door,
after bathing and changing all her clothes. The old clothes are given
away to a barber or washerman, and the presentation of new clothes
by the second husband is the only essential ceremony. No wife will
look on a widow's face on the night of her second marriage, for fear
lest by doing so she should come to the same position. The majority of
the caste abstain from liquor, and they eat flesh in some localities,
but not in others. The men commonly wear beards divided by a shaven
patch in the centre of the chin; and the women have two body-cloths,
one worn like a skirt according to the northern custom. Mr. Crooke
states [457] that "in northern India a tradition exists among them
that the cultivation of sugar is fatal to the farmer, and that the
tiling of a house brings down divine displeasure upon the owner;
hence to this day no sugar is grown and not a tiled house is to be
seen in their estates." These superstitions do not appear to be known
at all in the Central Provinces.

Rajjhar

1. General notice

_Rajjhar, Rajbhar, Lajjhar._--A caste of farmservants found in the
northern Districts. In 1911 they numbered about 8000 persons in the
Central Provinces, being returned principally from the Districts
of the Satpura plateau. The names Rajjhar and Rajbhar appear to be
applied indiscriminately to the same caste, who are an offshoot of
the great Bhar tribe of northern India. The original name appears
to have been Raj Bhar, which signifies a landowning Bhar, like
Raj-Gond, Raj-Korku and so on. In Mandla all the members of the
caste were shown as Rajbhar in 1891, and Rajjhar in 1901, and the
two names seem to be used interchangeably in other Districts in the
same manner. Some section or family names, such as Bamhania, Patela,
Barhele and others, are common to people calling themselves Rajjhar
and Rajbhar. But, though practically the same caste, the Rajjhars
seem, in some localities, to be more backward and primitive than the
Rajbhars. This is also the case in Berar, where they are commonly
known as Lajjhar and are said to be akin to the Gonds. A Gond will
there take food from a Lajjhar, but not a Lajjhar from a Gond. They
are more Hinduised than the Gonds and have prohibited the killing or
injuring of cows by some caste penalties. [458]

2. Origin and subdivisions

The caste appears to be in part of mixed origin arising from the
unions of Hindu fathers with women of the Bhar tribe. Several of
th