Nanded District Gazetteer

Population

POPULATION

THE POPULATION OF NANDED DISTRICT ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS OF 1961 is 10,79,674 (m. 5,47,974; f. 5,31,700). The rural areas accounted for 9.23.800 persons (m. 4,66,836; f. 4,56,970) and the urban areas for 1,55,868 persons, (m. 81,138; f. 74,730). The rural-urban ratio of population in the district works out at 6: 1 (approximately). The Census Report of 1911 analysed the growth of population in Marathvada districts. The following extracts borrowed from the Report throw a light on the population trends in Nanded district.

Growth of Population

“The population of Marathwara has not increased as rapidly as that of Telingana. Its percentage of increase during the decade might have been expected to show a larger increase than Telingana. The occurrence of plague in some of the Marathwara districts has been a counteracting influence. Even otherwise the increase of population in Marathwara cannot cope with that of Telingana. For one thing, practically all the cultivable area in the Division has come under cultivation and there is very little room for expansion. It has been pointed out in the first chapter that rice cultivation, which is inconsiderable in Marathwara, has the capacity of supporting a proportionately larger population than that of any other crops. The scanty and uncertain rainfall is another feature of the conditions of Marathwara which is, opposed to a rapid growth of population. It seems probable that Marathwara is already supporting a population much nearer to the maximum capacity of its agriculture than Telingana. If it develops modern industries, its possibilities will, of course, vastly increase. The case of Marathwara furnishes a good illustration of what has, been offered in paragraph 37 as one probable cause of the high price of food-grains. Nearly all the cultivable land is cultivated. The population is pressing against the margin of cultivation.”

Movement of Population in Marathwara districts

"It follows from what has been said in the last paragraph that considerable expansion of the population in the Marathwara districts cannot be expected in the natural course of things, and that when such an expansion does occur, some new development in the shape either of the substitution of more paying crops, of improved methods in cultivation or of the establishment of new industries should be looked for in explanation of it. When, however, the pressure of the land has been recently relieved by some great natural calamity or by emigration, the population will expand at a rapid rate till it encounters again the iron limits set by the lack of cultivable land to the growth of a predominantly agricultural community. "

The increase in Nanded district was 21.4 per cent during the decade. This increase was almost exactly in the same order as the decrease during the previous decade. That the increase was mainly due to the loss in 1901, is sufficiently plain. In Nanded the rebound has been proportionately greater than the loss during 1891-1901. This could be attributed to the cultivation of rice in certain parts of the district, and the opening of the Godavari Valley Railway route.

The population of Nanded district was 6,49,825 in 1921, of which the immigrants were 5,203. As per the 1931 Census, the actual population of the district stood at 7,06,773 of which 5,960 were immigrants.

The density of population per square mile during the respective Census year was as follows: -

1881	1891	1901	1911	1921	1931

183	186	153	186	178	192

The Census Report (Census of India, 1931, Vol. XXIII, Hyderabad State, Part I Report, p. 35.) of 1931 has observed that Since then (i.e., 1911 Census); one of the natural checks to the growth of the population, namely influenza, came into play and gave rise in the decade under report to a general increase of population in all the Marathwara districts……..8 in Nander…. but the fact remains that in none of these districts is there fresh cultivable land available to any large extent, and, therefore, it may be said that there is pressure of the population on the resources of the land."

The Census Report (Census of India, 1951, Vol. IX, Hyderabad, Part I A., pp. 50-51.) of 1951 summed up the growth of population in Nanded district in the following words" During the last three decades Nanded district has increased its population by 35.8 per cent which is considerably below the corresponding increase of 49.7 per cent recorded by the (Hyderabad) State. Even this impressive increase is to a large extent due to the industrial and commercial prosperity of Nanded town. This comparatively slow growth is due to various factors. The immigration into the district from all areas beyond the district is not keeping pace with growth of its population. The immigrants in this district formed 7.5 per cent of the total enumerated population of the district in 1921. The percentage decreased to 5.7 in 1931, i.e., during the trade depression. It has now again improved to 7.2, but is still lower what it was in 1921. Contrary to this, emigration from the district to other areas within the State records a decisive increase. These emigrants who numbered less than 19,000 in 1921 increased to 26,655 in 1931 and are now as much as 55,660. As explained in detail elsewhere, the neighbouring district of Nizamabad, is in attracting relatively a large number of emigrants from this district. There does not, however, seem to have been any remarked variation in the scale of emigration from the district to areas beyond the State. Thus both accelerated emigration and decelerated immigration and responsible to some extent to the retarded growth of the population of the district as compared to other areas in the State. There is no doubt that this district did record considerable progress in the earlier decades of this century, But subsequently, apart from the setting up of a textile factory in Nanded Town, the rate of this progress slowed down considerably. Besides, this district has also had its share of the epidemics, particularly plague and cholera, which break out from time to time in the State. Life in this district especially in Hadganv Tahsil and Nanded Town, was also dislocated considerably for some months prior to and following the Police Action. All these factors explain its relatively retarded growth as compared with the average for the State.

The growth of the population of this district since the beginning of this century is, however, relatively more imposing, This is due to the fact that, like Parbhani, this district benefited considerably during the decade 1901-1911 because of the opening of the Godavari Valley Railway line and the consequent expansion of industries and commerce and the fairly prosperous agricultural years which characterised the decade."

The growth of population in Nanded town has been analysed by the Census Report (Census of India, 1951, Vol. IX, Hyderabad Part, I-A, page 245.) of 1951 in the following words: "Nanded town had even less than 15,000 persons at the beginning of this century. It is now inhabited by over 65,000 persons, which makes it a very close second to Aurangabad the fourth town of the State. Thus, its population has increased by as much as 358 per cent during the course of the last fifty years. No other town in the State, apart from Kothagudem which suddenly developed into the largest colliery town in Southern India, records such an unusually heavy increase. But what makes this increase more remarkable is the fact that, although its population has increased consistently from decade to decade since 1901, the increase was by as much as 77 per cent during the last decade 1941-1951 itself. Nanded Town is now the second biggest of the agricultural markets in the whole of the State from the point of view of the value of its annual turnover. Besides, it is one of the most important of the State's industrial towns. This decade has firmly established its position as the chief commercial-cum-industrial urban unit in the north-western districts of the state. Its nearest competitor in the future decades is likely to be Jalana Town”.

The population of the district and decade variation rates since 1901 are given in the following table: -

TABLE No. 1

VARIATION IN POPULATION DURING SIXTY YEARS, NANDED DISTRICT

District / Tahsil (1)	Year (2)	Persons (3)	Decade Variation (4)	Percentage Decade Variation (5)	Males (6)	Females (7)

DISTRICT TOTAL	1901	550,261	. .	. .	274,628	275,633

	1911	671,066	+120,805	+21.95	336,431	334,635
	1921	649,825	-21,241	-3.17	328,083	321,742
	1931	706,773	+56,948	+8.76	359,522	347,251
	1941	784,289	+77,516	+10.97	399,103	385,186
	1951	883,531	+99,242	+12.65	445,558	437,973
	1961	1,079,674	+196,143	+22.20	547,974	531,700
Kinwat Tahsil	1951	88,210	. .	. .	44,195	44,015
	1961	117,137	+28,927	+32.79	58,561	58,576
Hadganv Tahsil	1951	108,643	. .	. .	54,510	54,133
	1961	137,236	+28,593	+26.32	69,122	68,114
Nanded Tahsil	1951	163,198	. .	. .	83,455	79,743
	1961	196,307	+33,109	+20.29	101,538	94,769
Bhokar Mahal	1951	72,780	. .	. .	35,953	36,827
	1961	88,137	+15,357	+21.10	44,015	44,122
Kandhar Tasil	1951	145,078	. .	. .	73,731	71,347
	1961	173,412	+28,334	+19.53	89,017	84,395
Biloli Tahsil	1951	151,289	. .	. .	75,303	75,986
	1961	176,055	+24,766	+16.37	88,152	87,903
Mukhed Mahal	1951	82,086	. .	. .	41,873	40,213
	1961	101,477	+19,391	+23.62	51,845	49,632
Deglur Tahsil	1951	72,461	. .	. .	36,649	35,812
	1961	89,913	+17,452	+24.08	45,724	44,189

* The 1951 Census Population of Remtapur village is not included in the District Total.However the same is included in the Deglur tahsil (1951). Hence tahasilwise figures will not add up to District Total.

The population of the district increased by 22 percent in the decade 1901-11. The satisfactory conditions of crops and recovery from the famine in the earlier decade contributed to the considerable growth of population. Besides the opening of the Godavari Valley Railway line and consequent expansion of commerce and industries contributed to the growth of population. The crop failures and influenza epidemic of 1918-19 were the principal reasons for the decrease of 3.17 per cent in the population during 1911-21. In the decade 1921-31, the population increased by 8.76 per cent particularly due to the improved crop conditions. From 1931 onwards the population continued to increase. The decade 1951-61 witnessed the highest growth rate of 22.2 per cent. This could be attributed to the control of epidemics and other diseases since 1950. The reduced death rate contributed to the higher growth rate substantially.

The percentage variation of population during 1951-61 for the district and each of the tahsils is given below :-

Nanded district	+22.20
Kinwat tahsil	+32.79
Hadganv tahsil	+26.32
Nanded tahsil	+20.29
Kandhar tahsil	+19.53
Biloli tahsil	+16.37
Deglur tahsil	+24.08
Bhokar mahal	+21.10
Mukhed mahal	+23.62

The density of population in Nanded district (271 per square mile) is lower than the density in Maharastra State {334 per square mile). The following statement gives the density in Nanded district and its tahsils.

	Density Per square Mile

	1951	1961
Nanded district	221	271
Kinwat tahsil	110	146
HadgaIiv tahsil	181	228
Hadganv tahsil	413	497
Bhokar mahal	182	221
Kandhar tahsil	231	276
BilolI tahsil	268	312
Mukhed mahal	243	300
Deglur tahsil	277	343

Density of Population

The district witnessed a very sharp increase in the density of population from 163 in 1921 to 271 per square mile in 1961. However, the density in the district has been lower than the State average at every Census enumeration.

The density of population varies from 146 persons in Kinwat tahsil to 497 persons per square mile in Nanded tahsil. The difference might be due to topography, state of agriculture and the growth of urban centres. The high density in Nanded tahsil is mainly due to the Nanded town. The northern tahsils (Hadganv, Kinwat and Bhokar) are sparsely populated. This can be attributed to the undulating topography and forest areas. In the central and southern tahsils the soil is fertile and capable of maintaining higher density of population.

