The Gujars wear the dress of northern India and their women usually
have skirts (lahenga) and not saris or body-cloths. Married women
have a number of strings of black beads round the neck and widows
must change these for red ones. As a rule neither men nor women are
tattooed. The men sometimes have their hair long and wear beards
and whiskers. The Gujars are now considered the best cultivators of
the Nimar District. They are fond of irrigation and sink unfaced
wells to water their land and get a second crop off it. They are
generally prosperous and make good landlords. Members of the caste
have the custom of lending and borrowing among themselves and not
from outsiders, and this no doubt conduces to mutual economy and
solvency. Like keen cultivators elsewhere, such as the Panwars
and Kurmis, the Gujar sets store by having a good house and good
cattle. The return from a Mundle Gujar's wedding, Captain Forsyth
wrote, [129] is a sight to be seen. Every Gujar from far and near has
come with his whole family in his best bullock-cart gaily ornamented,
and, whatever the road may be, nothing but a smash will prevent a
breakneck race homewards at full gallop, cattle which have won in
several such races acquiring a much coveted reputation throughout
the District.