and Bharbhunja or confectioner
and grain-parcher. The Sansia or stone-mason of the Uriya country
may perhaps also be included. These industries represent a higher
degree of civilisation than the village trades, and the workers may
probably have been formed into castes at a later period, when the
practice of the handicrafts was no longer despised. The metal-working
castes are now usually urban, and on the average their members are
as well-to-do as the cultivators. The Sunars especially include a
number of wealthy men, and their importance is increased by their
association with the sacred metal, gold; in some localities they
now claim to be Brahmans and refuse to take food from Brahmans. [62]
The more ambitious members abjure all flesh-food and liquor and wear
the sacred thread. But in Bombay the Sunar was in former times one
of the village menial castes, and here, before and during the time
of the Peshwas, Sunars were not allowed to wear the sacred thread,
and they were forbidden to hold their marriages in public, as it was
considered unlucky to see a Sunar bridegroom. Sunar bridegrooms were
not allowed to see the state umbrella or to ride in a palanquin, and
had to be married at night and in secluded places, being subject to
restrictions and annoyances from which even Mahars were free. Thus
the goldsmith's status appears to vary greatly according as his
trade is a village or urban industry. Copper is also a sacred metal,
and the Tameras rank next to the Sunars among the artisan castes,
with the Kasars or brass-workers a little below them; both these
castes sometimes wearing the sacred thread. These classes of artisans
generally live in towns. The Barhai or carpenter is sometimes a village
menial, but most carpenters live in towns, the wooden implements of
agriculture being made either by the blacksmith or by the cultivators
themselves. Where the Barhai is a village menial he is practically
on an equality with the Lohar or blacksmith; but the better-class
carpenters, who generally live in towns, rank higher. The Sansia or
stone-mason of the Uriya country works, as a rule, only in stone,
and in past times therefore his principal employment must have been
to build temples. He could not thus be a village menial, and his
status would be somewhat improved by the sanctity of his calling. The
Halwai and Bharbhunja or confectioner and grain-parcher are castes of
comparatively low origin, especially the latter; but they have to b