Urban Population

The extent of urbanisation of population in Nanded district compares less favourably with that in Maharastra State. As per the 1961 Census the percentage of urban population to total population is 14.44 in Nanded district and 28.22 in Maharashtra State. The development of urban centres has been slow in the district.

The proportion of urban population decreased in 1911, in comparison to that of 1901. Since then it registered a gradual increase up to 1951. The 1961 Census witnessed a decline in urban population. Since 1911 the number of towns also witnessed an increase up to 1951. The Census of 1961 redefined the term town and as such places returned as towns in former Censuses were declassified by the Census of 1961. This resulted in the decrease of urban population.

The following table gives the urban population, the rate of decade variation in urban population and the percentage of urban to total population at each Census since 1901:-

AREA AND POPULATION IN URBAN AREAS, NANDED DISTRICT

Year	Area Sq Miles	Km2	Persons	Decade Variation	Percentage Decade Variation	Percentage of urban population to total population	Males	Females
1	2		3	4	5	6	7	8
1901	. .	. .	33,806	. .	. .	6.14	16,978	16,828
1911	. .	. .	39,027	+5,221	+15.44	5.82	19,764	19,263
1921	. .	. .	41,410	+2,383	+6.11	6.37	20,951	20,459
1931	. .	. .	54,708	+13,298	+32.11	7.74	28,337	26,371
1941	. .	. .	76,211	+21,503	+39.31	9.72	39,312	36,899
1951	. .	. .	138,307	+62,096	+81.48	15.65	70,609	67,698
1961	91.8	237.8	155,868	+17,561	+12.70	14.44	81,138	74,730

The 1961 Census returns regarding area and population of towns in the district are given in the following table:-

Town	Area		Population
	sq. miles	km2
1	2	3	4
Nanded	3.73	9.66	81,087
Deglur	7.33	18.98	14,636
Dharmabad	14.42	37.35	9,917
Kundalvadi	8.49	21.99	8,761
Kinwat	13.00	33.67	7,221
Kandhar	5.61	14.53	6,630
Mukhed	12.78	33.10	6,610
Hadganv	9.91	25.67	5,522
Peth Umari	3.22	8.34	4,443
Biloli	7.57	19.61	4,400

Rural Population

Nanded district has remained predominantly rural in character. The percentage of rural population to total population is as high as 85.56 (1961 Census). The corresponding percentage for Maharastra State is 71.78.

The rural population of Nanded district increased by 78.87 per cent in 1961 over that in 1901 (The percentage of the population over a period of time was larger in rural than in urban areas.) , and by 51.84 per cent over that in 1921.

The rate of growth of urban population has been faster than that of rural population. Increased urbanisation took place at the cost of rural population increased at a lower rate than total population. The Censuses of 1911 and 1961 however recorded a higher growth rate of rural population over total population. This phenomenon during 1961 can be attributed, among other reasons, to the declassification of one town into a village.

The following table gives the rates of variation and the percentages of rural population to total population in the district since 1901:-

VARIATION IN RURAL POPULATION IN NANDED DISTRICT

(1901 to 1961)

Year	Rate of variation in rural population	Percentage of rural population to total population
1	2	3
1901	. .	93.86
1911	+22.38	94.18
1921	-3.74	93.63
1931	+7.17	92.26
1941	+8.59	90.28
1951	+5.25	84.35
1961	+23.96	85.56

The following table gives the area, number of inhabited villages, rural population, average population per inhabited village and number of inhabited villages per 100 square miles of rural area :--

AREA, POPULATION AND VILLAGES IN RURAL AREAS OF NANDED DISTRICT IN 1961

District / Tahsil	Area		Number of inhabited villages	Rural population	Average population per inhabited villages	Number of inhabited villages per 100 square miles of rural area
	Sq. miles	Sq. km
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
Nanded District	3,897.9	10,095.5	1,325	923.806	697	34
1 Kinwat Tahsil	798.9	2,043.2	191	109,916	575	24
2 Hadganv Tahsil	591.1	1,530.9	186	131,714	708	31
3 Nanded Tahsil	385.4	998.2	181	108,619	600	47
4 Bhokar Mahal	396.2	1,026.1	127	83,694	659	32
5 Kandhar Tahsil	623.5	1,614.9	200	166,782	834	32
6 Biloli Tahsil	533.0	1,380.6	218	152,937	702	41
7 Mukhed Mahal	325.1	842.0	124	94,867	765	38
8 Deglur Tahsil	254.7	659.6	98	75,277	768	38

The frequency distribution of villages according to population is given below :-

VILLAGE CLASSIFIED BY POPULATION, 1961

Population Group	Number of inhabited villages	Population
1	2	3	4

Total Rural areas	1,325	466,836	456,970
Villages with Less than 200	174	10,461	10,096
Villages with 200 --- 499	425	75,209	73,281
Villages with 500 --- 999	485	175,169	172,645
Villages with 1,000 --- 1,999	185	126,121	123,960
Villages with 2,000 --- 4,999	53	71,051	68,583
Villages with 5,000 --- 9,999	3	8,825	8,405
Villages with 10,000 and above	. .	. .	. .

Migration

Migration of population is an important aspect to be considered in the study of population. The statistics of immigration in Nanded district as furnished by the 1961 Census reveal that the immigrants form a very sizeable proportion of the total persons enumerated. This can be attributed to, (i) the industrial and commnercial developnment of Nanded town, (ii) settlement of sikhs of Punjab origin in the Gurudwar town of Nanded, and (iii) the reorganisation of States on linguistic basis in 1956. In the case of Women, marriage is an important factor affecting migration.

The proportion of population enumerated at place of birth and other places is given in the following table:

POPULATION BY PLACES OF BIRTH, NANDED DISTRICT, 1961

	Total population	Place of enumeration	Elsewhere in the district	Outside the district but in Maharastra	Outside Maharastra
1	2	3	4	5	6

Persons	1,079,674	709,417	255,048	69,294	44,648
Males	547,974	441,369	64,970	23,761	17,372
Females	531,700	268,048	190,078	45,533	27,276
Percentage to total
Percentage to total
Persons	100	65.78	23.65	6.43	4.14
Males	100	80.78	11.87	4.34	3.17
Females	100	50.48	35.80	8.58	5.14

The lower percentage of women born at the place of enumeration is generally due to women married outside their place of birth. The marriage migration of females is considerably higher from within the district and from the adjoining districts as well. "Nanded being a border district, marriage may be an important factor for a large number of females migrating from the adjoining districts of Andhra Prades (District Census Handbook, Nanded District, 1961, p. 16.)".

LANGUAGES

The mode of expression of any section of the people is an important aspect in the study of the people and their culture. Hence the study of languages becomes an integral part of the study of the people. The study becomes all the more interesting due to the presence of a multiplicity of languages and dialects. Though most of the dialects have a distinguishable and identifiable character, many of them present an interesting admixture due to proximity.

The multi-lingual pattern in Nanded district is influenced mainly by two factors. The first of these is location of the district in the linguistic map. It occupies. an area on the border between Maharashtra and Telugu speaking Andhra Pradesh. Hence there is a considerable influence of Telugu on Marathi and other languages in Nanded. The second factor is the dominance of Urdu during the Nizam rule. Urdu, which was an official language during the Nizams was almost a compulsory subject in schools and colleges. It was also a medium of instruction at the Osmania University. Till the establishment of the Marathwada University, Nanded was included in the jurisdiction. of the Osmania University.

The languages and dialects, returned as mother tongues in 1961 Census, are given below:

LANGUAGES AND DIALECTS IN NANDED DISTRICT, 1961

Mother Tongue	Total	Percentage to total population	Males	Females
1	2	3	4	5

Marathi	7,91,195	73.28	4,01,799	3,89,396
Urdu	1,17,041	10.84	59,532	57,509
Telugu	68,483	6.34	34,260	34,223
Banjari	49,179	4.56	24,701	24,478
Kannada	17,887	1.66	9,191	8,696
Hindi	14,791	1.37	8,004	6,787
Gondi	13,209	1.22	6,427	6,782
Gujarati	1,793	0.17	923	870
Others	3,350	0.31	1,685	1,665

The mother tongues included under the heading 'others' are given below. (Figures. in brackets indicate number of speakers). Arabic (7); Bangargi {2); Beldari (102); Bengali (10); Bhilli (225); English (21); Ghibadi (442); Kacchi (247); Kaikadi (468) ; Khasi {6); Khati (8); Khatri (80); Kolami (20); Kolhati (755); Konkani (13); Malyalam (71); Mamani (2); Nepali (10); Pancali {1); Paradhi (143); Persian (15); Sindhi (460); Tamil (141); and Tirguli (101).

The Kinwat tahsil which formed part of the Adilabad district previously presents an interesting pattern of languages. The mother-tongue of the aboriginal population in Kinwat is the Gondi dialect and its variants which have an affinity towards Marathi, Telugu and Hindustani.

Marathi

Marathi is the principal language spoken by the vast majority of the people (73.28 per cent of the total population) in the district. The 1961 Census returned 7,91,195 persons having Marathi as their mother-tongue. Besides this, almost all those whose mother-tongue is not Marathi, can understand Marathi because of their close association with the local people. Similarly many of those whose mother-tongue is Marathi can understand and speak Urdu whose speakers are mostly numerous next to the Marathi speakers.

It is, however, noteworthy that the intonation and accents of the Marathi speaking masses, in the district differ immensely from those in Western Maharashtra.

The Marathi accents show an explicit influence of Urdu, Telugu and Gondi presenting a strange admixture of grammar and idioms. The vocabulary of the people also exhibits an interesting admixture of Urdu and Telugu words with Marathi.

Urdu

Urdu is the second important language in the district. It is returned as a mother-tongue (Statistics based on 1961 Census returns.) by 10.8 per cent of the total population. The bulk of the Muhammedans return themselves as speaking Urdu. It is prevalent to a greater extent in urban areas where its speakers form 32.4 per cent of the total population, In rural Nanded, however, Urdu speakers are only 7.2 per cent at the total population.

The Urdu spoken in the district shows a profound impress of Marathi, Telugu and Hindustani. Many words from these languages are freely used in spoken Urdu.

Gondi

The Gondi language is mainly to be found in the Kinwat tahsil which formerly formed part of the Adilabad district, The Gonds are inhabited in the forest regions of Kinwat which are adjacent to Adilabad district. The 1961 Census enumerated 13,209 persons who profess Gondi to be their mother-tongue. The percentage of Gondi speakers to total population is 1.22 in the district.

