===========+========+========+=======+=======
Districts. |Dhuriya.|Jetwant.|Others.|Total.
~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Cawnpur | ... | ... | 7| 7
Bânda | ... | ... | 166| 166
Allahâbâd | 15| ... | 6| 21
Jhânsi | ... | ... | 8| 8
Jâlaun | ... | ... | 10| 10
Lalitpur | ... | ... | 525| 525
Benares | 11,363| 9| 1,407| 12,779
Mirzapur | 8,368| ... | 493| 8,861
Jaunpur | 2,171| ... | ... | 2,171
Ghâzipur | 5,976| 6,407| 1,926| 14,309
Ballia | 1,227| 23,358| 4,200| 28,785
Gorakhpur | 7,431| 38,503| 1,950| 47,884
Azamgarh | 4,585| ... | 4,387| 8,972
Unâo | 2| ... | ... | 2
Bahrâich | ... | 1| 3| 4
+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~
Total | 41,138| 68,278| 15,088|124,504
===========+========+========+======+========
Goriya, Guriya.—A fishing and cultivating caste of the Eastern
Districts, in all respects analogous to the Gonrhi or Gunrhi of Bihâr.
[464] They are usually treated as a sub-caste of Mallâh. They
correspond closely to the other allied castes in manners and customs;
but their women are said to bear an indifferent character—a state of
things naturally resulting in a caste the male members of which are
compelled by the nature of their occupation to absent themselves from
home for long periods. Their tribal gods are the Pânchonpîr. “Some
again worship a water god called Koila Bâba, described as an old
grey-bearded person, who, as Ganga ji ka beldâr, ‘the navvy of our lady
the Ganges’ saps and swallows up whatever opposes the sacred stream.
Before casting a new net or starting on a commercial venture, offerings
of molasses and seven kinds of grain, kneaded into balls, are offered
to him, and at the end of the ceremony one of the balls is placed on
the edge of the water, another on the bow of the boat. Another rite
common to many, if not to all fisher castes, is the Barwariya or Barahi
Pûja, when a subscription is made, and in the absence of a Brâhman a
pig is sacrificed in a garden or on a patch of waste land outside a
village. Jay Sinh, Amar Sinh, Chand Sinh, Dayâl Sinh, Kewal, Marang
Bandi, Goraiya, and a river named Kamalaji, are regularly worshipped.
Jay Sinh, who is also a favourite deity of the Tiyar caste, is said to
have been a Gonrhi of Ujjain who had a large timber trade in the
Sundariban. On one occasion the Râja of the Sundariban imprisoned 700
Gonrhis in consequence of a dispute about the price of wood. Jay Sinh
slew the Râja and released the prisoners, and has ever since been
honoured with daily worship. Goats, sweetmeats, wheaten cakes, pân
supâri and flowers are offered to him at regular intervals, and no
Gonrhi will light a pipe or embark on a fishing excursion without first
invoking the name of Jay Sinh. Once a year, in the month of Srâvan, a
flag is set up in honour of Hanumân on a bamboo pole in the courtyard,
and offerings of sweetmeats and fruits are presented to the god. These
offerings are received by the Brâhmans who officiate as priests, while
the articles of food given to the minor gods are eaten by the members
of the caste. The dead are buried, usually on the brink of a river, and
the ashes thrown into the stream. In Supal the practice is to burn in a
mango grove. Srâddha is performed on the thirteenth day after death.”
[465]
Govindpanthi, Gobindpanthi.—A Vaishnava sect whose adherents at the
last Census numbered 4,605 persons. It was founded by Govind Dâs, a
mendicant buried at Ahrauli, in the Faizâbâd District, in whose honour
an annual fair, attended by several thousand worshippers, is held in
the month of Aghan. [466]
Gûjar, Gujar. [467]—An important agricultural and pastoral tribe found
principally in the Western Districts. They take their name from the
Sanskrit Gurjara, the original name of the country now called Gujarât.
