Well-to-do members of the caste employ Brahmans for ceremonial
purposes, but others dispense with their services. The Gadarias
eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. They
will take food cooked with water from a Lodhi or a Dangi, members
of these castes having formerly been their feudal chieftains in the
Vindhyan Districts and Nerbudda valley. Brahmans and members of the
good cultivating castes would be permitted to become Gadarias if
they should so desire. The head of the caste committee has the title
of Mahton and the office is hereditary, the holder being invariably
consulted on caste questions even if he should be a mere boy. The
Gadarias rank with those castes from whom a Brahman cannot take water,
but above the servile and labouring castes. They are usually somewhat
stupid, lazy and good-tempered, and are quite uneducated. Owing to
their work in cleaning the pens and moving about among the sheep, the
women often carry traces of the peculiar smell of these animals. This
is exemplified in the saying, 'Ek to Gadaria, dusre lahsan khae,' or
'Firstly she is a Gadaria and then she has eaten garlic'; the inference
being that she is far indeed from having the scent of the rose.