The Gondi as spoken in Kinwat tahsil, shows a strong Marathi influence. Of the Gonds “more than half are under the influence of the Marathi language and ways of living. The Gond of Kinwat and Rajura knows Marathi well. He does not know Telugu” (Among the Gonds of Adilabad by Setu Madhava Rao Pagdi p.2).

BILINGUALISM

A sizeable proportion of people can speak one or more languages other than their mother-tongue. This bilingual population is enumerated by the 1961 Census. In the table that follows, the second column gives the total number of speakers for each mother-tongue. The third column shows the number of those out of them who speak one or more subsidiary languages. The break up of those speakers of the main subsidiary language is given in the subsequent columns.

BILINGUALISM, NANDED DISTRICT, 1961

Mother tongue	Total Speakers	Persons Speaking a Language subsidiary to Mother tongue	Subsidiary languages
			Banjari	Gondi	Hindi	Kannada	Marathi	Telugu	Urdu
Marathi	791,195	71,166	595	364	33,499	7,675	. .	19,316	6,571
Urdu	117,041	39,035	2	5	1,870	613	32,898	1866	. .
Telugu	68,483	28,583	9	28	1,893	1,193	24,860	. .	429
Banjari	49,179	25,479	not available
Kannada	17,887	12387	. .	. .	413	. .	10,855	1,045	35
Hindi	14,791	5,340	5	3	. .	16	4,825	144	106
Gondi	13,209	7,510	. .	. .	11	. .	7,399	97	1

Population by Religion

The principal religious communities in the district are Hindus Muslims Buddhists and Sikhs. The following tables give the numerical strength of the various religious communities: -

TABLE No. 10
POPULATION BY RELIGION FROM 1911 TO 1951, NANDED DISTRICT

Religion	1911		1921		1931		1941		1951
	Males	Female	Males	Female	Males	Female	Males	Female	Males	Female
(Hindus included, harijan, Virasaivas, Aryas.)Hindus	3,13495	3,14,157	2,91,222	2,87,807	3,15,495	3,05,770	3,46,913	3,34,917	4,18,360	4,13,883
Musalmans	36,708	35,481	37,413	37,413	41,667	39,488	50,880	48,592	56,427	57,083
Sikhs	700	623	605	605	869	719	795	668	1,312	1,146
Animists	1,194	1,142	8,459	8,459	8,231	8,138	9,664	9,084	24	19
Christians	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	109	138	235	209
Jains	. .	. .	. .	. .	556	529	634	578	608	565
Parsees	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	39	39	. .	. .
Others	541	508	479	479	352	267	31	34	44	21
Total	352,638	351,911	338,178	338,178	356,170	354,911	409,065	394,050	477,010	472,926

POPULATION BY RELIGION, NANDED DISTRICT, 1961

Religion	Total		Rural		Urban
	Males	Females	Males	Females	Males	Females
Buddhists	40,895	39,708	36,267	35,314	4,628	4,394
Christians	271	266	74	32	197	234
Hindus	444,737	431,562	395,398	387,578	49,339	43,984
Jains	949	802	457	353	492	449
Muslims	59,577	58,020	34,278	33,437	25,299	24583
Sikhs	1,527	1,319	362	256	1,165	1,063
Other Religions	18	23	. .	. .	18	23
Religion not stated	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .	. .

Hindus

Hindus are the most numerous in the Nanded district. Of the total population, 81.16 per cent people (Census of 1961) are Hindus, the percentages for rural and urban areas being 84.75 and. 59.87, respectively. The 1961 Census enumerated 8,76.299 Hindus in the district, of whom 7,82,976 are the residents of rural areas and the rest, viz., 93,323 of the urban areas.

The Hindus, however, form a comparatively lower percentage of the urban population. "This is due mainly to the concentration of Muslims-and of the other minorities in urban area, and to a smaller extent, to the fact that the more numerous of the Hindu castes are agricultural by profession." (Census of India; 195 J, Hyderabad. Vol. IX, Part I-A Report.)

Social Life

Under the influence of modern civilization, the joint family system is crumbling everywhere in India but since Nanded is much in the interior and Industrialisatlon or urbanisatlon of the district has yet to take place, a joint family, with a grand-parent as the leader with not only brothers and their families, but even cousins and their families is by no means a rare sight. It is, still found useful for agricultural pursuits being followed jointly and under the direction of an elderly and experienced person. But the tendency for agricultural holdings is to divide and sub-divide and agriculture to be neglected in its several aspects. It is difficult to say whether this is the cause or the effect of the break-down of the joint family. Ancestral property according to Hindu law is divided equally between sons and recent legislation has provided for even daughters to claim a share in it. In the case of self acquired property, the owner has a free choice to bequeath it to whomsoever he wills and in the proportion he desires or gift it away to any religious, social or charitable purpose. Under religious influence, it was once considered sinful to have to die without a male issue and a son was adopted to inherit property and provide for the other-worldly well-being of the adopter. The spiritual aspect of it was a make-believe even in old days and now with modern ideas influencing. people, the system of adoption is fast falling in disuse. People no longer see any merit even in the family name being perpetuated and an issueless parent adopting a son is becoming a rarity. Law courts provide any number of examples. of a widowed mother adopting a son and coming into conflict with him for one reason or other and this has acted as deterrent to the system of adoption being resorted to for preserving a family name or its property.

Marriage and Morals

According to Hindu religion - and tradition of several centuries, marriage has been regarded as a sacred and inevitable obligation for both man and woman. It has been traditionally regarded as a sacrament and not a contract which is dissoluble. Marriages between members of different varnas and castes are not favourably looked upon by the members of the caste concerned. Yet, of late, under modern influence, the inequity of the caste system is realised and social reformers speak and write against its continuance. It is breaking down, but very slowly. In urban areas, inter-caste marriages are coming into vogue. Not only different castes, but even sub-castes did not favour mixing of blood and the verification of Gotras and Pravaras once held sway and those who did nor contorm to these rules were considered sinners. Now even Sagotra marriages are lawful and valid. Astrological agreement between the horoscopes of the bride and the bridegrcom has been considered as of importance even today, though even this is being looked upon as a mere superstition by the younger generation. The four months of the rainy season were not considered auspicious, for celebration and solemnisation of marriages, but even that restriction is falling into disuse as registration of marriages becomes more popular, because it is convenient and less expensive.

Yet tradition dies hard and in the rural areas of Nanded most of the frivolous practices continue unabated and a number of social customs and practices that have a local significance have also remained intact. The marriage celebration spreads over three or four days and other consequential ceremonies extend over a whole year, indeed until the bride gives birth to a child, preferably a son. These non-essentials are gradually becoming a thing of the past. They were the excrescences that had grown around the essentials because of the leisurely life people could lead till the end of the last century. With the World War I and the World War II, the whole social life has undergone a tremendous transformation. Most of these non-essentials were just frivolous and devised to create laughter, fun and merriment for the elders.

This change in popular sentiment has found expression in the country's legislation also; thus, the law against child marriage was framed during the British regime. The justice and the desirability of the contractual element even in holy wedlock was recognised and divorce under certain conditions is now permissible, though by no means has it become easy. Freedom to marry beyond one's caste has not only been conceded, hut even looked upon as something to be encouraged as an assault on the caste system. The Gotra barrier has also crumbled down. Marriages between members of sub-castes have become common enough. Inter-caste marriages may not be very frequent, but they no longer create any sensation when announced. Antagonism to them has positively broken down and social ostracism on that account is a thing of the past.

The marriage customs of the so-called higher caste Hindus and lower caste Hindus are essentially the same. Only the ritual among the former is conducted by – Vedic manttras and among the latter by what are called puranic mantras. Polygamy was nor infrequent till lately and even today cases of a man having taken two or three validity married wives may be found. particularly among the agriculturists, engaged in actual cultivation of land. It is for them an economic proposition as sure and free labour is at their command. However, polygamy has now been legally banned and may soon become a thing of the past.

According to time-honoured usage, rules of endogamy prohibit marriages outside a caste or sub-caste and rules of exogamy prohibit marriages between Sagotras, Sapindus and sapravaras. Brahmanas as a rule have gotras and pravaras handed down to them from generation to generation and they abide by gotra and pravara exogamy. Marathas claim kuli (stock) and devaka (Marriage guardians), but among them, the same is not necessarily a bar to marriage, the restriction being the sameness of kuli. Among many Brahman communities kuli and surname are observed as exogamous. Now even among Brahmans Sagotra and Sapravara marriages have been held valid under the Hindu Marriage Disabilities (Removal) Act of 1946. The prohibited degrees of kindred for marriage beyond agnates vary according to custom in the community concerned. Cross-cousin unions are disallowed, but strangely enough, union between a brother's daughter and a sister's son is not only tolerated, but is deliberately sought after among many communities of Hindus, including Sarasvat and Desastha Brahmans. Marriage with a wife's sister is allowed and a brother may also marry his brother's wife's sister, i.e., sisters may become sisters-in-law.

All Hindu marriages now conform substantially to what is described by the Manusmrti as the Brahma form of marriage, though seven other were presented as recognised and valid once upon a time. They included even kidnapping a bride or a forced marriage i.e. without the previous consent of the bride or her guardians. In the now extant Brahma form, the bride is given to the bridegroom with the approval of the parents or guardians of both for the express purpose of procreation. Five different variations of this main concept are noticeable. In what is known as salankrta Kanydana bride's father or his representative bedecks her with ornaments and jewellery and perhaps all other incidental expenses including the travelling expenses of the groom's entourage. Thus he goes all out to secure the groom of his choice. Ordinarily, each side pays its own expenses when the bride and groom are approved by each other and by those who take care of their interests. Presents to be made to each other are left to their choice. Such exchanges are inevitable on a joyous occasion.

Marriage feasts are also left to the free choice of either party. Hunda or dowry is now legally prohibited, but once it was a prohibitive condition among the so-called higher classes and even now the provisions of law are successfully circumvented , while arranging marital agreements by people who know how to dodge the law's purpose. Hunda was given by the bride's side to the bridegroom. When the process is reversed it is called Dej and it is the money paid for the bride by the groom's side. In either case it looked like a purchase of a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law.

