The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Part 33

_Dhangar_.--(A farmservant.) Synonym of Oraon.

_Dhanka_.--Perhaps a variant for Dhangar. Subcaste of Oraon.

_Dhanoj_, _Dhanoje_.--(From _dhangar_, a shepherd.) Subcaste of Are and Kunbi.

_Dhanpagar_.--(One serving for a pittance of paddy.) A section of Teli.

_Dhanuhar_.--(A corrupt form of Dha.n.u.sdhar or a holder of a bow.) Synonym of Dhanwar.

_Dhanuk_.--(A bowman.) A caste. A subcaste of Mehtar.

_Dha.n.u.shban_.--(Bow and arrow.) A sept of Kawar.

_Dharampuria_.--(Resident of Dharampur.) Subcaste of Dhobi.

_Dhare_.--t.i.tle of Gowari.

_Dhari_.--A subcaste of Banjara. They are the bards of the caste.

_Dharkar_.--Subcaste of Basor.

_Dharmik_.--(Religious or virtuous.) A subcaste of Mahar and Maratha.

_Dhed_.--Synonym for Mahar.

_Dhengar_.--A subcaste of Bharewa (Kasar) and Gadaria.

_Dhera_. [440]--A small Telugu caste of weavers, the bulk of whom reside in the Sonpur State, transferred to Bengal in 1905. The Dheras were brought from Orissa by the Raja of Sonpur to make clothes for the images of the G.o.ds, which they also claim to be their privilege in Puri. Their exogamous groups are named after animals, plants or other objects, and they practise totemism. The members of the Surya or sun group will not eat during an eclipse. Those of the Nalla (black) sept will not wear black clothes. Those of the Bansethi and Bha.n.a.la septs will not use the _bandi_, a kind of cart from which they consider their name to be derived. The Otals take their name from _utti_, a net, from which pots are hung, and they will not use this net. Those of the Gunda sept, who take their name from _gunda_, a bullet, will not eat any game shot with a gun. Marriage within the sept is prohibited, but the Dheras always, where practicable, arrange the marriage of a boy with his maternal uncle's daughter. Even in childhood the members of such families address each other as brother-in-law and sister-in-law. When the bridegroom and bride go home after the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom's sister bars the door of the house and will not let them in until they have severally promised to give her their daughter for her son. A girl must be married before arriving at adolescence on pain of permanent exclusion from the caste. If a suitable husband has not therefore been found when the period approaches, the parents marry the girl to her elder sister's husband or any other married man. She is not bound to enter into conjugal relations with the man to whom she is thus united, and with his consent she may be consequently married to any other man in the guise of a widow. If a bachelor takes such a girl to wife, he must first be married to a _sahara_ tree (_Streblus asper_). When a betrothal is arranged, an elderly member of the bridegroom's family proceeds to the bride's house and asks her people three times in succession whether the betrothal is arranged, and at each reply in the affirmative ties a knot in his cloth. He then goes home and in the bridegroom's house solemnly unties the knots over another cloth which is spread on the ground. This cloth is then considered to contain the promises and it is wrapped up and carefully put away to keep them as if they were material objects.

_Dherha_.--(Brother-in-law or paternal aunt's husband.) t.i.tle of Kharia.

_Dhimar_.--A caste. Subcaste of Kori.

_Dhimra_.--Synonym for Dhimar.

_Dhobi_.--The caste of washermen. A sept of Bharia and Bhaina.

_Dhokhede_.--One of doubtful parentage. A sept of Teli.

_Dholewar_.--(From _dhola_, a drum.) A subcaste of Bhoyar and Gaoli. A section of Basor.

_Dholi_.--(A minstrel.) Subcaste of Bhat.

_Dhubela_.--Origin perhaps from the Dhobi caste. Subcaste of Basor.

_Dhulbajia_.--(From _dhol_, a drum.) A subcaste of Chamar, also known as Daijania.

_Dhulia_, _Dholin_, _Dholi_.--(A player on a _dhol_ or drum.) Synonym for the Basor caste. A subcaste of Gond in Chanda and Betul. A subcaste of Mahar.

_Dhunak Pathan_.--Synonym for Bahna.

_Dhunia_.--(From _dhunna_, to card cotton.) Synonym for Bahna.

_Dhunka_.--(A cotton-cleaner.) Subcaste of Kadera.

