_Brahman, Sarwaria._--This is the highest class of the Kanaujia
Bramans, who take their name from the river Sarju or Gogra in Oudh,
where they have their home. They observe strict rules of ceremonial
purity, and do not smoke tobacco nor plough with their own hands. An
orthodox Sarwaria Braman will not give his daughter in marriage in a
village from which his family has received a girl, and sometimes will
not even drink the water of that village. The Sarwarias make widows
dress in white and sometimes shave their heads. In some tracts they
intermarry with the Kanaujia Brahmans, and in others take daughters in
marriage but do not give their own daughters to them. In Dr. Buchanan's
time, a century ago, the Sarwaria Brahmans would not eat rice sold in
the bazar which had been cleaned in boiling water, as they considered
that it had thereby become food cooked with water; and they carried
their own grain to the grain-parcher to be prepared for them. When
they ate either parched grain or sweetmeats from a confectioner in
public they must purify the place on which they sat down with cowdung
and water. [436] This may be compared with a practice observed by very
strict Brahmans even now, of adding water to the medicine which they
obtain from a Government dispensary, to purify it before drinking it.