In Berar besides the regular Beldars two castes of stone-workers are
found, the Pathrawats or Pathrots (stone-breakers) and the Takaris,
who should perhaps be classed as separate castes. Both make and
sharpen millstones and grindstones, and they are probably only
occupational groups of recent formation. The Takaris are connected
with the Pardhi caste of professional hunters and fowlers and may
be a branch of them. The social customs of the Pathrots resemble
those of the Kunbis. "They will take cooked food from a Sutar or a
Kumbhar. Imprisonment, the killing of a cow or criminal intimacy of a
man with a woman of another caste is punished by temporary outcasting,
readmission involving a fine of Rs. 4 or Rs. 5. Their chief deity
is the Devi of Tuljapur and their chief festival Dasahra; the
implements of the caste are worshipped twice a year, on Gudhi Padwa
and Diwali. Women are tattooed with a crescent between the eyebrows
and dots on the right side of the nose, the right cheek, and the chin,
and a basil plant or peacock is drawn on their wrists." [257]