ing woods which are used in religious
ceremonies, such as aloe-wood and sandalwood, besides a number of
medicines and simples. The richer members of the caste are bankers,
dealers in grain and pawnbrokers.

Bania, Ajudhiabasi

_Bania, Ajudhiabasi, Audhia_.--A subcaste of Bania, whose name
signifies a resident of Ajodhia, the old name of Oudh. Outsiders often
shorten the name to Audhia, but, as will be seen, the name Audhia
is regularly applied to a criminal class, who may have been derived
from the Ajudhiabasi Banias, but are now quite distinct from them. The
Ajudhiabasis numbered nearly 2000 persons in 1911, belonging chiefly
to the Jubbulpore, Narsinghpur and Hoshangabad Districts. This total
includes any persons who may have returned themselves as Audhia. The
Ajudhiabasis are nearly all Hindus with a small Jain minority. Though
Oudh was their original home they are now fairly numerous in Cawnpore
and Bundelkhand as well, and it may have been from this last locality
that they entered the Central Provinces. Here they form a separate
endogamous group and do not marry with their caste-fellows in northern
India. They have exogamous sections, and marriage is prohibited
within the section and also between first cousins. They permit the
remarriage of widows, but are said not to recognise divorce, and to
expel from the caste a woman guilty of adultery. It may be doubted,
however, whether this is correct. Brahmans serve as their priests,
and they invest boys with the sacred thread either at marriage or at
a special ceremony known as Gurmukh. The dead are either buried or
burnt; in the case of burial men are laid on the face and women on
the back, the body being first rubbed with salt, clarified butter,
turmeric and milk. A little earth from the grave is carried away and
thrown into a sacred river, and when the dead are burnt the ashes are
similarly disposed of. Their principal deity is the goddess Devi,
and at the Dasahra festival they offer a goat to her, the flesh of
which is distributed among members of the caste.

The Audhias are a well-known criminal tribe, whose headquarters is
in the Fatehpur District. They say that they are Banias, and use the
name Ajudhiabasi in speaking of themselves, and from their customs and
criminal methods it seems not unlikely that they may originally have
been an offshoot from the Ajudhiabasi Banias. They are now, however,
perfectly distinct from this group, and any confusion between