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does not seem to involve any such sacrifice of insect life. The Lorhas appear to be a mixed group, with a certain amount of Rajput blood in them, perhaps an offshoot of the Kirars, with whose social customs their own are said to be identical. According to another account, they are a lower or illegitimate branch of the Lodha caste of cultivators, of whose name their own is said to be a corruption. The Nimar Gujars have a subcaste named Lorha, and the Lorhas of Hoshangabad may be connected with these. They live in the Seoni and Harda tahsils of Hoshangabad, the _san_-hemp crop being a favourite one in villages adjoining the forests, because it is not subject to the depredations of wild animals. Cultivators are often glad to sublet their fields for the purpose of having a crop of hemp grown upon them, because the stalks are left for manure and fertilise the ground. String and sacking are also made from the hemp-fibre by vagrant and criminal castes like the Banjaras and Bhamtas, who formerly required the bags for carrying their goods and possessions about with them. Mahar List of Paragraphs 1. _General Notice._ 2. _Length of residence in the Central Provinces._ 3. _Legend of origin._ 4. _Sub castes._ 5. _Exogamous groups and marriage customs._ 6. _Funeral rites._ 7. _Childbirth._ 8. _Names._ 9. _Religion._ 10. _Adoption of foreign religions._ 11. _Superstitions._ 12. _Social rules_. 13. _Social subjection_. 14. _Their position improving_. 15. _Occupation_. 1. General Notice. _Mahar, Mehra, Dhed._--The impure caste of menials, labourers and village watchmen of the Maratha country, corresponding to the Chamars and Koris of northern India. They numbered nearly 1,200,000 persons in the combined Province in 1911, and are most numerous in the Nagpur, Bhandara, Chanda and Wardha Districts of the Central Provinces, while considerable colonies are also found in Balaghat, Chhindwara and Betul. Their distribution thus follows largely that of the Marathi language and the castes speaking it. Berar contained 400,000, distributed over the four Districts. In the whole Province this caste is third in point of numerical strength. In India the Mahars number about three million persons, of whom a half belong to Bombay. I am not aware of any accepted derivation for the word Mahar, but the balance of opinion seems to be that the native name
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