The current derivation from gâû-charâna “to pasture cattle” cannot be
accepted; as a curiosity of folk etymology it may be added that some
derive it from the fact that the tribe once took to feeding their
cattle on carrots (gâjar). The traditions of the tribe give little
information as to their origin or history. By one legend current in the
Panjâb they claim descent from a certain Nand Mihr, who is perhaps
Nanda, the foster father of Krishna, who was raised to distinction
because he slaked the thirst of Alexander the Great with a draught of
buffalo milk. They are identified by General Cunningham [468] with the
Kushan or Yuchi or Tochari, a tribe of Eastern Tartars. “About a
century before Christ their Chief conquered Kâbul and the Peshâwar
country; while his son, Vima Kadphises, so well known to the
numismatologist, extended his sway over the whole of the Upper Panjâb
and the banks of the Jumna as far down as Mathura and the Vindhyas, and
his successor, the no less familiar King Kanishka, the first
Indo-Scythian Buddhist prince, annexed Kashmîr to the kingdom of the
Tochari. These Tochari or Kushan are the Kaspeiræi of Ptolemy; and in
the middle of the second century of our era, Kaspeira, Kasyapura or
Multân was one of their chief cities. Probably about the beginning of
the third century after Christ, the attack of the White Huns recalled
the last king of the united Yuchi to the West, and he left his son in
charge of an independent Province, whose capital was fixed at Peshâwar;
and from that time the Yuchi of Kâbul are known as the Great Yuchi, and
those of the Panjâb as the Kator or Little Yuchi. Before the end of the
third century a portion of the Gûjars had begun to move southward down
the Indus, and were shortly afterwards separated from their northern
brethren by another Indo-Scythian wave from the North. In the middle of
the fifth century there was a Gûjar kingdom in South-Western Râjputâna,
whence they were driven by the Balas into Gujarât of the Bombay
Presidency; and about the end of the ninth century, Ala Khân, the Gûjar
King of Jammu, ceded the present Gûjardesa, corresponding very nearly
with the Gujarât District, to the King of Kashmîr. The town of Gujarât
is said to have been built or restored by Ala Khân Gûjar in the time of
Akbar.”
2. The present distribution of the Gûjars is thus described by General
Cunningham: [469]—“At the present day the Gûjars are found in great
numbers in every part of the north-west of India, from the Indus to the
Ganges, and from the Hazâra Mountains to the Peninsula of Gujarât. They
are specially numerous along the banks of the Upper Jumna near Jagâdri
and Buriya, and in the Sahâranpur District, which during the last
century was actually called Gujarât. To the east they occupy the petty
State of Samptar, in Bundelkhand, and one of the northern districts of
Gwâlior, which is still called Gûjargâr. They are found only in small
bodies and much scattered throughout Eastern Râjputâna and Gwâlior; but
they are more numerous in the Western States, and especially towards
Gujarât, where they form a large part of the population. The Râjas of
Riwâri to the south of Delhi are Gûjars. In the Southern Panjâb they
are thinly scattered, but their numbers increase rapidly towards the
North, where they have given their name to several important places,
such as Gujrânwâla, in the Rechna Duâb, Gujarât, in the Chaj Duâb, and
Gûjar Khân, in the Sindh Sâgar Duâb. They are numerous about Jahlam and
Hasan Abdâl, and throughout the Hazâra District; and they are also
found in considerable numbers in the Dardu Districts of Chilâs, Kohli,
and Palâs, to the east of the Indus, and in the contiguous districts to
the east of the river.”
3. As regards their ethnical affinities Mr. Ibbetson writes: [470]—“It
has been suggested, and is, I believe, held by many, that Jâts and
Gûjars, and perhaps Ahîrs also, are all of one ethnic stock; and this
because there is a close connection between them. It may be that they
are the same in their far distant origin. But I think they must have
entered India at different times or settled in separate parts, and my
reason for thinking so is precisely because they eat and smoke
together. In the case of Jât and Râjput the reason for differentiation
is obvious, the latter being of higher rank than the former. But the
social standing of Jâts, Gûjars, and Ahîrs being practically identical,
I do not see why they should ever have separated if they were once the
same. It is, however, possible that the Jâts were the camel graziers
and perhaps husbandmen, the Gûjars the cowherds of the hills, and the
Ahîrs the cowherds of the plains. If this be so, they afford a
classification by occupation of the yeoman class, which fill up the gap
between, and is absolutely continuous with, the similar classification
of the castes above them, as Brâhmans, Banyas, and Râjputs, and of the
classes below them, as Tarkhâns, Chamârs, and so forth. But we must
know more of the early distribution of the tribes before we can have
any opinion on the subject. I have noticed in the early historians a
connection between the migrations and location of Gûjars and Râjputs,
which has struck me as being more than accidental, and Mr. Wilson notes
that the Gûjars and the Bargûjar tribe of Râjputs are often found
together, and suggests that the latter may be to the Gûjars what the
Khânzâdas are to the Meos, and what most Râjputs are to the Jâts.”
