girl is presented with a robe and bodice-The boy and the girl are rubbed with turmeric at their houses two or three days before the marriage and a robe or patal and a green-coloured bodice are presented to the girl. On the following day the marriage gods or devkaryas are installed, when a circular bamboo basket or durdi and a winnowing fan are worshipped near the house gods. On the evening of the marriage day, the boy is seated on horseback, and, accompanied by kinspeople and music, takes his seat at the temple of Maruti in the girl's village. His brother goes on to the girl's house and reports the bridegroom's arrival at the temple. The brother is given a turban, and the men and women of the bride's house, with a suit of clothes for the boy, go with him to Maruti's temple. The boy is presented with the clothes, generally a turban and sash, and is carried in procession to the girl's house. Before he enters the marriage hall, an elderly woman waves a lemon or a cocoanut round his head and dashes it on the ground. The boy is taken into the marriage ball and set facing the girl, a cloth is held between them, the Brahman priest repeats verses and throws rice over their heads, and they are husband and wife. They are seated on the altar and the sacrificial fire is lit and fed with butter and parched grain. A feast closes the day. On the following day the boy goes to his house on horseback with his bride in procession accompanied by kinspeople and music and a second feast ends the marriage. 

When an Otari is on the point of death, Ganges Water or the five cow-gifts are laid in his mouth and he is told to repeat Ram's name. In the dying man's name money is given in charity to Brahman and other beggars. When he is dead hot water is poured on the body, and he is laid on a bier and carried to the burning ground on the shoulders of four men. The chief mourner walks in front of the bier holding a fire-pot. About half-way to the burning ground the bier is set on the ground, a Copper coin is laid at the roadside and covered with pebbles, and the bearers changing places carry the body to the burning ground, dip the bier into a river or pond, and place the body on the pile. The chief mourner walks thrice round the pile carrying an earthen water-pot full of water, dashes it on the ground, beats his mouth, and sets fire to the pile. When the body is burnt, the mourners bathe and go borne. On the third day they go to the burning ground, taking the five cow-gifts, three earthen jars and a cake, and, throwing the ashes into the river or pond, put the bones in an earthen jar and bury them. After ten days' mourning the bones are allowed to remain buried, or they are thrown into water, or they are taken and buried or Benares, Nasik, or some other sacred spot. The chief mourner sprinkles the five cow-gifts on the spot where me deceased was burnt, and setting three jars filled with water and bread for the deceased to eat, returns home. They mourn ten days, and feast the caste on the twelfth or thirteenth. One of the nearest relations presents the chief mourner with a new turban. He puts on the turban, is taken to the village temple, bows to the god, and returns home. The Otaris are bound together as a body, and have a headman called patil who settles social disputes in consultation with the members of the caste. They do not send their boys to school nor take to new pursuits. As a class they are poor.

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

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

Parits, or Washermen, are returned as numbering 6175 and as found over the whole district. They are divided into Marathi, Konkani, Pardeshi, and Kamathi Parits, who neither eat together nor intermarry. Among Marathi washermen the surnames and the names of, both men and women are the same as those used by Maratha Kunbis, and Marathi Parits do not differ from Marathi Kunbis in look, speech, house, dress, or character. 

Their religious and social customs are also the same. Parits generally wear articles of dress which have been sent them to be washed as the proverb says, The show is the washerman's, the clothes are another's. [The Marathi runs: Paritacha daul dusaryache panghrunavar.] Their hereditary work is washing clothes. They wash outside the village in some river or pond and charge 5/8 d. to 2�d. (�-1� as.) for each piece, or double and treble this rate if they are new clothes. They are paid in cash or in grain either when they bring back the clothes, or once a month, or once a year. In washing their clothes they use papadkhar or impure carbonate of soda, saban or soap, nil or indigo, and kanji or rice-starch. To wash one hundred pieces requires about one pound of soda, a quarter of a pound of soap, one tola or 210 grains of indigo, and one and a quarter pounds of starch. Their appliances are an istari or iron costing 10s. to �4 (Rs. 5-40), a satil or copper vessel costing 10s. to �2 (Rs. 5 - 20), and a mogara or wooden hammer worth about 1s. (8 as.). They are helped by their women and children in collecting clothes, drying them, and giving them back to their owners. 

A family of fire spends �1 to �1 4s. (Ra. 10-12) a month on food, and nothing on clothes as they wear clothes that are sent them to wash. A house costs �10 to �20 (Rs. 100-200) to build, and the furniture is worth �3 to �10 (Rs. 30 - 100). A birth costs about 4s. (Rs.2), a hair-clipping 2s. to 6s. (Rs. 1 - 3), a marriage �5 to �15 (Rs. 5-150), and a death 10s. to �1 (Rs. 5-10). They do not send their boys to school, and are a steady people.

