has are generally kind to dogs and will not
injure them. At the Dasahra festival the caste worship their horses
and swords and go out into the field to see a blue-jay in memory of
the fact that the Maratha marauding expeditions started on Dasahra. On
coming back they distribute to each other leaves of the _shami_ tree
(_Bauhinia racemosa_) as a substitute for gold. It was formerly held
to be fitting among the Hindus that the warrior should ride a horse
(geldings being unknown) and the zamindar or landowner a mare, as more
suitable to a man of peace. The warriors celebrated their Dasahra,
and worshipped their horses on the tenth day of the light fortnight
of _Kunwar_ (September), while the cultivators held their festival
and worshipped their mares on the ninth day. It is recorded that the
great Raghuji Bhonsla, the first Raja of Nagpur, held his Dasahra on
the ninth day, in order to proclaim the fact that he was by family
an agriculturist and only incidentally a man of arms. [217]

8. Present position of the caste

The Marathas present the somewhat melancholy spectacle of an
impoverished aristocratic class attempting to maintain some semblance
of their former position, though they no longer have the means
to do so. They flourished during two or three centuries of almost
continuous war, and became a wealthy and powerful caste, but they
find a difficulty in turning their hands to the arts of peace. Sir
R. Craddock writes of them in Nagpur:

"Among the Marathas a large number represent connections of the Bhonsla
family, related by marriage or by illegitimate descent to that house. A
considerable proportion of the Government political pensioners are
Marathas. Many of them own villages or hold tenant land, but as a
rule they are extravagant in their living; and several of the old
Maratha nobility have fallen very much in the world. Pensions diminish
with each generation, but the expenditure shows no corresponding
decrease. The sons are brought up to no employment and the daughters
are married with lavish pomp and show. The native army does not much
attract them, and but few are educated well enough for the dignified
posts in the civil employ of Government. It is a question whether
their pride of race will give way before the necessity of earning
their livelihood soon enough for them to maintain or regain some of
their former position. Otherwise those with the largest landed estates
may be saved by the intervention of