Note 26 — A

Agrahari: Agrehri.—A sub-caste of Banyas found in considerable numbers in the Allahâbâd, Benares, Gorakhpur, Lucknow, and Faizâbâd divisions. They claim partly a Vaisya and partly a Brâhmanical descent, and wear the sacred cord. Their name has been connected with the cities of Agra and Agroha. Mr. Nesfield derives it from the agara or aloe wood, which is one of the many things which they sell. There is no doubt that they are closely connected with the Agarwâlas, and Mr. Nesfield suggests that the two groups must have been “sections of one and the same caste which quarrelled on some trifling question connected with cooking or eating, and have remained separate ever since.” Mr. Sherring remarks that they, unlike the Agarwâlas, allow polygamy, and Mr. Risley26 suggests that if this be true it may supply an explanation of the divergence of the Agraharis from the Agarwâlas. In Mirzapur they do allow polygamy, but with this restriction, that a man cannot marry a second wife in the lifetime of the first without her consent.