4. In these Provinces they do not, as a rule, claim to be Râjputs: but
say they are descended from a Râjput father and a woman of some low
caste. The Kalsân branch, in Muzaffarnagar, claim descent from Kalsa, a
Râjput chief. “The Râwal Gûjars of Pânipat say that they are descended
from a Khokhar Râjput (a clan which has been considered the same as the
notorious Ghakkar); the Chhokar from a Jâdon; the Chamâyan from a
Tomar; the Kulsiyân of Kairâna and the Mâvi from a Chauhân; the Pilwân
from a Pundîr; the Adhâna from a Bargûjar, and the Bhatti from Râja
Kansal, a Bhatti Râjput from Jaysalmer.” [471] Besides this an
examination of the sections shows that it includes the names of many
well-known Râjput septs, such as Bâgri, Bais, Chandel, Chauhân, and
Tomar.
5. On the whole it seems probable that in the Panjâb and in the Western
Districts of these Provinces, at least, the tribe is fairly free from
intermixture with the lower races. Mr. Ibbetson describes the Gûjar as
“a fine, stalwart fellow of precisely the same physical type as the
Jât, and the theory of aboriginal descent which has sometimes been
propounded, is to my mind conclusively negatived by his cast of
countenance. He is of the same social condition as the Jât, or perhaps
slightly inferior; but the two eat and drink together in common without
any scruple, and the proverb says:—“The Jât, the Gûjar, the Ahîr, and
Gola, are all four hail fellows well met.” Of the Kashmîr Gûjars Mr.
Drew [472] writes:—“The race is Aryan, but their countenance cannot be
called high Aryan; their forehead is narrow; they want the well-formed
brow of the finer races. The lower part of the face is narrow, too; but
the nose has always something of the curve as is often seen in Aryan
nations. Some I met with had lighter eyes than are common among the
other tribes of the country, and generally their beard was scant. In
figure they are tall and gaunt, in motion slow and ungainly. They are
rather surly in disposition, having that kind of independence which
consists in liking to be left alone, and to have as little as possible
to do with other races. When, however, one does come in contact with
them they are not bad to deal with.” On the other hand, the eastern
branch of the tribe, and particularly those who have become
Muhammadans, appear to be very much mixed in blood.
[Tribal organisation.] 6. Like many castes which have a preference for
seven or one of its multiples, the Gûjars pretend to have eighty-four
exogamous gotras or sections. It has been found impossible to procure
any consistent or definite list of these. In the appendix to this
article three lists are given, two of the Hindu Gûjars of the Upper
Duâb, one from Bulandshahr, and the other collated from Sir H. M.
Elliot’s account of the tribe; the third of the Musalmân Gûjars of
Sultânpur. The Census lists contain no less than 1,178 gotras of the
Hindu and 380 of the Muhammadan branch. Of these those locally of most
importance are the Batar, Buchar, Chhotkana, Hamar, Kanas, Khatâna,
Khûbar, Rathê, and Râwal, in Sahâranpur: the Kalsiyân and Khûbar, of
Muzaffarnagar, the Adhâna, Bhatti, Chandela, Dhandhal, Hela, Kasâna,
Kharê, Khûbar, Marsi, and Nagari, of Meerut: the Adhâna, Bhadâna,
Bhatti, Kasâna, and Nagari, of Bulandshahr: the Tomar, of Mathura: the
Dalel and Pomar, of Agra: the Lohâr, of Jâlaun. It will be seen that
the names differ almost all through the lists. Most of these names are
said to be derived from the titles of tribal leaders or from the
villages in which their early settlements were formed. It is now
impossible to identify many of these with any degree of certainty. The
most important sections in the Upper Duâb are the Bhatti, who claim
descent from Bhatti Râjputs, and date their settlement from the time of
Prithivi Râja. One of them was given the office of “thief taker”
(chormâri) by the Emperor Shâh Alam. The Nagari say that they are the
illegitimate descendants of Râja Nâgrâj, fourth in descent from Anikpâl
Tomar of Delhi. They date their immigration from Hastinapur in 799
A.D., when they expelled the aboriginal Botiyas, with whom and the
Gûjars they intermarried and thus became degraded. The Nadwasiya claim
to be Panwâr Râjputs, and are said to have come from Badli in the
thirteenth century, and settled on the banks of the Kâlinadi, whence
they take their name. [473] It also appears that hypergamy occurs among
some of the sections; thus in Sahâranpur the Kalsiyân, Khaprâê, Râthi,
and Rausê sections hold the highest rank and intermarry, while the
Kalsiyân will not give their daughters to the Chhokar, Diveru, and Dâpu