The marriage ritual consists of a number of stages, and they are there because there are no love marriages or marriages by mutual choice. Usually, it is the parents or guardians who arrange marriages. Magni, is, therefore, the first stage among the backward communications among them it is the father of the groom or some one on his behalf who begins the negotiations at a prospective bride's house. Even among the so-called higher classes, this ritual is nominally observed at a function held a day previous to the marriage day, but it is only symbolic. Among these it is the bride's father who has to approach a prospective groom's house and it is assumed that the need of getting a girl married is greater than a boy. If there is no initial hitch, the family priests who are usually astrologers come on the scene and compare the horoscopes of the bride and the bridegroom. This practice also is increasingly becoming less important because faith in astrology is on the decline. If horoscopes agree, the marriage terms follow and a betrothal day is fixed. On that day pansupari is distributed among friends and relatives and the word of a marital partnership is mutually pledged. The next stage is sakharpuda in some places, called sakharsadi. On a mutually agreed day, the bridegroom's father or a close relative of his and friends go to the bride's house and present her with sweets and a sadi and bodice cloth and even some ornament. This is done at the hands of one or more suvasinis and some light refreshments are offered. Some days later, the bride’s relatives go to the bridegroom’s house for what is known as tilak or tila ceremony. The groom is given a head-dress, some clothes and a ring. This is not prevalent among all. But this is obviously a reciprocatory rite and these two constitute the betrothal.

When the wedding day approaches a rite called patrika pujan is gone through. This consists in worshipping the papers on which the names of the bride and the bridegroom are written by the priests of both -the parties with the God Ganes as a witness. Formal invitations are then given to family deities and. local gods and goddesses in various temples and they are invoked to bless the couple. Sometimes this is done with great ceremony in a procession of friends and relatives accompanied by their womenfolk to the accompaniment of music. This is the Aksat ceremony. A function called ghana is held a day before the wedding day in which women predominate. It is symbolic of what the bride and bridegroom are expected to do throughout their life and is performed both at the bride's and the bridegroom's. A turmeric root, some wheat and an arecanut are tied in a piece of unused cloth to the handle of the domestic grinding stone by married and unwidowed women. A little quantity of wheat and turmeric is ground by them while they sing couplets in praise of Ganes and Sarasvati. Two wooden pestles are then tied together with a piece of unused cloth, usually a bodice piece, containing a turmeric root, an; areca-nut and a little wheat, some quantity of wheat is put in a bamboo basket and pounded with these pestles. The provisions for the marriage ceremony are supposed to he prepared after this ceremony, but in practice they are prepared much before. The grinding stone and the pestles used for this ceremony are kept in the same position till all functions in connection with the marriage are gone through. Usually this ceremony is performed in the early hours of a day.

The next item, again not part of the religious ritual but insisted upon by womenfolk is halad and televan. A party of women (married but unwidowed) from the bridegroom’s, house go to the bride's house to the accompaniment of music, taking with them turmeric paste, scented oil and articles of dress. The bride is smeared with oil and turmeric paste and given a hot water bath. She is presented a new green sadi and a choli. The remnant of the turmeric paste and oil is taken back to the bridegroom's house. This is app1ied to his body with massage and he is also given a hot water bath. The bride's father presents him a new dress. He puts it on and accompanied by his father, other relatives and friends starts, in a procession and to the accompaniment of music, for the marriage ceremony, to the bride's house.

A number of propitiatory rites are gone through on the marriage day in both camps. Mandapa-pratistha or Dcvakapratistha this includes Ganapatipujana, Punyahavacana Nandisradha and Grahamukha. The whole place is, washed with cowdung and water. Suvasinis decorate it with rangoli and arrange three seats on the floor in one line with sacred cloth, usually woollen. The parents or those who act for them take bath, put on silk clothes and are seated with their faces eastwards.. Then a prayascitta (penance) is administered to the bride at her place and the groom at his, for not having performed certain sanskaras which ought to have been performed before. Fathers of bride and the bridegroom solemnly declare that the forthcoming marriage is in fulfilment of the debt due to gods and forefathers and to continue the performance of religious deeds and to propagate the race. This declaration is the recognition of marriage as a social duty. Prayers are then offered to Ganapati, the family deities, Mrtyunjaya and the planets by priest in order that the marriage ceremony should pass off without any impediment. Gadagner or kelavans i.e. congratulatory feasts are offered to the bride and bridegroom by friends and relatives on the eve of the marriage.

A formal declaration of the marriage settlement in the presence of friends and relatives is held on the day previous to marriage or the same day at the bride's house. It is called Vagniscaya. The groom’s father accompanied by a party of men and women goes ceremoniously to the bride's house. They are welcomed and seared according to their status and relationship. The bride is dressed in rich clothing and brought to the gathering as if to be viewed by all. The groom's father gives into her hands a coconut, a betel-leaf packet and announces thrice that he would accept her as his son's wife. The bride's father says he is pleased to hear it. Both of them meet each other in a ceremonial embrace and after the distribution of Pansupari to all, the ceremony is over. Then approaches the marriage hour. 'The bridegroom is ceremonially dressed and taken in procession to the bride's house by a party of men and women. His brow is decorated by what is called basing or mundaval. His left cheek is touched with lamp-black and he is seated either on horseback or in a carriage, now a days in an automobile. Behind the bridegroom is his sister or in the absence of one, a cousin, holding in her hand a lucky lamp and another elderly woman follows her with a metal jar or earthen pot filled with rice, betel-nut and water, covered with a twig of mango tree and a coconut set on a heap of rice in a bamboo basket. Other women follow theme The party halts at a previously fixed place for performing what is known as simantapujan i.e. cordial welcome on the boundary.

Usually the grooms brother or a cousin goes in advance to the bride's house and informs of the arrival of the party. The bride's party hastens to receive them all after making a suitable present to this informant. On arrival the bride-groom is worshipped by the bride’s father and the combined party proceeds to the bride's house, one or two suvasinis pour water on the horse's hoofs which the bridegroom rides. He then dismounts, and is welcomed by the bride's mother at the entrance of the mandap with a dish holding two wheat flour lamps. She waves them in front of the. bridegroom and lays them at his feet. Another suvasini pours a dish full of water mixed with lime and turmeric on his feet. The bridegroom presents her with a sadi and a bodice cloth, the bride's, father hands him a coconut and leads him by hand to a place prepared for him to he seated near a bahule, a small raised platform. All the guests are received and seated in the marriage hall. Soft music is played. . The family priest keeps a close watch on the ghatikapatra i.e. water-clock to begin the marriage ceremony so that it should be concluded at the right auspicious moment. While this is going on, the bride is given a bath and she is dressed in a special bridal dress and seated before what is called Gaurihara, (the marriage god, which is an image of Siva and his consor Gauri) asked to seek their blessings for a happy married life.

A little before the auspicious moment, the bride's, father worships the paper on which the muhurta has been written. Two small rice heaps are made near the marriage platform by the priest and a cloth with a central cross mark is held between the heaps. The bridegroom stands, on one and the bride on the other, and former facing west and the latter east. A mixture of rice and jire (cumin seeds) is given in the hands of both. Maternal uncles of the bride and bridegroom stand on either side of the curtain, and tell the bride and the bridegroom to look at the lucky cross (swastika) on the cloth and pray to their family gods. The priests recite auspicious verses and throw rice reddened with kumkum on both. Rice is distributed to all guests which they throw on both at the end of each verse. When the auspicious moment arrives, the astrologer claps his palms. This is a signal for all to clap and the musicians to play on their instruments. The curtain is drawn aside and the bride and bridegroom throw the rice mixture in their hand on each other's heads and garland each other.

This is followed by what is called madhuparka. This is a special reception to the bridegroom. The bride's father and mother sit on two pats (low stools) in front of the bridegroom who is seated all a slightly higher scat called chauranga. They wash his feet, the another helping in pouring warm water and the father scrubbing them. He then gives the groom flowers and pours on his right hand a spoonful of honey mixed with curds which is called madhuparka. The bridegroom sips it. If the parents have an elder son-in-law or sons-in-law, he or they are also offered madhuparka in the order of their seniority. The hands of the bride and the bridegroom are the joined by the father, a. pot of bell-metal is held by the priest under their joined hands and the mother pours water with some silver coins in it over their clasped hand. This is the process of kanyadna or giving the girl away to the bridegroom. This is considered a highly meritorious act on the part of a Hindu house-holder and this is signified by the chanting of the Sanskrt mantra, Kanya Tarayatu, Punyam Vardhatam. May the daughter save her father and let his merit grow. The father then present new clothes, ornaments and other articles to the bridegroom. He puts round the bride's neck, a lucky necklace called mangalsutra, made of black glass heads and some gold heads and a locket. God Ganes is then worshipped and Brahmanas are given daksina. The couple worships Laksmi, Indrani and Parvati. While this worship goes on, the guests in the marriage hall are given pansupari, coconuts, flowers, sweets, scent and rose-water as witnesses to the wedding. Saptapadi is the last marital rite, which consists in the bride and bridegroom going seven times round the marital fire. This over, the marriage becomes complete and valid. This is followed by panigrahana which makes the marriage irrevocable. Marriage wrist-laces known as kankanas are tied to the wrists of the couple and they are shown the Pole star or Dhruvatara as they stand holding each other's hands. This is symbolic of their pledge to stand steadfastly by each other.

The concluding social event of the ceremony is varat which means a ceremonial homeward return of the bridegroom, accompanied by his newly-wed wife. This usually takes place on the same night or the next night. In the old days, when the boys and girls of very young age were married, parents and other elders of the family and friends derived considerable fun and entertained themselves by making the boy and the girl go through a number of frivolous tricks and playful bouts. With adults as parties to the marriage, all this has disappeared. A relic of this is still to be noticed by way of making the couple partake food from the same plate and asking them feed each other, once or twice. After the varat, one more ceremony of special significance is held at the bridegroom's house. It is the ceremonial welcome extended to the bride by her mother-in-law. It is called sunmukhadarsan, literally seeing the face of the daughter-in-law. New clothes and. ornaments are given to the daughter-in-law and a spoonful of sugar is placed in her mouth by the mother-in-law.

The last religious ceremony is that of devakotthapan or unshrining of the devak. When this is over, Brahmanas and priests are rewarded for their services. During the marriage period, all guests are treated only to sweet feasts and vegetarian diet, and after the unshrining of the devak there is a licence as it were for eating meat and similar indulgences and most people go through them according to their means and often beyond their means.

