h a woman of another caste is punished by temporary outcasting,
readmission involving a fine of Rs. 4 or Rs. 5. Their chief deity
is the Devi of Tuljapur and their chief festival Dasahra; the
implements of the caste are worshipped twice a year, on Gudhi Padwa
and Diwali. Women are tattooed with a crescent between the eyebrows
and dots on the right side of the nose, the right cheek, and the chin,
and a basil plant or peacock is drawn on their wrists." [257]

8. Takari.

"The Takaris take their name from the verb _takne_, to reset or
rechisel. They mend the handmills (_chakkis_) used for grinding corn,
an occupation which is sometimes shared with them by the Langoti
Pardhis. The Takari's avocation of chiselling grindstones gives him
excellent opportunities for examining the interior economy of houses,
and the position of boxes and cupboards, and for gauging the wealth of
the inmates. They are the most inveterate house-breakers and dangerous
criminals. A form of crime favoured by the Takari, in common with
many other criminal classes, is that of decoying into a secluded
spot outside the village the would-be receiver of stolen property and
robbing him of his cash--a trick which carries a wholesome lesson with
it." [258] The chisel with which they chip the grindstones furnishes,
as stated by Mr. D. A. Smyth, D.S.P., an excellent implement for
breaking a hole through the mud wall of a house.

Beria, Bedia.

[_Bibliography_: Sir H. Risley's _Tribes and Castes of Bengal_;
Rajendra Lal Mitra in _Memoirs, Anthropological Society of London_,
iii. p. 122; Mr. Crooke's _Tribes and Castes of the North-Western
Provinces and Oudh_; Mr. Kennedy's _Criminal Classes of the Bombay
Presidency_; Major Gunthorpe's _Criminal Tribes_; Mr. Gayer's _Lectures
on some Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces_; Colonel Sleeman's
_Report on the Badhak or Bagri Dacoits_.]

1. Historical notice.

A caste of gipsies and thieves who are closely connected with the
Sansias. In 1891 they numbered 906 persons in the Central Provinces,
distributed over the northern Districts; in 1901 they were not
separately classified but were identified with the Nats. "They say that
some generations ago two brothers resided in the Bhartpur territory, of
whom one was named Sains Mul and the other Mullanur. The descendants
of Sains Mul are the Sansias and those of Mullanur the Berias or
Kolhatis, who are vagrants and robbers by hereditary profession,