sections. The sections, as already stated, are exogamous; but they have
an additional formula of exogamy, which is thus stated by the
Sahâranpur branch of the tribe. A girl may be married who is not of the
gotra of the paternal or maternal ancestors of the boy within six
generations, or who is not shown by her family name to be of the same
stock as his father or mother. But this rule seems not to be of general
application. In Bulandshahr a man will not marry within his own section
or that of his maternal uncle; but the chief rule which seems to be
most generally observed is that a man will not marry in his own village
and will not give a bride to a family from which within ordinary memory
they have received a bride. On the other hand, there seems no doubt
that Gûjars are very lax in their matrimonial arrangements. The
infanticide reports swarm with instances of those clans, who used to
practice this form of crime, supplying the resultant want of wives by
the introduction of women of other castes, and even now-a-days when
infanticide has practically disappeared, as is believed, among them,
they take concubines freely from other castes, and their offspring are
in most cases recognised as legitimate. [474]
[Polyandry.] 7. Another social arrangement arising from the same cause
is polyandry, of which we have perhaps the only well established
instance among the Hindus of the plains. On this subject Râja Lachhman
Sinh, who is a most competent authority regarding the Hindus of the
Bulandshahr District, has kindly furnished the following note:—“I was
assured on the spot that in almost every Gûjar village in the vicinity
of the Jumna, in the Bulandshahr District, polyandry was a fact. The
custom was mainly due to the scarcity of women in the tribe, and this
scarcity was the result of female infanticide, which several sections
of the caste practised very largely before the passing of the
Infanticide Act of 1870. Polyandry was not recognised as an
acknowledged or legal custom; but if adopted in a village the
neighbours made no objection to it, nor was it considered a serious
scandal. It was to the benefit of the married brother and his wife that
all the brothers should live together, and that the joint earnings
should be enjoyed by the single wife and her children. It was through
this feeling of self-interest that the wife and her real husband
permitted the other brothers to share her favours. The custom prevailed
only among the poorer families, the male members of which found it
difficult to get married in consequence of the scarcity of girls in the
caste, and also from the natural desire of parents to marry their
daughters to as affluent persons as possible. Brothers only and not
other relations or strangers were allowed to be the joint husbands. The
wife was formally married to one of the brothers, usually to the
eldest, if he were not too old, and her children were known as his
children only, though he as well as the other brothers knew that she
was at the disposal of all of them. Now as the Infanticide Act has put
a stop to the murder of infant girls the scarcity of women is no longer
felt, the custom of polyandry is dying out, and will soon be a thing of
the past. While making these enquiries I was struck with the fact that
polyandry did not, as might have been expected to be the case, affect
the child-bearing powers of the women who practised it, that is to say,
these women gave birth to as many children as those who had but a
single husband. I questioned my informants on this subject, and was
informed that the visits of the brothers were not so frequent as to
produce any effect of this kind.” [475]
[Marriage.] 8. Girls are allowed no freedom before marriage, and an
unmarried girl detected in immorality is expelled from the community.
It is only if her lover be a member of the tribe that she can be
restored and remarried in the tribe if her parents feed the clansmen.
Marriage usually takes place between the age of nine and sixteen. A
wife may procure a separation if her husband be impotent, and he can
put her away for infidelity proved to the satisfaction of the brethren.
Widow-marriage and the levirate under the usual restriction are
permitted. Betrothal consists in the acceptance of a sum of money in
the presence of the brethren, and then the girl’s barber, who acts as
envoy, makes a knot in the boy’s sheet, which clenches the engagement.
The marriage is of the usual respectable form, and the binding part of
the ceremony is the giving away of the bride (kanyâdân), and the usual
procession of the pair (bhanwari) round the marriage shed.
