They have three subdivisions, the Maratha, Telugu and Kande Bedars. The
names of their exogamous sections are also Marathi. Nevertheless
they retain one or two northern customs, presumably acquired from
association with the Pindaris. Their women do not tuck the body-cloth
in behind the waist, but draw it over the right shoulder. They wear
the _choli_ or Hindustani breast-cloth tied in front, and have a hooped
silver ornament on the top of the head, which is known as _dhora_. They
eat goats, fowls and the flesh of the wild pig, and drink liquor, and
will take food from a Kunbi or a Phulmali, and pay little heed to the
rules of social impurity. But Hindustani Brahmans act as their priests.
Before a wedding they call a Brahman and worship him as a god, the
ceremony being known as Deo Brahman. The Brahman then cooks food in the
house of his host. On the same occasion a person specially nominated
by the Brahman, and known as Deokia, fetches an earthen vessel from
the potter, and this is worshipped with offerings of turmeric and
rice, and a cotton thread is tied round it. Formerly it is said they
worshipped the spent bullets picked up after a battle, and especially
any which had been extracted from the body of a wounded person.