During the last thirty years conditions of life have undergone a tremendous transformation. The marriageable age of boys and girls has considerably risen not only in urban but also in rural areas of the country, which is getting gradually but steadily industrialised. In this process, the time-honoured, leisurely and elaborate rituals, whether religious or social, are disappearing. So even those connected with the marriage institution have no place in the altered circumstances. Attempts have recently been made by religious and social reformers to rationalise and abridge even the whole marriage ceremonial, considered to be the most important in the life of every man and woman. This has happened to the other less important sanskaras also. Some of them have been abolished altogether while some others have been suitably abridged. Upanayana, for instance, otherwise called vratabandha or in popular language just munja is still observed but it is quite nominal. The sacred thread that is ceremonially given to every twice-born when he goes through the upanayana ceremony is still nominally retained by mere force of habit, but has ceased to have any significance and many have given up wearing it. Collective Upanayanas have come into vogue in certain places as a convenience just to record that people have not altogether ceased to care for the nominal initiation of children into the student stage with some religious, ceremony. The only other sanskaras that are still observed necessarily are in connection with birth, death and in the case of women, pregnancy.

Widow remarriage

The Hindu Dharmasastras or scriptures (generally do not favour the remarriage of widows, their view being that a true wife must preserve her chastity as much after as before her husband's death. The marriage rites they prescribe require the bride necessarily to be a virgin and therefore there cannot be any rites for a widow marriage. So, even though widow marriages are legally permissible according to the Hindu widow Re-marriage Act, 1856, they are not favoured by higher castes. Many of the lower Hindu castes and the tribals customarily allow the remarriage of widows, but among them also it is not popular. Some think it is disreputable and do not practise it. Among the Lingayats, the marriage of widows was one of the points all which Basava insisted and it is allowed at the present day. However, some of their authorities say that amongst Jangam it is prohibited and that amongst the other classes of Lingayats it is allowed by custom. Sravaks (Jain) do not allow a widow to marry. Among the lower Hindu castes who socially allow widow remarriage, it is known as pat, gandharva or mhotur and its solemnisation differs to some extent according to the castes. Among the Dhors a widow can marry her father's sister's son, maternal uncle's son or any member of her deceased husband's family. She cannot marry her mother's sister's son or her deceased husband's brother. A widow remarriage is celebrated on a dark night in a lonely spot. Some think the months of Asadh and Bhadrapd inauspicious for the ceremony. A Brahman or Jangam conducts the service. The widow is made to wear a white robe, and cowdung is applied to her brow, The priest then leads the new couple to the worship of Varuna and Ganapati, and the widow's brow is marked with red powder. The widow then puts on a new sadi and coli, and her lap is filled with grain. The filling of the widow's, lap is supposed to be the binding portion of the ceremony. A bachelor wishing to marry a widow is first married to a rui shrub.

Divorce

Communities which allow widow remarriage generally allow a divorce. Divorce is permitted on the ground of impotency in the case of a man, of adultery in the case of it women, and of the loss of caste in the case of either. Divorce is allowed on both sides if any permanent misunderstanding arises. In the latter case alone, divorced wives are at liberty to marry again after paying the first husband expenses incurred by him. Divorce is generally permitted with the sanction of the caste pancayat and the marriage of a divorced woman takes place by the widow remarriage form.

Religion

In the religious practices and beliefs of the Hindus acts of worship have been always playing a prominent part. In the Vedic times these mainly consisted of homas or devayajnas (sacrifices) to be performed after an intricate ritual of offering of food and fuel sticks (samidhas) into the sacrificial fire. Among the Brahmanic Hindus of modern times the ancient idea of homa has been replaced by a highly systematic ritual of image worship devapuja which is followed in the worship of Brahmanic images in Hindu temples and houses. When systematically performed it consists of an elaborate procedure consisting ordinarily of sixteen upacaras (ways of service) to be offered to the images or deities. These images are said to be eight-fold viz. made of stone, wood, iron, sandalwood or similar paste, drawn {as a picture), made of sand, of precious stone and lastly metal. They could also be of lead and bronze. Among stones the Salgram stone and the stone from Dwaraka marked with cakra (discus) are highly prized in the worship of Visnu, Banalingas from Narmada and Godavari in siva worship, metallic stone in Durga worship, crystal for sun-worship and red stone in worship.

Among the Brahmanic deities popularly worshipped the principal ones are Visnu under various. names and in various avataras, siva in his various forms, Durga, Ganes and the Sun. This worship of five devatas (deities) when offered in a group is known as pancyatanapuja, and according as the worshipper places one or other of the five in the centre, falls in five different arrangements such as: Visnu-pancayatana, Siva-pancayatana, Surya-pancayatana, Devi-pancayatana and Ganesa-pancayatana.

In the Mahabharat and the Ramayan it is frequently stated that God comes down to earth often for punishing the wicked, for the protection of the good and the establishment of dharma. Accordingly the popular concept deems Visnu to have descended to earth ten times to preserve the world and its, culture in his ten well-known avataras: Matsya (fish), Kurma (tortoise), Varaha (Boar), Narsimha (Man-lion), Vamana {dwarf), Parasurama, Raina, Krsna, Buddha and Kalanki. Of these Rama and Krsna as avataras of Visnu have temples dedicated to them and are worshipped at a number of places.

Siva worship appears to be the most ancient worship that is still prevalent, so also the worship of the phallic emblem of Siva. Of the innumerable linga temples the famous twelve Jyotirlingas are: Omkara at Mandhata, Mahakala at Ujjayini (modern Ujjain), Trymbak (near Nasik), Ghrsnesvara at Ellora, Naganath (towards east of Ahmadnagar), Bhima-sankara (at the source of Bhima river in the Sahyadris), Kedarnath at Garhwal, Visvesvara at Benares., Somanath in Saurastra, Vaijanath near Parali, Mallikarjuna at Srisaila, and Ramesvara in South India.

The worship of Durga has prevailed from ancient times, the goddess being known under various names such as Uma, Parvati, Devi, Ambika, Gauri, Candi, Candika, Kali, Kumari and Lalita. The Devimahatmya in the Markandeyapurana (chap. 81-83), is the principal sacred text of Durga worshippers in Northern India. Durga is also worshipped as sakti, the influence of which sect has been great throughout India.

Worship

Besides temples and images, the Hindus regard multiple othet objects with veneration and offer them worship. Of these the following ones similar as at many other places, have some importance in this district.

Tree Worship

A number of trees and plants are considered sacred and of religious importance, e.g. the bela (Aegle marmelos), the apta (Bauhmia racemosa), the banyan or vad (Ficus, bengalensis), the pipal or pimpal, (Fecus religosa), the umbar (Ficus glomerata), the swallow-wort rui (Calotropis gigantea), and the sweet basil tulas (Ocimum sanctum).

The bela which is planted near shrines and other holy places is believed to be the home of Parvati, the consort of god Sankara; its leaves are favourite offering to siva and Brahmans gain merit by repeating prayers sitting under its shade. The beta is seldom cut except by a few persons only. The apta (Bauhimia racemosa) may be worshipped by women on the bright ninth of shravan; on Dasara Day people give each other apta leaves taking them to be of gold. The banyan (vad), from its matted air-roots, is believed to be the emblem of Siva who wears matted hair; the fullmoon day of Jestha is particularly sacred to the tree, and with the object of lengthening their husband's and their children's, lives married women worship the tree on full moon days. The branches of vad serve as samidhas, a fuel in all the sacrifices. The pimpal (Ficus religiosa) is believed to be the emblem of Visnu, and the haunt of munja, the spirit of a thread-girt and unmarried Brahman lad. To quiet the munja, water is poured on the pimphals roots daily or sometimes during the intercalary months which are sacred to Visnu, and to the performance of afterdeath rites. High caste Hindu women hold it meritorious to throw flowers, water and sandal-paste on its roots in worship and to walk 108 times or more round it. Some childless persons who trace their misfortune to the influence of some evil spirit cause the Brahmanic thread ceremony performed for a pimpal tree and a masonry platform built round its trunk. The tree is on no account uprooted or destroyed and except for sacrifice the wood is not used as fuel. The umbar or audumbar (Fecus glomerata) is another sacred trec of the Hindus who use its branches as samidhas or fuelsticks, for fure-sacrifices. It is a common belief that a hidden stream runs near every ambar tree. But the tree is more famous for its being the sacred abode of god Dattatreya, and as such, it gels a place in the precincts of a Datta temple and has generally a masonry platform constructed -round its trunk. . The swallowwort rui or arka (San.) is sacred to the sun. Hindus think it ominous to have to marry a third wife when the former two are dead, and to forestall the evil a man wishing to marry for the third time, goes through a mock marriage ceremony with a rui bush before he marries a woman who thus becomes the fourth wife. Swallow-wort flowers are the favourite offerings to god Hanuman and the Ganapati but cannot be offered to Siv, Devi, or Visnu. The sweet basil tulas is held sacred by Hindus of all classes. Almost all Vaisnavas have a basil plant in their house, and it is said that a Hindu when sworn by it, will not tell a lie. Before taking their morning meal women pour water in the basil pot, burn a lamp near it, and how to it. Tulasi leaves, Visnu's favourite offerings are believed to have great sin-cleansing power. A basil leaf is put in the mouth of the dead. and the dry wood of the tulasi plant is always added to the fuel with which a dead body is burnt.

Animal Worship

The cow, as the representative of Kamdhenu, the heavenly cow, the giver of the heart's desire, is the most sacred of all the animals to all Brahmanic Hindus. The five cow-gifts or panca, gavya milk, curds, clarified butter, urine and dung are used in all religious ceremonies as purifying substances. Cow's dung is the favourite wash of the floor of every Hindu house and dung-cakes are mostly used as fuel in all sacred fires. The gift of a cow or godana is the noblest of gifts. During the month of Sravana, it not during the four wet months, women and girls may make it a point to worship every day the cow by applying kumkum and cleaned rice to the cow's forehead, put a flower garland round her neck and feed her with grass. The sight of a cow with a heifer is considered as always lucky.

The bull called Nandi is Siva's carrier. and is held sacred. In a Siva temple there is always an image of a bull which is worshipped along with Siva. The Lillgayats consider Basava, rhe propagator of Lingayatism, as the incarnation of Nandi. On the last day of Sravan when the bullock's labour in the field ceases, the Kunbi husbandmen mark their bullock's brows with' red, put red cotton threads round their neck or horns and feed them on select grains and food.

The monkey or ape is sacred to Hindus. In some temples monkeys are tamed and fed by pilgrims as a religious duty. God Hanuman is much sought after by people in distress. and in spite of their ravages, monkeys are never killed.

The serpent, generally the cobra or nag, is much dreaded and worshipped by almost all Hindu classes. Serpents are shown as entwining the body of siva, their lord, and in Mahadev temple a brass or silver serpent is seen girding the Iinga. The earth is believed to be borne on the hood of a serpent called Sesa under whose expanded hood Visnu delights to rest with his consort Laksmi. The day held most sacred to serpent worship is the bright fifth of Sravan called Nagpancami.

