The higher clans invest boys with the sacred thread either when they
are initiated by a Guru or spiritual preceptor, or when they are
married. The thread is made by a Brahman and has five knots. Recently
a large landholder in Mandla, a Jarha Lodhi, has assumed the sacred
thread himself for the first time and sent round a circular to his
caste-men enjoining them also to wear it. His family priest has
produced a legend of the usual type showing how the Jarha Lodhis
are Rajputs whose ancestors threw away their sacred threads in order
to escape the vengeance of Parasurama. Generally in social position
the Lodhis may be considered to rank with, but slightly above, the
ordinary cultivating castes, such as the Kurmis. This superiority
in no way arises from their origin, since, as already seen, they are
a very low caste in their home in northern India, but from the fact
that they have become large landholders in the Central Provinces and
in former times their leaders exercised quasi-sovereign powers. Many
Lodhis are fine-looking men and have still some appearance of having
been soldiers. They are passionate and quarrelsome, especially in the
Jubbulpore District. This is put forcibly in the saying that 'A Lodhi's
temper is as crooked as the stream of a bullock's urine.' They are
generally cultivators, but the bulk of them are not very prosperous
as they are inclined to extravagance and display at weddings and on
other ceremonial occasions.