_Agharia_ [4] (a corruption of Agaria, meaning one who came from
Agra).--A cultivating caste belonging to the Sambalpur District [5]
and adjoining States. They number 27,000 persons in the Raigarh and
Sarangarh States and Bilaspur District of the Central Provinces,
and are found also in some of the Chota Nagpur States transferred
from Bengal. According to the traditions of the Agharias their
forefathers were Rajputs who lived near Agra. They were accustomed
to salute the king of Delhi with one hand only and without bending
the head. The king after suffering this for a long time determined
to punish them for their contumacy, and summoned all the Agharias to
appear before him. At the door through which they were to pass to his
presence he fixed a sword at the height of a man's neck. The haughty
Agharias came to the door, holding their heads high and not seeing
the sword, and as a natural consequence they were all decapitated as
they passed through. But there was one Agharia who had heard about the
fixing of the sword and who thought it better to stay at home, saying
that he had some ceremony to perform. When the king heard that there
was one Agharia who had not passed through the door, he sent again,
commanding him to come. The Agharia did not wish to go but felt it
impossible to decline. He therefore sent for a Chamar of his village
and besought him to go instead, saying that he would become a Rajput
in his death and that he would ever be held in remembrance by the
Agharia's descendants. The Chamar consented to sacrifice himself for
his master, and going before the king was beheaded at the door. But
the Agharia fled south, taking his whole village with him, and came
to Chhattisgarh, where each of the families in the village founded a
clan of the Agharia caste. And in memory of this, whenever an Agharia
makes a libation to his ancestors, he first pours a little water on
the ground in honour of the dead Chamar. According to another version
of the story three brothers of different families escaped and first
went to Orissa, where they asked the Gajpati king to employ them
as soldiers. The king caused two sheaths of swords to be placed
before them, and telling them that one contained a sword and the
other a bullock-goad, asked them to select one and by their choice
to determine whether they would be soldiers or husbandmen. From one
sheath a haft of gold projected and from the other one of silver. The
Agharias pulled out the golden haft and found that they had chosen the
goad. The point of the golden and silver handles is obvious, and the
story is of some interest for the distant resemblance which it bears
to the choice of the caskets in _The Merchant of Venice_. Condemned,
as they considered, to drive the plough, the Agharias took off their
sacred threads, which they could no longer wear, and gave them to
the youngest member of the caste, saying that he should keep them
and be their Bhat, and they would support him with contributions
of a tenth of the produce of their fields. He assented, and his
descendants are the genealogists of the Agharias and are termed
Dashanshi. The Agharias claim to be Somvansi Rajputs, a claim which
Colonel Dalton says their appearance favours. "Tall, well-made, with
high Aryan features and tawny complexions, they look like Rajputs,
though they are more industrious and intelligent than the generality
of the fighting tribe." [6]