The rat or mouse gets special honour as Ganapati’s carrier on the Ganapati festival day in Bhadrapada. when it is worshipped along with Ganapati in the hope that its breed will not trouble the inmates of the house.

Tomb-worship

Tomb-worship. though not widely common. gets a prominence in some parts of the district. The few tombs that are worshipped are those raised over (i) the remains of a sati, i.e., a woman who burnt herself with her dead husband, of (ii) Hindu ascetic, and of (iii) a Muslim saint.

Till widow-immolation was legally suppressed by Lord William Bentink in A.D. 1829 the practice of a woman burning herself. with the dead body of her husband ,vas common. By sacrificing, herself the woman was believed to take to heaven and to be united for ever with her husband, and her relatives and friends specially honoured, This practice of a woman burning herself on her husband's funeral pyre was not confined to particular castes or particular district. Over the spot where the woman faced self-immolation a masonry platform or devadim, used to he erected generally by the chief and sometimes by the members of the family. A stone was set on the platform which was some times canopied, and on the stone were carved the sun and the moon and the figure of a woman her right hand lifted. Sometimes a religious grant was made by the chief for the daily worship of the platform on the dark fourteenth of Asvin and for making some worshipful offering. At present these Sali memorials are generally found in a neglected or forsaken condition, their history being long forgotten.

The tombs of masonry platforms raised on the river bank over the remains of a Hindu ascetic are called samadhis because the ascetic is believed at the time of death to be in a state of mental absorption or samadhi. These tombs are raised either by the family of a layman who denounced the world and became an ascetic (sanysi) a short time before his death, or by the disciples and followers of a man who before death, had long been an ascetic. A stone is set on the platform and on the stone a pair of footprints are carved. These tombs are worshipped by the dead man's family or disciples daily or on some select days and all the anniversary of the ascetic's death. These samadhis are sometimes found to have undergone a strange travesty of fate. Some got neglected and forgotten through the passage of time; Some are maintained because of their fame as a Jagrt (vigilant) sthan (apode) but some got revived at the instance of a devotee who avows by a visitation or vision (drstanta) from the dead ascetic. The tomb or dargah of a Muslim saint called pir or sai (i.e., sahid or martyr) which is generally shaded by a tamarind or a rayani tree is visited by many Hindus on high moon days or when a vow taken in the saint's honour is to be fulfilled.

The intercession and help of a pir is sought on various occasions. When the object is gained, offerings are made to the tomb as per the nature of the favour and the proclivities of. the pir.

Deities

Coming to the specific deities in the district which are installed in temples, goddesses claim perhaps the largest number. Sakti or deificd energy, is worshipped by all classes of Hindus, as Laksmi by the followers of Visnu; and as Parvati, Bhavani or Durga by the Saivas. Devi (goddess) and Ai (mother) are the most popular and generalised names under which she is known and worshipped in the district: the goddess greatly feared by many people is Mari-ai believed as she is to cause epidemics and such calamitous troubles.

Other goddesses, to whom temples are dedicated in the district are: Ambikadevi. Anubai, Bhavani Bhojai, Godabai, Ira, Iradevi, Jagadamba, Kalukabai, Kasibai, Kanakesvari, Komai, Laksmi, Mahakali, Malubai, Manjusi Muktabai, Pocimai, Padmavati, Pohyaciai, Parvati, Patjadevi. Ranubai, Renukadevi, Sati-ai, Satvai, Thanamai, Tukadevi, and Vaghai. It is to be noted that most Hindu castes have their own special tutelary deities who may have been included in the above list.

Among the male deities-god Hanuman popularly known as Maruti has a temple practically in every village. As a faithful messenger of Rama he has a place in the Rama Pancayatana, his figure being shown as standing a little in front and also to the right of Rama. It is said that it was at the instance of Ramdas, the contemporary of Tukaram, who sponsored the cause of Maruti-Hanuman that the temples of the deity were raised all over Maharastra. Next to Maruti, Mahadev appears to claim the rank of popularity among the male deities. Rudra or Siva, though fierce is to be sought in the Vedas, not only to preserve man from calamity, but to bestow his blessings on man and beast, which may account for his euphemistic epithets of Siva or a suspicious, Sankar or doer of good.Sambhu or origin of good and Mahadeva or great god. Bhairav is real1y the terrific aspect of the deity, but is commonly considered as almost a separate god, and as Bhairoba is very much regarded in rural parts of the district. Siva temples are also found in the district under the following: Ambesvar, Bhagesvar. Candramauli, Dankesvar, Dudhadhari, Haradev, Haranath-Mahadev, Hatesvar, Jalesvar, Kailas, Kancanesvar,Kandesvar, Kanhesvar, Kedaranath, Mudgalesvar, Kandikesvar, Nilakalntha, Nilkanthesvar, Palesval, Papadandesvar, Rajarajesvar, Rajarajesvar. Ratnesvar, Siddhesvar, Somanath, Somesvar, Visvesvar, and Vyaghresvar.

The other deities of the standard Hindu pantheon who have temples dedicated to them in the district are: Balaji, Datta, Ganapati, Krsna or Muralidhar. Narsinha, Rama, Visnu or Laksminarayan and Vitthal or Vitthal-Rukmini. Of those, except for Ganapati, the god of wisdom and of all auspicious beginnings, who is known to have a separate Godhead of his own and a cult of worshippers known as Ganapatyas, all other gods are incarnations of the super-god-Visnu. Rama and Krsna and Datta being only incarnations of Visnu. Khandoba who is supposed to be a tutelary or a special deity of the Marathas has a number of temples in the district. Temples in which some saints or saint-like persons have found deifications stand by a class of their own. In this category are included Samadhis, Vrindavana and Vira of the Hindus and Dargah of the Muslims. These evidently enshrine the mortal remains of a holy person or a specific ancestor of some important families of the village or that of a svami (head of a religious order or establishment) or that of a Pir (Muslim saint). These shrines as found in this district are as follows: Agnibuva. Anand Maharaj. Appadev, Bairagibaba, Balasajibava, Gangjihuva, Jivabuva, Gopalgir, Gorakhanath, Gosavibuva, Kodling, Janardan Maharaj, Lahan buva, Lordmund, Masnerbuva, Medhanandhuva, Nana Maharaj, Neminath Maharaj, Purnanand Maharaj. Rsibuva, Sacodsvami, Sanyebuva. Tukaramhuva, Yedoda Maharaj, Yesvani Maharaj, and Yagachan.

Besides, a number of animistic deities who May be ancestors deified and later worshipped, are to be found located in crude shrines more often represented by stones. They are Fakiroba, Kanhoba, Rokadoba, Santoba and Tukoba,. There are also be found more locations of spirit-deities such as: Jakhin Mhasoba, Munja, and Vetal which are common to many a village in the district.

Pregnancy and Child birth

For a newly-wed bride, the prospect of a coming baby is delightful. Perhaps more so to the parents of both the bride and bridegroom. It is therefore, greeted with pleasure and happiness. A woman without a child is considered an immature and imperfect woman. It is even considered ominous, for a woman to be so. Bearing a baby ripens her womanhood and such a woman is respectfully treated. No Hindu woman will consider herself having fullfilled her womanly function if within a reasonable period after marriage she does not become enceinte. When such omens are noticed by the elders, there is joy in the family and everybody further desires that the first arrival should be a male child. With a view to securing this, a sacrament called punisavana is performed when the bride is in the third or fourth month of pregnancy because the sex of the baby is said to be determined in the fifth month. This sanskara has almost fallen into disuse whether because it has been found ineffective or superfluous. . The prospective mother's desires and longings are anticipated and attempted to be satisfied by the elderly members of the husband's family or now by himself as that is considered to contribute to safe delivery and coming of a healthy baby. If a child' is born with some undesirable birth marks or congenital defects. they are ascribed to the non fulfilment of the expectant mother's longings. It is customary for the expectant mother to be sent to her parents for the first delivery. All arrangements of a midwife known to the family are made. She looks after the young mother for ten days after the delivery.

The fifth and the sixth day from the child's birth are regarded as full of a danger to the new babe and worship, therefore, is offered to the deities presiding over, those days known as Pancami and sastti. This is prevalent in all rural areas in particular and even Muslims and Christians observe these days though the form of their propitiation of these deities may slightly differ from that of Hindus. The common belief is that convulsive seizures and other forms of child complaint are the work of spirits and they can be warded off by some propitiation. In all Hindu households, the elderly women are very particular about keeping a lamp ceaselessly burning in the delivery room and the mother is never left alone during the first ten days. On the fifth day of childbirth friends and relatives are asked for a small tiffin. In the name of the Pancami a betel-nut, a sword or a sickle are placed on a pat and sandal paste and flowers are offered. The mother vows before the goddess with the babe in her arms and prays before the goddess to protect her child from evil spirits. On the sixth day a blank sheet of paper and a reed pen and ink are placed on a mat and the Sasthi or Mother Sixth is worshipped as on A few friends are similarly treated to snacks.

During the ten days, the mother is considered as untouchable, only the midwife touching her and ministering to her needs. Her family observes what is known as Suher just as a period of mourning is observed in the case of death in the family. Both are known asaucya or days of impurity. On the eleventh day the mother and the baby are given a purificatory bath. Their clothes are washed and the whole house is purified by Pancagavya. The male members of the family change their old sacred threads for new ones. The midwife is presented with a new sadi, bodice-cloth and some money as her fee. The mother is now fit to be touched after some sacred water is nominally sprinkled on her body.

Many of these old practices and formalities are becoming extinct because it is becoming more convenient and safer to send expectant mothers to maternity homes, but in this district particularly in the rural areas the old order prevails. The christening of the baby is generally done on the 12th day. Women friends and relatives are invited for the purpose who bring tiny clothes and playthings as presents. Musicians play on sweet and soft instrumental, the baby is put in a cradle and named, usually taking into consideration the stars under whose influence it is born. This ceremony is called barse. The lobes of the baby's, ears are pierced by a fine gold thread, usually by a goldsmith. If the child is subject to a vow, his right nostril is pierced and gold ring placed there. Cudakarma or the first hair-cut - was also considered a necessary sacrament once when the child was about three years old but it has died out.

