age of widows. If an
unmarried girl is detected in criminal intimacy with a member of
the caste, she has to give a feast to the caste-fellows and pay a
fine of Rs. 1-4 and five locks of her hair are also cut off by way
of purification. The caste usually burn the dead, but the Lingayat
Kumhars always bury them in accordance with the practice of their
sect. They worship the ordinary Hindu deities and make an offering to
the implements of their trade on the festival of Deothan Igaras. The
village Brahman serves as their priest. In Balaghat a Kumhar is put
out of caste if a dead cat is found in his house. At the census of
1901 the Kumhar was ranked with the impure castes, but his status is
not really so low. Sir D. Ibbetson said of him: "He is a true village
menial; his social standing is very low, far below that of the Lohar
and not much above the Chamar. His association with that impure beast,
the donkey, the animal sacred to Sitala, the smallpox goddess, pollutes
him and also his readiness to carry manure and sweepings." As already
seen there are in the Central Provinces Sungaria and Gadheria subcastes
which keep donkeys and pigs, and these are regarded as impure. But in
most Districts the Kumhar ranks not much below the Barhai and Lohar,
that is in what I have designated the grade of village menials above
the impure and below the cultivating castes. In Bengal the Kumhars
have a much higher status and Brahmans will take water from their
hands. But the gradation of caste in Bengal differs very greatly from
that of other parts of India.

4. The Kumhar as a village menial

The Kumhar is not now paid regularly by dues from the cultivators
like other village menials, as the ordinary system of sale has no
doubt been found more convenient in his case. But he sometimes takes
the soiled grass from the stalls of the cattle and gives pots free
to the cultivator in exchange. On Akti day, at the beginning of the
agricultural year, the village Kumhar of Saugor presents five pots with
covers on them to each cultivator and receives 2 1/2 lbs. of grain
in exchange. One of these the tenant fills with water and presents
to a Brahman and the rest he reserves for his own purposes. On the
occasion of a wedding also the bridegroom's party take the bride to
the Kumharin's house as part of the _sohag_ ceremony for making the
marriage propitious. The Kumhar seats the bride on his wheel and turns
it round with her seven times. The Kumharin