_Dhur Gond_.--(From _dhur_, dust.) A subcaste of Gonds. They are also known as Rawanvansi or descendants of Rawan.

_Dhuri_.--A caste of grain-parchers. A subcaste of Dhimar.

_Dhuria_.--Subcaste of Nagasia and Dhimar. They are so called because they mark the forehead of the bride with dust (_dhur_) taken from the sole of the bridegroom's foot.

_Dhurwa_.--The word may be derived from _dhur_, dust. Dhur is a name given to the body of Gonds as opposed to the Raj-Gonds. One of the commonest septs of Gonds. A sept of Baiga, Kolta, Kalar and Nat. A t.i.tle of Parja.

_Dhusar_.--Subcaste of Bania.

_Dhusia_.--Subcaste of Murha.

_Digambari_.--A sect of Jain Banias who do not clothe their idols and apply saffron to their feet. Also a cla.s.s of Bairagis or religious mendicants.

_Diharia_ or _Kisan_.--(One who lives in a village or a cultivator.). Subcaste of Korwa.

_Dikhit_, _Diks.h.i.+t_, _Dixit_.--(The Initiator.) A subcaste of Brahman. A clan of Rajputs of the solar race formerly dominant in the United Provinces.

_Dila_.--(A pointed stick tied to a calf's mouth to prevent him from sucking.) A totemistic sept of Kawar. They do not use a stick in this manner. A section of Ahir.

_Dillawal_.--A subcaste of Kasar. Those belonging to or coming from Delhi.

_Dingkuchia_.--(One who castrates cattle and ponies.) Subcaste of Ghasia.

_Dipawalia_.--(One who supplies oil for the lamps at Diwali.) A sept of Teli.

_Dipbans_.--(Son of the lamp.) t.i.tle of Teli.

_Diwan_.--t.i.tle of the members of the Dahait caste committee.

_Dixit_.--See Dikhit.

_Dobaile_.--(One who yokes two bullocks to the oil-press.) Subcaste of Telis in the Nagpur country.

_Dobisya_.--(Two score.) Subcaste of Halwai.

_Doda_ or _Dor_.--One of the thirty-six royal races of Rajputs.

_Dogle_.--Name applied to Kayasths of illegitimate descent.

_Dohor_. [441]--A small caste of Berar, who are really Chamars; in the Central Provinces the Dohors are a well-known subcaste of Chamars, but in Berar they appear to have obtained a separate name, under which about 6000 persons were returned in 1911. They work in leather like the Chamars or Mochis. With the ambition of bettering their social status among the Hindus the caste strictly observe the sanct.i.ty of animal life. No Dohor may molest an animal or even pelt it with stones. A man who sells a cow or bullock to butchers is put out of caste, but if he repents and gets the animal back before it is slaughtered, a fine of Rs. 5 only is imposed. If, on the other hand, the animal is killed, the culprit must give his daughter in marriage without taking any price from the bridegroom, and must feed the whole caste and pay a fine of Rs. 50, which is expended on liquor. Failing this he is expelled from the community. Similarly the Pardes.h.i.+ Dohors rigidly enforce infant-marriage. If a girl is not married before she is ten her family are fined and put out of caste until the fine is paid. And if the girl has leprosy or any other disease, which prevents her from getting married, a similar penalty is imposed on the family. Nevertheless the Dohors are considered to be impure and are not allowed to enter Hindu temples; the village barber does not shave them nor the washerman wash their clothes. A bachelor desiring to marry a widow must first perform the ceremony with a _rui_ or cotton-tree. But such a union is considered disgraceful; the man himself must pay a heavy fine to get back into caste, and his children are considered as partly illegitimate and must marry with the progeny of similar unions. Either husband or wife can obtain a divorce by a simple application to the caste _panchayat_, and a divorced woman can marry again as a widow. The caste offer sheep and goats to their deities and wors.h.i.+p the animals before killing them. At Dasahra they also pay reverence to the skinning-knife, and the needle with which shoes are sewn. The caste burn the bodies of those who die married and bury the unmarried. Before setting out for a funeral they drink liquor and again on their return, and a little liquor is sprinkled over the grave. When a man has been cremated his ashes are taken and thrown into a river on the third day. The chief mourner, after being shaved by his brother-in-law, takes the hair with some copper coins in his hand and, diving into the river, leaves them there as an offering to the dead man's spirit.

_Dolia_.--(Palanquin-bearer.) A section of Dhimar.