he road. [77] The form
of crime most in favour among the ordinary Baoris is housebreaking
by night. Their common practice is to make a hole in the wall beside
the door through which the hand passes to raise the latch; and only
occasionally they dig a hole in the base of the wall to admit of the
passage of a man, while another favoured alternative is to break in
through a barred window, the bars being quickly and forcibly bent and
drawn out. [78] One class of Marwari Bagris are also expert coiners.

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Bahna

1. Nomenclature and internal structure.

_Bahna, Pinjara, Dhunia._ [79]--The occupational caste of
cotton-cleaners. The Bahnas numbered 48,000 persons in the Central
Provinces and Berar in 1911. The large increase in the number
of ginning-factories has ruined the Bahna's trade of cleaning
hand-ginned cotton, and as no distinction attaches to the name of
Bahna it is possible that members of the caste who have taken to
other occupations may have abandoned it and returned themselves simply
as Muhammadans. The three names Bahna, Pinjara, Dhunia appear to be
used indifferently for the caste in this Province, though in other
parts of India they are distinguished. Pinjara is derived from the
word _pinjan_ used for a cotton-bow, and Dhunia is from _dhunna_,
to card cotton. The caste is also known as Dhunak Pathani. Though
professing the Muhammadan religion, they still have many Hindu
customs and ceremonies, and in the matter of inheritance our courts
have held that they are subject to Hindu and not Muhammadan law. [80]
In Raipur a girl receives half the share of a boy in the division of
inherited property. The caste appears to be a mixed occupational group,
and is split into many territorial subcastes named after the different
parts of the country from which its members have come, as Badharia from
Badhas in Mirzapur, Sarsutia from the Saraswati river, Berari of Berar,
Dakhni from the Deccan, Telangi from Madras, Pardeshi from northern
India, and so on. Two groups are occupational, the Newaris of Saugor,
who make the thick _newar_ tape used for the webbing of beds, and
the Kanderas, who make fireworks and generally constitute a separate
caste. There is considerable ground for supposing that the Bahnas
are mainly derived from