[Birth.] 9. There are no ceremonies during pregnancy except an
occasional vow to do some act if the delivery be easy. The mother is
secluded for ten days, but is not allowed to cook or enter the cooking
room for thirty days more. If the first child be a boy the women of the
clan assemble daily and sing songs of rejoicing as long as the
seclusion of the mother lasts. The family priest offers some dûb grass
to the father as a sign of congratulation, and receives a present in
return. On the third day the bed of the mother is moved with a rite
known as “the coming out” (bâhar nikalna). On the tenth day the
confinement room is purified by being plastered with cowdung, and
Ganges water is sprinkled on the clothes and utensils of the household.
A Brâhman is called in, who recites some verses and does a fire
sacrifice (hom), casts the horoscope of the child, after which some
Brâhmans are fed.
[Death.] 10. Gûjars cremate their dead, and all the rites are of normal
type. They perform the srâddha, and some even go on pilgrimages to Gaya
for that purpose.
[Religion.] 11. In religion they appear to be usually Saivas or Sâktas,
and are particularly careful in the worship of Sîtala Bhawâni, the
small-pox goddess. Among minor gods they worship Châmar, but their real
tribal worship is that of Pyârêji [476] and Bâba Sabha Râm. The temple
of Pyârêji is at Randewa, the parent (thîka) village of the Dâpu
Gûjars, equidistant between Nakur and Ambahta, in the Sahâranpur
District. His father, Râmji Padârath, born in Sambat 1545, at
Durjanpur, in Pargana Burhâna, of the Muzaffarnagar District,
disappeared suddenly after his birth. The consternation of the infant’s
father, Sajan, a rope-seller (bâdhfarosh) was, as may be imagined,
great. In six days he mysteriously reappeared. After this he was put to
herd cattle. One day the herd strayed into a sugarcane field, and the
owner made a complaint. Before the official sent to make an
investigation could reach the spot, the crop was miraculously restored.
The lad then gained many disciples, and he married a daughter of
Bhawâni Dâs, rope-seller of Khudi-Shikârpur. Their son was Raghu Nâth,
and his son, the famous Pyârêji. About this time there was a feud
between the Gûjars and Brâhmans of Sadarpur, in the course of which the
Gûjars, having invited the Brâhmans to a feast, treacherously murdered
several of them. Their ghosts avenged themselves in the form of
terrible Râkshasas, and the Gûjars were in such evil plight that
hearing of the fame of Pyârêji, they invited him to take them under his
protection. He expelled the demons, and Sadarpur regained its former
prosperity, so that its name was changed to Annadeva, “lord of grain,”
of which Randeva is said to be a corruption. Pyârêji died there, and
prayers are said and offerings made before his cenotaph. His son,
Lâlji, having no male issue bequeathed everything to his wife. Jada
Bairâgi managed her affairs, and the people elected one of his
disciples, Hargovind, to succeed him. Ever since the appointment has
been in the hands of the people of the Bâdhfarosh clan, descended from
Madâri, brother of Pyârêji, and the brothers of his son’s widow. They
own one-third of the village; the Mahants two-thirds. The Saint’s
followers are Vaishnavas, and wear black necklaces. His holiday is on
the sixth of the dark fortnight of Chait. Bâba Sabha Râm, another
tribal worthy, has a shrine on the banks of the Jumna, in the Ambâla
District, where the Gûjars make occasional pilgrimages.
[Social status and occupation.] 12. The Gûjars as a tribe have always
been noted for their turbulence and habit of cattle-stealing. Bâbar
[477] in his Memoirs describes how the commander of the rear guard
captured a few Gûjar ruffians who followed the camp, decapitated them
and sent their heads to the Emperor. The Gûjars of Pâli and Pâhal
became exceedingly audacious while Shîr Shâh was fortifying Delhi, so
he marched to the Hills and expelled them so that “not a vestige of
their habitations was left.” [478] Jahângîr [479] remarks that the
Gûjars live chiefly on milk and curds and seldom cultivate land; and
Bâbar [480] says:—“Every time I entered Hindustân the Jâts and Gûjars
have regularly poured down in prodigious numbers from the Hills and
wilds to carry off oxen and buffaloes. These were the wretches that
really inflicted the chief hardships and were guilty of the chief
oppression in the country.” They maintained their old reputation in the
Mutiny when they perpetrated numerous outrages and seriously impeded
the operations of the British Army before Delhi. According to the
current wisdom of the country side he is an undesirable neighbour—
Kutta billi do; Gûjar Rânghar do,
Yê char na ho to khulê kiwâré so.
