When an outsider is to be received into the community all the hair on
his face is shaved, being wetted with the urine of a boy belonging
to the group to which he seeks admission. Mahars will eat all kinds
of food including the flesh of crocodiles and rats, but some of them
abstain from beef. There is nothing peculiar in their dress except that
the men wear a black woollen thread round their necks. [130] The women
may be recognised by their bold carriage, the absence of nose-rings and
the large irregular dabs of vermilion on the forehead. Mahar women do
not, as a rule, wear the _choli_ or breast-cloth. An unmarried girl
does not put on vermilion nor draw her cloth over her head. Women
must be tattooed with dots on the face, representations of scorpions,
flowers and snakes on the arms and legs, and some dots to represent
flies on the hands. It is the custom for a girl's father or mother
or father-in-law to have her tattooed in one place on the hand or
arm immediately on her marriage. Then when girls are sitting together
they will show this mark and say, 'My mother or father-in-law had this
done,' as the case may be. Afterwards if a woman so desires she gets
herself tattooed on her other limbs. If an unmarried girl or widow
becomes with child by a man of the Mahar caste or any higher one she
is subjected after delivery to a semblance of the purification by fire
known as Agnikasht. She is taken to the bank of a river and there five
stalks of juari are placed round her and burnt. Having fasted all day,
at night she gives a feast to the caste-men and eats with them. If she
offends with a man of lower caste she is finally expelled. Temporary
exclusion from caste is imposed for taking food or drink from the
hands of a Mang or Chamar or for being imprisoned in jail, or on a
Mahar man if he lives with a woman of any higher caste; the penalty
being the shaving of a man's face or cutting off a lock of a woman's
hair, together with a feast to the caste. In the last case it is said
that the man is not readmitted until he has put the woman away. If a
man touches a dead dog, cat, pony or donkey, he has to be shaved and
give a feast to the caste. And if a dog or cat dies in his house,
or a litter of puppies or kittens is born, the house is considered
to be defiled; all the earthen pots must be thrown away, the whole
house washed and cleaned and a caste feast given. The most solemn oath
of a Mahar is by a cat or dog and in Yeotmal by a black dog. [131]
In Berar, the same paper states, the pig is the only animal regarded
as unclean, and they must on no account touch it. This is probably
owing to Muhammadan influence. The worst social sin which a Mahar can
commit is to get vermin in a wound, which is known as Deogan or being
smitten by God. While the affliction continues he is quite ostracised,
no one going to his house or giving him food or water; and when it
is cured the Mahars of ten or twelve surrounding villages assemble
and he must give a feast to the whole community. The reason for this
calamity being looked upon with such peculiar abhorrence is obscure,
but the feeling about it is general among Hindus.