The Gadarias are a very mixed caste. They themselves say that their
first ancestor was created by Mahadeo to tend his rams, and that he
married three women who were fascinated by the sight of him shearing
the sheep. These belonged to the Brahman, Dhimar and Barai castes
respectively, and became the ancestors of the Nikhar, Dhengar and
Barmaiyan subcastes of Gadarias. The Nikhar subcaste are the highest,
their name meaning pure. Dhengar is probably, in reality, a corruption
of Dhangar, the name of the Maratha shepherd caste. They have other
subdivisions of the common territorial type, as Jheria or jungly,
applied to the Gadarias of Chhattisgarh; Desha from desh, country,
meaning those who came from northern India; Purvaiya or eastern,
applied to immigrants from Oudh; and Malvi or those belonging to
Malwa. Nikhar and Dhengar men take food together, but not the women;
and if a marriage cannot be otherwise arranged these subcastes will
sometimes give daughters to each other. A girl thus married is no
longer permitted to take food at her father's house, but she may eat
with the women of her husband's subcaste. Many of their exogamous
groups are named after animals or plants, as Hiranwar, from hiran,
a deer; Sapha from the cobra, Moria from the peacock, Nahar from the
tiger, Phulsungha, a flower, and so on. Others are the names of Rajput
septs and of other castes, as Ahirwar (Ahir) and Bamhania (Brahman).
Another more ambitious legend derives their origin from the Bania
caste. They say that once a Bania was walking along the road with a
cocoanut in his hand when Vishnu met him and asked him what it was. The
Bania answered that it was a cocoanut. Vishnu said that it was not
a cocoanut but wool, and told him to break it, and on breaking the
cocoanut the Bania found that it was filled with wool. The Bania asked
what he should do with it, and Vishnu told him to make a blanket out
of it for the god to sit on. So he made a blanket, and Vishnu said
that from that day he should be the ancestor of the Gadaria caste,
and earn his bread by making blankets from the wool of sheep. The
Bania asked where he should get the sheep from, and the god told him
to go home saying 'Ehan, Ehan, Ehan,' all the way, and when he got
home he would find a flock of sheep following him; but he was not to
look behind him all the way. And the Bania did so, but when he had
almost got home he could not help looking behind him to see if there
were really any sheep. And he saw a long line of sheep following him
in single file, and at the very end was a ram with golden horns just
rising out of the ground. But as he looked it sank back again into
the ground, and he went back to Vishnu and begged for it, but Vishnu
said that as he had looked behind him he had lost it. And this was
the origin of the Gadaria caste, and the Gadarias always say 'Ehan,
Ehan,' as they lead their flocks of sheep and goats to pasture.