Note 7 — D.

Darvesh.—A general Persian word for a faqîr. Mr. Platts derives it from the Zend root drigh, “to be poor, to beg,” and compares the Sanskrit darbh, root dribh and daridra. The term in these Provinces does not seem to denote a special caste; but Mr. Ibbetson7 notices in the Panjâb that there seems to be a colony of people of this name, who cultivate land, play musical instruments, beg, make ropes, go to a house where there has been a death and chant the praises of the deceased, hang about mosques, and so forth. They are hardly ascetics, yet the small number of women seems to show that they have not yet formed into a separate caste, and are still recruited from outside.