Munja

Upanayan, Vratabandha and Mounjibandhana are the Sanskrt names but they have given way in popular parlance to. a short and easy word Munja. This is a sacrament originally prescribed for only the three varnas, viz., Brahman, Kstriya and Vaisya. Whoever can claim to be classed in one of these is entitled to have this, sacrament performed. The numerous castes and sub-castes among Hindus instead of the three varnas, have often been troubled over which of these is entitled to this and which is not. Even in the case of these, who are beyond controversy, the performance has only a nominal importance in that the old significance associated with it has died out for long. In theory, it is a purificatory rite initiating a boy into the Brahmacaryasrama or studenthood which was supposed to last for at least twelve years in close association with a preceptor. All that has been happening for centuries, however, is that at the age of eight and up to twelve this Ceremony is performed. For some decades boys have been regarded as of school-going age when they complete five years and then really their rudimentary education starts and if a -religious ceremony must signify that stage, it should be at that time. But that is not done. It is customary to perform ths ceremony in months starting from Magha to Jyestha with due regard to astrological considerations.

Mounjibandhana means girding the waist of a boy by a thread mlade from munja grass. This is done with due Vedic rites by a priest. As has been said already the religious or cultural significance of the ceremony is purely nominal and it bas now become only as a festive occasion for a get-together of families, and friends. Preparation for it begins at least four days before the auspicious day for it.A booth is raised in front of the house and its posts are decorated with plantain trees, mango twigs and flowers. Invitations are sent to friends and relatives. As in the case marriage, feasts are given to the boy and his parents by friends and relatives which are called Gudagner or Kelavan. A day or two before the auspicious day, the boy's parents visit temples and friends and personal invitations are sent to friends and relatives. This ceremonial invitation is called Aksat. 0n the day of die ceremony, ghana and punyahavacan, placing of the ghatikapatra and nandisradddha are gone through exactly as in the case of marriage. The mother and the boy are anointed and given a hot water bath and a ceremonial cutting of the boy's hair is done. The barber, who does it or is supposed to have nominally done it, is presented with a turban, cloth, rice and a coconut. The boy is again given a bath and has a ceremonial tiffin in his Brother's plate, after which he is not supposed to take food from the same plate with his mother. Boys of his age called batus participate in this tiffin and are given daksina.The boy is bathed again and made ready for the main ceremony.

As the auspicious moment approaches, all the invitees among whom are friends and relative, gather together and are seated in the booth. The father sits on a pat with his face to the east and the boy stands before him facing west. The priests hold a curtain between the two. The boy's sister stands behind him with a lighted lamp and a coconut in her hands. The Brahmanas recite Mangalastaks. i.e. verses of blessings and the guests present throw Mangalastakas (rice mixed with vermilion) at the boy and his father. At the exact auspicious second previously fixed, the curtain is withdrawn, the guests clasp their palms. Musicians play with redoubled vigour on their instruments and the boy lays his head at the feet of his father. The father blesses him and seats him on his right thigh. Pansuparit, scent and rose water are distributed to guests. A new custom to make some present to the boy is coming into vogue. At the time of departing, it is customary to hand a coconut to the guests.

This is followed by the religious ritual. The boy is seated to the father's right. An earthen altar called sthandila is traced in front of the father, blades of grass called darbha are spread over it and a sacrificial fire is got ready. The priest damps a cotton string in oil and turmeric and ties it round the boy's waist and gives him a langoli to wear. He then rolls a panca, short waist-cloth, round his waist and another round his shoulders. Another cotton string is damped with oil and turmeric and a piece of deer skin is passed into it and it is hung on the left shoulder of the boy in the manner of a sacred thread. Offerings of ghee and sesamum and seven kinds of samidha, sacred fuel sticks, are offered to the sacrificial fire. The boy is asked to pass between the fire and his father, sip three acamans and repeat some vedic texts. Again he passes between the fire and his father and takes his seat on the right of his father. He then rises, makes a bow to the preceptor (acarya) and requests him to initiate him in the Brahmacaryasrama. His request is granted by handing him over a sacred thread or Yajnopavita and a staff, danda of palasa tree. He is also given general instructions about acquiring knowledge. He is taken out of his house to look at the sun and offer him a prayer called Gayatri. After this, the main sacrifice is performed in which prayers are offered to Agni (fire), Indra (Chief of Gods) and Surya (the sun) to bestow their powers on the boy. The last rite in this Upanayana sacrament is (Medhajanana) conferment of mental and intellectual powers in which prayers are offered, to the deity that is believed to preside over Learning. The symbolic act for this is the preparation of a small square heap of earth and planting in it a twig of palasa tree and worshipping it.

Samavartana which in ancient times meant return of the boy from the preceptor's house after 12 years of study has now become an adjunct to Upanayana coming within a few days of it. The boy discard the munja) i.e. the triple waistcord of the sacred grass and his (langoli and is given new and even costly clothes to put on. He takes up an umbrella and puts on shoes and pretends that he has set out on a journey to Benaras. The priest or his maternal uncle stands in his way and dissuades him from doing so by promising to give his daughter in marriage. Satisfied with this gesture the boy gives up his plan and stays at home.

After-Death Rites

The custom among Hindus is usually to cremate their dead. However, children under eight years of age are buried. When a person is in his last moments and if he is conscious, he keeps on remembering or repeating the name of God or the particular deity of which he was a devotee. If he be unconscious other people do it for him. When he is about to breathe his last, his head is placed by his eldest son or his wife on his or her lap and the Ganga water, held holy by all Hindus and usually stored in every home in a small receptacle, is put in his, mouth with a tulasi leaf. It is also customary to put a piece of gold and pearl along with it. When life is extinct, the news is conveyed to relatives and friends. Most of them try to come for the cremation and if a son or brother is away it is customary to postpone the cremation for even 24 hours.

The relatives and friends who have arrived start preparations for taking the dead body to the cremation ground. Usually, a ladder-like bier is prepared out of bamboos. Two new earthen pots, a large one for water and a small one for fire, gulal, betel leaves and white cloth about 5 to 7 feet long are procured. Arrangements for sufficient fire-wood, cowdung cakes and a few dry tutasi plants and sandal-wood pieces are got ready. The dead body is washed and securely tied to the bamboo bier and shrouded with the white cloth, taking care to keep only the face bare. The son or in his absence the nearest relative, who is the chief mourner, takes a bath. Nearest kinsmen and close friends act as the four bier-carriers, the son leading them to the cremation spot, a pile of firewood and cowdung cakes is then laid. The dead body is kept on it and covered with fuel with the tulasi plants and sandalwood pieces. The son, with the help of a friend goes round the fire three times with an earthen pot filled with water and stands at the head of the pyre. Another person breaks the pot with a small stone and the son beats his mouth with the back of his palm. He then joins the other mourners who wait there until the skull bursts and the sound is heard by all.

The stone with which the earthen pot is broken is called asma which is only a Sanskrt term for stone. It is carefully preserved for further obsequies as a symbol of the dead of whom water oblations, are given on the spot by the nearest and the dearest at a river or tank nearby. The mourners then return home. In the evening, a lighted lamp is kept burning where the deceased breathed his last. If the deceased is a woman with her husband alive, she is decked with flowers, rubbed with turmeric paste and a kumkum mark if placed on her head and a handful of rice, a coconut and betel-leaves are placed in her lap. The rest of the procedure is the same. If the deceased belongs to the first three varnas among Hindus, the after death rites are observed to the accompaniment of vedic rites known as mantragni. In this case also, Brahman priests officiate but without chanting any vedic mantras they just set fire to the pyre, known as bhadagni. On the third day, the son accompanied by a few friends and relatives visit the cremation ground and collects ashes and whatever bones might have remained from the spot where the dead body was burnt. These are consigned to a stream or river and those who can afford to do so take them to Nasik or Prayag. Prayag is considered to be the most sacred for devout Hindus, because the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Sarasvati meet there in a confluence which is called the Triveni Sangam.

On the tenth day, all members of the household take a purificatory bath and all clothes are washed. The son of the deceased undergoes ksoura i.e. a clean shave and a bath. After the bath, the symbolic stone is washed with cowdung and rice oblations are offered to it in the cremation ground. Presents of money and articles of common use like clothes, shoes, an Umbrella and a cow are given to Brahmans. The normal expectation of the son and others is that when oblations are offered in open space, crows should come and dispose them of. If this does not happen soon enough, the belief is that the deceased’s desires those who are left behind to give him some assurance or other regarding something or other. That done, the crow touches the oblations but often it fails to do so. If it takes too long, an artificial crow made of kusa grass is made to touch the oblations, by the priest. After this procedure is complete, the mourners return home.

On the eleventh day, all members of the household take pancagavya and sprinkle it all over the house. This is a Liquid mixture made of cow's milk, curds, urine, ghee and dung. New sacred threads are worn. On the 12th day, ritual known as sapindi sraddha is held. By virtue of this ritual, deceased is gathered to his previous three ancestors, i.e. father, grandfather and great grandfather. On the 13th day, a sraddha is performed in the name of the dead. Kinsmen and friends are asked for dinner. After this, the sraddha is supposed to be performed every year on the day on which the deceased died. But of late, under modern influences the old ritual is not necessarily gone through. But in the name of the deceased, some charity is made out of grateful feelings. Those who can afford it even found prizes and scholarships or pay poor students fees or feed them.

Position of women

Recent legal enactments have considerably affected the position of Hindu women. Equality of the sexes in general has been regarded as guaranteed by the Constitution of the Indian Union and women are not prevented from participating in any field of activity in the civil life of the country. They can practise any profession, hold any office and even inherit property in their own right. A Hindu widow could take another husband, among the so-called lower castes by usage, but the Hindu law, in theory placed a ban on widow marriage so far as the higher Hindu communities were concerned. The Widow Remarriage Act of 1853, however, removed the disabilities, even though during the last 100 years" widow marriages have not been solemnised in very large numbers among these communities. The right of divorce was not there at all, because Hindu marriage, in theory, is indissoluble, but legislation in this behalf has allowed divorce to any Hindu wife on certain conditions and sufficient cause. It is still encumbered with many restrictions testifying to the fact that divorce is not considered quite right. There is provision, however, for legal separation on sufficient cause being shown, at almost any time. Divorce has been quite common, however, among the so-called lower castes. With the spread of education among women and their having come out to take jobs in offices on a footing of equality with men, divorce cases have begun to figure more frequently than before.

Other Social Aspects

The natural disabilities to which a woman's status, is heir has, however, led to the existence of some traffic in women for ages with the attendant evils. To this are allied though in a clandestine way the evils of drink and gambling. But Nanded district is fairly free from them. Prohibition been legally established all over the Maharastra State, though its breaches are found to be rather too many. Breaches of so many sanctions of the Penal code are there from day-to-day but they are not considered as a menace to the maintenance or peace, order and good government. In the same way are treated the breaches of the prohibition law. Gambling has never caused even that much trouble. Yet enlightened public opinion is always in favour of measures for enforcement of anti-drink and antigambling legislation. The demand is for more drastic and stringent enforcement.

