The traditional occupation of the caste is the manufacture of glass
bangles. They import the glass in lumps from northern India and melt
it in their furnace, after which the colouring matter is applied and
the ring is turned on a slab of stone. Nearly all Hindu married women
have glass bangles, which are broken or removed if their husbands
die. But the rule is not universal, and some castes do not wear them
at all. Marwari women have bangles of ivory, and Dhangar (shepherd)
women of cocoanut-shell. Women of several castes who engage in
labour have glass bangles only on the left wrist and metal ones on
the right, as the former are too fragile. Low-caste women sometimes
wear the flat, black bangles known as khagga on the upper arm. In
many castes the glass bangles are also broken after the birth of a
child. Bangles of many colours are made, but Hindus usually prefer
black or indigo-blue. Among Hindus of good caste a girl may wear
green bangles while she is unmarried; at her wedding black bangles
are put on her wrists, and thereafter she may have them of black,
blue, red or yellow, but not green. Muhammadans usually wear black
or dark-green bangles. A Hindu woman has the same number of bangles
on each wrist, not less than five and more if she likes. She will
never leave her arms entirely without bangles, as she thinks this
would cause her to become a widow. Consequently when a new set are
purchased one or two of the old ones are kept on each arm. Similarly
among castes who wear lac bangles like Banjaras, five should be worn,
and these cover the greater part of the space between the wrist and
the elbow. The men of the caste usually stay at home and make the
bangles, and the women travel about to the different village markets,
carrying their wares on little ponies if they can afford them. It is
necessary that the seller of bangles should be a woman, as she has
to assist her customers to work them on to their wrists, and also
display her goods to high-caste women behind the purda in their homes.
The Kacheras' bangles are very cheap, from two to fourteen being
obtainable for a pice (farthing), according to quality. Many are
also broken, and the seller has to bear the loss of all those broken
when the purchaser is putting them on, which may amount to 30 per
cent. And though an improvement on the old lac bangles, the colours
are very dull, and bracelets of better and more transparent glass
imported from Austria now find a large sale and tend to oust the
indigenous product. The Kachera, therefore, is, as a rule, far from
prosperous. The incessant bending over the furnace tends to undermine
his constitution and often ruins his eyesight. There is in fact a Hindi
saying to the effect that, "When the Kachera has a son the rejoicings
are held in the Kundera's (turner's) house. For he will go blind and
then he will find nothing else to do but turn the Kundera's lathe."