“The dog and the cat, the Gûjar and the Rânghar, if these four were out
of the world a man might sleep with his doors open.”
Yâr Dom ne kîna Gûjar,
Chura chura ghar kardiya ûjar.
“When the Dom made friends with the Gûjar he was robbed of house and
home.”
The Gûjar though in popular estimation very closely connected with the
Jât is yet much inferior to him in every way. The proverb runs,—
Huqqa, sukka, hurkani, Gûjar aur Jât,
In men atak kaha, Jagannâth ka bhât.
“Pipe, tobacco, courtesan, the Gûjar and the Jât are all one like the
rice of Jagannâth’s temple which all castes may eat together.”
The Gûjar is in fact more a man of flocks and herds than the Jât, who
is one of the most industrious and skilled cultivators in the province.
They will drink spirits and eat mutton, pork, and fowls. They can in
most places eat, drink, and smoke with Ahîrs and Jâts. In Bhartpur the
Kharê Gûjars are inferior to the Laur, being principally engaged in
making butter and ghi, which their women sell, and which is looked on
by the others as derogatory. They have a curious custom of making a cow
of cowdung, covering it with cotton and going through the process of
killing it—a custom which seems to show that the reverence for the cow
which they now profess may be of comparatively modern growth. [481]
[Musalmân Gûjars.] 18. The Musalmân Gûjars are most numerous in Oudh
and the Meerut Division. They were apparently converted to Islâm at
various times; but their tradition in Oudh attributes this to the
compulsion of Timur when he attacked Delhi and converted all the people
in the neighbourhood by force. Some of them still maintain their Hindu
sections and regulate their marriages by them as their Hindu brethren
do; but in some places this is being replaced by the Muhammadan law of
prohibited degrees. They are mostly Sunnis, and Sunni will not
intermarry with Shiah families. In spite of their conversion they
retain a number of their old tribal practices. When the bride arrives
at the house of her husband her mother-in-law does the wave ceremony
(parachhan) over her head to scare evil spirits, and then takes her
into the household chapel (deoghar), where she worships the guardian
deities of the family, for whom they still retain respect. After this
the husband’s mother is allowed to see the face of the bride for the
first time, and gives her a present. Widows marry by the nikâh rite,
and the levirate is allowed. Some families retain the rule that the
elder brother cannot marry the widow of his younger brother, but this
is violated by some of the tribe in Oudh.
14. When a baby is born the Chamârin is called in and bathes the child
in a broken earthen pot (khapra): in this the father puts two pice
(khaprê ka taka), which are the fee of the midwife. Then the Pandit is
asked to fix a lucky time for the first bathing (nahân) of the mother,
and he again has to fix a time, generally on the twelfth day, when she
leaves her room. When a boy is four or five years of age he is
circumcised in the usual way.
15. Betrothal is done on a lucky day fixed by the Pandit, and the only
rite is that the fathers exchange cups of spirits. When the procession
arrives at the house of the bride the usual door rite (duâr ka châr) is
performed, and after the document fixing the dower (mahr) payable on
divorce is drawn up, the Qâzi reads the nikâh in the ordinary way.
16. They bury their dead. When the burial is over they make a fire
offering (agyâri) by burning incense in the name of the dead, and after
waiting a short time they upset a pitcher of water near the grave.
17. They visit the shrine of Ghâzi Miyân at Bahrâich, and offer there
sweet cakes (malîda). They also venerate various local saints and
martyrs, such as Alâ-ud-dîn Shahîd, Madâr Shâh, and Buddhi Chandra
Bâba. They employ Sarwariya and Sanâdh Brâhmans to give them omens and
propitiate the family gods. They so far observe the Holi and
Nâgpanchami festivals that on those days they do not work. On Fridays
they make offerings of food to their deceased ancestors, and when a
death occurs in their family they feed beggars in the hope that the
food will through them reach the dead man in the world of the dead.
18. They observe the ordinary Muhammadan rules about food, and will eat
with any Musalmân except a Dhobi, Dhuniya, or Mehtar.