The family god of the Agharias is Dulha Deo, who exists in every
household. On the Haraiti day or the commencement of the agricultural
year they worship the implements of cultivation, and at Dasahra
the sword if they have one. They have a great reverence for cows
and feed them sumptuously at festivals. Every Agharia has a _guru_
or spiritual guide who whispers the _mantra_ or sacred verse into
his ear and is occasionally consulted. The dead are usually burnt,
but children and persons dying of cholera or smallpox are buried,
males being placed on the pyre or in the grave on their faces and
females on their backs, with the feet pointing to the south. On
the third day the ashes are thrown into a river and the bones of
each part of the body are collected and placed under the pipal
tree, while a pot is slung over them, through which water trickles
continually for a week, and a lighted lamp, cooked food, a leaf-cup
and a tooth-stick are placed beside them daily for the use of the
deceased during the same period. Mourning ends on the tenth day,
and the usual purification ceremonies are then performed. Children
are mourned for a shorter period. Well-to-do members of the caste
feed a Brahman daily for a year after a death, believing that food
so given passes to the spirit of the deceased. On the anniversary of
the death the caste-fellows are feasted, and after that the deceased
becomes a _purkha_ or ancestor and participates in devotions paid
at the _shradhh_ ceremony. When the head of a joint family dies,
his successor is given a turban and betel-leaves, and his forehead
is marked by the priest and other relations with sandalwood. After a
birth the mother is impure for twenty-one days. A feast is given on
the twelfth day, and sometimes the child is named then, but often
children are not named until they are six years old. The names of
men usually end in _Ram_, _Nath_ or _Singh_, and those of women in
_Kunwar_. Women do not name their husbands, their elderly relations,
nor the sons of their husband's eldest brother. A man does not name
his wife, as he thinks that to do so would tend to shorten his life
in accordance with the Sanskrit saying, 'He who is desirous of long
life should not name himself, his _guru_, a miser, his eldest son,
or his wife.' The Agharias do not admit outsiders into the caste. They
will not take cooked food from any caste, and water only from a Gaur
or Rawat. They refuse to take water from an Uriya Brahman, probably
in retaliation for the refusal of Uriya Brahmans to accept water from
an Agharia, though taking it from a Kolta. Both the Uriya Brahmans
and Agharias are of somewhat doubtful origin, and both are therefore
probably the more concerned to maintain the social position to which
they lay claim. But Kewats, Rawats, Telis and other castes eat cooked
food from Agharias, and the caste therefore is admitted to a fairly
high rank in the Uriya country. The Agharias do not drink liquor or
eat any food which a Rajput would refuse.