awe Kartar.

Here _Ar_ means an iron goad and signifies the Lohar; _Dhar_ represents
the sound of the oil falling from the press and means a Teli or oilman;
_Chuchkar_ is an imitation of the sound of clothes being beaten against
a stone and denotes the Dhobi or washerman; and the phrase thus runs,
'My Friend, beware of the Lohar, Teli, and Dhobi, for they are of evil
omen.' It is not quite clear why this disrepute should attach to the
Lohar, because iron itself is lucky, though its colour, black, may be
of bad omen. But the low status of the Lohar may partly arise from the
fact of his being a village menial and a servant of the cultivators;
whereas the trades of the goldsmith, brass-smith and carpenter are of
later origin than the blacksmith's, and are urban rather than rural
industries; and thus these artisans do not commonly occupy the position
of village menials. Another important consideration is that the iron
industry is associated with the primitive tribes, who furnished the
whole supply of the metal prior to its importation from Europe: and it
is hence probable that the Lohar caste was originally constituted from
these and would thus naturally be looked down upon by the Hindus. In
Bengal, where few or no traces of the village community remain, the
Lohar ranks as the equal of Koiris and Kurmis, and Brahmans will take
water from his hands; [104] and this somewhat favours the argument that
his lower status elsewhere is not due to incidents of his occupation.

3. Caste subdivisions

The constitution of the Lohar caste is of a heterogeneous nature. In
some localities Gonds who work as blacksmiths are considered to
belong to the caste and are known as Gondi Lohars. But Hindus who
work in Gond villages also sometimes bear this designation. Another
subdivision returned consists of the Agarias, also an offshoot of the
Gonds, who collect and smelt iron-ore in the Vindhyan and Satpura
hills. The Panchals are a class of itinerant smiths in Berar. The
Ghantras or inferior blacksmiths of the Uriya country have already
been noticed. The Ghisaris are a similar low class of smiths in the
southern Districts who do rough work only, but sometimes claim Rajput
origin. Other subcastes are of the usual local or territorial type,
as Mahulia, from Mahul in Berar; Jhade or Jhadia, those living in
the jungles; Ojha, or those professing a Brahmanical origin; Maratha,
Kanaujia, Mathuria, and so on.

4. Marriage and other cu