Note 96 — D. (continued 2)

Dorha; Daurha; Dauraha.96—A small caste found only in the Kheri District, who are so called because they make baskets (dauri). They have no sub-divisions. They call themselves Râjputs, the descendants of Râja Vena, who was the old world Brâhmanical type of impiety. They allege that the poorer members of the tribe were obliged by poverty to settle down in the Kheri District and take to their present occupation. Their rules of intermarriage and social position are very much the same as that of the Gorchhas (q.v.). Their present occupation is the making and selling of fans, baskets, boxes, etc. A few of them have taken to agriculture. They marry in the ordinary Hindu form, and employ a village Pandit to take the auspices. The essential part of the rite is the sevenfold perambulation of the bride and bridegroom round the central pole of the marriage shed (mando). The widow usually lives with her younger brother-in-law. The only rite at such marriages is investing her with a new set of glass bangles (chûri) and feeding the brethren. A wife can be turned out for misconduct, and can then marry again like a widow. They eat mutton and goat’s flesh, fowls and fish, and drink spirits. They will not eat the flesh of the cow, monkey, pig, or vermin like crocodiles, jackals, snakes, lizards, rats or the leavings of other people. No one will eat, drink, or smoke with them. They number only 68 souls in the Kheri District.