Note 2 — Halwai

The social standing of the Halwai is respectable. “His art,” says Mr. Nesfield,2 “implies rather an advanced state of culture, and hence his rank in the social scale is a high one. There is no caste in India which considers itself too pure to eat what a confectioner has made. In marriage banquets it is he who supplies a large part of the feast, and at all times and seasons the sweetmeat is a favourite food to a Hindu requiring a temporary refreshment. There is a kind of bread called puri, consisting of wheaten dough fried in melted butter, which is taken as a substitute for the chapāti or wheaten pancake by travellers and others who happen to be unable to have their bread cooked at their own fire, and is made by the Halwais.”