Another small group related to the Vidurs are the Purads of Nagpur;
they say that their ancestor was a Brahman who was carried away
in a flooded river and lost his sacred thread. He could not put on
a new thread afterwards because the sacred thread must be changed
without swallowing the spittle in the interval. Hence he was put out
of caste and his descendants are the Purads, the name being derived
from _pur_, a flood. These people are mainly shopkeepers. In Berar
two other groups are found, the Golaks and Borals. The Golaks are
the illegitimate offspring of a Brahman widow; if after her husband's
decease she did not shave her head, her illegitimate children are known
as Rand [718] Golaks; if her head was shaved, they are called Mund
(shaven) Golaks; and if their father be unknown, they are named Kund
Golaks. The Golaks are found in Malkapur and Balapur and number about
400 persons. A large proportion of them are beggars. A Boral is said
to be the child of a father of any caste and a mother of one of those
in which widows shave their heads. As a matter of fact widows, except
among Brahmans, rarely shave their heads in the Central Provinces,
and it would therefore appear, if Mr. Kitts' definition is correct,
that the Borals are the offspring of women by fathers of lower caste
than themselves; a most revolting union to Hindu ideas. As, however,
the Borals are mostly grocers and shopkeepers, it is possible that
they may be the same class as the Purads. In 1881 they numbered only
163 persons and were found in Darhwa, Mehkar and Chikhli taluks.