"The Takaris take their name from the verb _takne_, to reset or
rechisel. They mend the handmills (_chakkis_) used for grinding corn,
an occupation which is sometimes shared with them by the Langoti
Pardhis. The Takari's avocation of chiselling grindstones gives him
excellent opportunities for examining the interior economy of houses,
and the position of boxes and cupboards, and for gauging the wealth of
the inmates. They are the most inveterate house-breakers and dangerous
criminals. A form of crime favoured by the Takari, in common with
many other criminal classes, is that of decoying into a secluded
spot outside the village the would-be receiver of stolen property and
robbing him of his cash--a trick which carries a wholesome lesson with
it." [258] The chisel with which they chip the grindstones furnishes,
as stated by Mr. D. A. Smyth, D.S.P., an excellent implement for
breaking a hole through the mud wall of a house.
Beria, Bedia.
[_Bibliography_: Sir H. Risley's _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_;
Rajendra Lal Mitra in _Memoirs, Anthropological Society of London_,
iii. p. 122; Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western
Provinces and Oudh_; Mr. Kennedy's _Criminal Classes of the Bombay
Presidency_; Major Gunthorpe's _Criminal Tribes_; Mr. Gayer's _Lectures
on some Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces_; Colonel Sleeman's
_Report on the Badhak or Bagri Dacoits_.]