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))

Patharvats, or Masons, are returned as numbering 309 and as found all over the district. They are divided into Maratha, Kamathi, and Telangi Patharvats who do not eat together or intermarry. The surnames of the Marathas are Ambekar, Barnaik, Chaphe, Hinge, Holekar, Khage, Lugad, Eandeve, and Sape; and families bearing the same surnames do not intermarry. The names in common use among men are Bhau, Shivba, Tukaram, and Vennunath; and among women Chandrabhaga, Lakshmi, Saka, and Savitri. They are dark middle-sized and strong. The men wear the top-knot moustache and whiskers, but not the beard. They speak Marathi and live in houses with mud and brick walls and tiled roofs. They eat fish and flesh and drink liquor, but not at their caste-feasts. Both men and women dress like Marathas. They are clean, hardworking, frugal, orderly, and hospitable. They are stone-masons and carvers and make excellent images of gods and of animals, hand-mills, grindstones, and rolling pins Their hand-mills cost 1s. to 2s. (Re.�-1), grindstones 1 �d. to 4 �d. (1-3 aw.), rolling pins 3/8d. to �d. (�-� a.), and cups called kundyas or dagadyds �d. to 3d. (1-2 as.). As foremen or mestris they draw �1 10s. to �2 (Rs. 15 - 20) a month, and as day-workers 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.) a day. Their women do not help in their work, but boys of fifteen to twenty earn 14s. to 16s. (Rs. 7-8) a month. They worship the usual Brahmanic gods and goddesses, and their family gods are Khandoba of Jejuri and Kevis of Tuljapur and Khondan- par. Their priests either belong to their own caste or are Deshasth Brahmans. They make pilgrimages to Alandi, Benares, Jejuri, and Pandharpur, and their fasts and feasts are the same as those of Maratha Kunbis. They believe in sorcery, witchcraft, soothsaying, omens, and lucky and unlucky days, and consult oracles. They worship the goddess Satvai on the fifth day after a child is born, and name the child on the twelfth, the name being given by the paternal aunt. Before the child is two years old, it is laid on its maternal uncle's knee and its hair is clipped. They gird their boys with the sacred thread at the time of marriage, and marry their girls before they are eleven and their boys before they are fifteen. Except that during the ceremony the boy and the girl are each made to stand in a bamboo basket their marriage does not differ from a Maratha marriage. They allow widow marriage, but never celebrate them except at night and in lonely places. The man and woman are sented in a line on two high wooden stools, garlands are thrown round their necks, and red and turmeric powder are rubbed on their brows. The hems of their garments are tied together and grains of rice are thrown over their heads, and they are married. They are left together for the night and after a bath return to the husband's house. They burn their dead, hold caste meetings, and are a steady class.

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

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

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.

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

Pathans are found all over the district. They claim descent from the Afghan mercenaries and military leaders who conquered or took service in the Deccan, but most of them are probably descended from local converts who took the name of their leader. The men are tall or of middle height, well made, and dark or of olive colour. They shave the head, wear the beard full, and dress in a turban or headscarf, a shirt, a waistcoat, and a pair of tight trousers. The women, who are like the men in face, wear the Hindu robe and bodice, but neither add to the family income, nor appear in public. Both men and women are neat and clean in their habits. The men are husbandmen, soldiers, constables, servants, and messengers; and are hardworking and thrifty. They do not observe Hindu customs, or differ from other Musalmans in their practices. They have no special class organization, and marry either among themselves or take wives from the Shaikhs and other classes of the main body. They respect and obey the Kazi, and employ him to register their marriages, and to settle their social disputes. They teach their boys Hindustani and Marathi, and of late years some have begun to send their boys to English schools.

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

Pinja'ra's, or Cotton-cleaners, are found in small numbers in some of the larger towns. They are said to be descended from local Hindus of the same class and trace their conversion to Aurangzib. The men are either tall or of middle height, thin, and dark. They shave the head, wear the beard full, and dress in a Kunbi turban, a tight jacket, and a waistcloth. The women have the same cast of face as the men. They wear the Maratha robe and bodice and appear in public, but do not help the men in their work. Both men and women are dirty and untidy. Though hardworking and thrifty, the cotton cleaners are much scrimped for food and have been reduced to poverty by the ruin of local hand-spinning caused by the cheapness of English, Bombay, and Sholapur machine-spun yarn. Their sole occupation now is teasing cotton for mattresses and pillows. They walk the streets from morning to evening twanging the string of their harp-like cotton teaser some times earning 6d. to 1s. (4-8 as.) and sometimes going home without a farthing. Many have left their craft and found employment as constables, messengers, and servants. They marry among themselves, but have no class union and no headman. Their manners and customs differ little from those of other Musalmans. They obey and respect the Kazi, and employ him to register their marriages and settle their disputes. They do not Bend their boys to school, and are falling in numbers and condition.