Rural Entertainments

A number of itinerant communities of religious beggars, strolling dramatic players, tumbers, fortune tellers, jugglers, and showmen furnish the fare of rural entertainment in the district. Of these, the Bhopes, also known as Bhutes are followers of the goddess Bhavani and go begging from door to door and village to village with a lighted torch in their hands and playing tals (cymbals), tuntune (one-stringed fiddle) and the sambal (a drum). They cover themselves with strings of cowrie shells from head to foot, mark their brow with pinjar (vermilion) and have a tak a square breast-plate of their patron deity hung from their necks. While begging they dance, sing songs and torch their bodies. The Bhorapis or Bahurupis who make their living as strolling actors assume various. (Bahu) disguies (rupa) during nine days of navaratra and get baksisa (gratuity) from their patrons. The darvesis who are a class of wandering show-men earn a living by exhibiting from door to door the play of performing bears and monkeys.

Gondhalis who take their name from the word gondhal meaning a confused dance are a class of religious minstrels with a tradition and technique of their own. Amongst the Marathas, simpis, Sonars, Desastha Brahmanas and some other castes of the Deccan it is customary to have a gondhal dance performed on the occasion of a thread-girding and a marriage ceremony. The dance may briefly be described as follows: After the due installation of a tak or image of the goddess Bhavani and the owner of the house having offered worship to her, the head of the Gondhalis stands in front of the goddess, one of his comrades standing in his front holding a lighted torch, and three other behind him, each playing respectively a sambal double drum, tuntune (stringed instrument) and tal (cymbals). The head Gondhali then worships the divati. or lighted torch, bows to it and starts invoking and inviting goddess Bhavani of Tulajapur and a number of gods and goddesses to come to witness, the performance. Then he starts walking to and fro singing a song relating to the deeds of Bhavani, Malhari or some other hero while his comrades play on their instrements. After a few minutes he stops and explains to the audience the meaning of the song, Another song is repeated and then explained and in this way the gondhal continues till day-break. In between, at the desire of the audience. the Gondhali sings songs, describing the exploits of Sivaji, or some other Maratha hero, and if he be a clever man, amuses the audience by singing some new ballads. A lighted lamp (arati) of camphor is waved round the goddess, the divali or sacred torch is extinguished in milk or clarified butter, and the ceremony comes to an end.

Bharudis, also called Dauri Gosavis is another community who like the Gondhalis give also a type of gondhal performance known as bharud. Garudis, who are a class of itinerant jugglers and snake-charmers occasionally entertain the village folk with tricks of jugglery and magic, sometimes creating an atmosphere of weirdness and awe by presenting a ghastly human skull or two and a few bones, and claiming that they know black magic too. Garudis also know how to handle and tame snakes, which they claim with the tunes from their pungi pipe. Nandivalas, a class of wandering beggars take their names from Nandi a bull. They beg from house to house taking with them bulls dressed in gay clothes with fringes of jingling bells and necklaces and making them nod and perform at the notes from drums played on with a bent stick. Vasudevs, who are a class of religious beggars, put on a tall hat adorned with peacock feathers and a brass top, and a long full-skirted coat. They equip themselves with tals, cipalyas brass bells, jingling rings, and a wooden whistle. They move about the streets, early morning, begging from door to door, singing to the accompaniment of the tals and cipalyas. At the end they strike a note from the wooden whistle. Sometimes, while begging, three or four vasudevs dance in a circle, striking together tals and cipalyas.

The popular recreational activity in the rural parts of the district as in other parts of Maharastra is the well-known type of folk-entertainment called the tamasa. The talent for a tamasa troupe is supplied by the Kolhati community, a caste much mixed, being recruited from numerous sources. Kolhatis also earn a living as tumblers, acrobats and tight-rope dancers. They are also known as Domharis. With appliances such as a drum, a flute, a leather strap, and some poles, fifteen to twenty feet long, they move from place to place exhibiting skill in athletic games, Boys and girls are trained to tumble at the age of five and they are good tumblers at the age of eleven.

MUSLIMS

The Muslim population in the district may be roughly arranged under two main groups viz., those belonging to the four chief or regular classes commonly known as Sayyads, Saikhs, Moghals and Pathans, and those belonging to a number of other special communities with an occupational tradition which persists through their surnames they continue to use.

The Sayyads claim that they are descended from All by Fatima, daughter of Muhammad. They mark their high birth, among men, by placing the title Sayyad or Mir before, or Sah after, and among women by the title Begum after their names. Sayyads follow all callings, The others who claim that they are direct descendants from Muhammad. and who form the great hulk of the community are Saikhs, The word Saikh is a general form of courtesy corresponding with the English esquire, and in India includes the descendants of local converts as well as foreigners. The men have the title Saikh or Muhammad placed before their names and the women, Bibi after theirs. Some of them are Siahs, but the majority are Sunnis. They follow all callings and are found in every grade of life. The Moghals are chiefly Husaini Sayyads and Siahs. They have a fair complexion, dress like Deccan Muslims, seclude their women, and are employed as cultivators and patels. Some may place the title of Mirza before their names and add Beg and the woman Khanum to their names.

Pathans are of Afgan origin the men add Khan to their names and the women Khatun or Khatu. The descendants of old settlers, like the representatives of other foreign Muslims, they have in most cases, by intermixture with other classes lost their peculiarities of features and character. Almost all the Pathans in the Deccan are either Mahdavis of the Niazi tribe, or Sunnis of the Mundozoi tribe but there are also several Saikhs among them. The unlettered among them may carry their religious fervour to fanaticism.

The other Muslims in the district follow various professions and are found to have sometimes formed a kind of community of their own mostly confined to Hindu Simpis. The Khadias or brick-layers are local converts, speak Urdu and form a distinct community of their own. The Nalabanda intermarry with other Muslims and may have come from Bijapur centuries ago. Other Muslim craftsmen communities are Saikalgars or annourers, Tambatgars or lac bangle makers, Takaras or makers and repairers of mill-stones, and Kagasas or manufacturers of paper. With the disappearance of their crafts, these communities have lost their separate community existence.

In the class of "landholder" husbandmen and cattle breeders are found large landholders who are the descendants of military chiefs and other followers of the Muhammedan invaders of the Deccan, who obtained grants of land for services rendered. Of them some Desamukhs and Desapandes are the descendants of Hindus who become Muhammedans in the times of Aurangzeb to preserve their office. There are gardeners or Baghbans, (Hindustani and Dakhani) who work in gardens, and as wholesale and retail vendors of vegetables. The Multanis are husbandmen and cattle-breeders, and are the descendants of the camp followers who supplied the Moghal armies with provisions.

A number of Muslims depend on government or private service, and mostly they are religious men and mendicants. They are Saikhs and Khadims attached to dargahs, mosques etc. In the past a Muhammedan saint would generally scale down in some spot which he made the centre of his missionary activities; and sometimes during his life-title, but more frequently after his death, a mausoleum or a simple way-side shrine was erected to his memory the necessary funds being collected and endowment and inam lands obtained by his disciples. The descendants of the saint became priests of the shrine and inheritors of the endowment. In this class also may be included functionaries such as mujavar, mutavalli, khatib, mulla, maulavi and kazi who are generally attached to Muslim religious buildings such as masjids and idgahs.

There exists also an avowed class of Muslim religious mendicants or beggars generally known as, fakirs. According to their occupations and means of subsistence they could be divided as: (1) traders. (2) craftsmen (3) landholders and husbandmen, and (4) government and private servants. As their names suggest some of them are of foreign descent while others are mainly Hindu converts.

Of the Muslim traders in the district, the traders par excellence are the Bohoras, who, like the other trading communities of Khojas, Memons etc, are mainly descendants of Hindu converts to Islam. They comprise four main divisions; viz., Sunni, Aliya, Daudi and Sulenmani and approach nearest to the Siahs in religious opinion. The men make and sell tin articles, pots, vessels etc., and engage in all sons of trades, but chiefly in iron and hardware.

The craftsman communities among Muslims of the district are: Attars, Kumbhars, Jaras, Kasais,Kadias, Momnas, Nal-bands, Saikalgars, Tamhatgars. Lohars, Maniyars, Sutars, Kagasas, Darzis and Rangaris.

The Attars or Gandhis were known to extract perfumes from flowers. and manufacture surma. dentifrice, hair-oils and cosmetics, which they used to sell. Attars from Kanoj, Kathiavade and Baroda. visit the district in the fair season. The local Attars wear after converted Hindus, and dress like Deccan Muslims. The Bhonekars or Muhammedan Kumbhars make pots. Some of them are from upper India, but the majority are Hindu converts. The Jaras or Dhauldhoyas, are a mixed class who wash out the sweepings of gold and silver. There are Hindustani and Deccani Gai kasais or beef butchers. They intermarry and also follow other occupations such as cultivation and weaving. The Khatiks or mutton butchers, are local converts, and neither eat nor intermarry with beef butchers, sell mutton but not beef, and their chief customers are Hindus. There are also cultivators and grain-sellers among them. Momnas or Jolahas are weavers of dhotis, sadis, turbans, scarves, and other coarse cloth. They are descendants of Hindus of many castes, converted to the Siah form of faith. The Rangaris are Muhammedan dyers. There are a few Muslim Darzis or tailors, but the craft is, (1) Besaras, i.e. those beyond the law and (2) Basaras, i.e. those under the law. The former have no wives or families and are nomadic in their ways of living. The Basaras on the other hand have wives and homes and follow the normal religious routine. Of the religious mendicants, noticed in the district the Darvesils and the Nak_abandls belong to the' law-abiding' class, and the Kalanclars to the' lawless' one. The Darvesis, literally religious beggars, are a class of wandering bear and tiger showmen. They are Sunnis of the Hanafi school, but are not 'religious. They marry among themselves or with any other religious beggars and form a separate community and have a headman or Sargiro to settle social disputes. Nakaabandis are the followers of a saint named Khoja Baha-ud-din Naksaband and move about singly holding in their hand a stout-wicked flaming unshaded brass lamp, and chanting that saint's praises. Kalandars, wander about begging and are very sturdy and troublesome in their demands. They shave the whole body, the searing of the eyebrows being one of the most important initiatory rite.

The ritualistic and ceremonial customs of the Muslims chiefly concerned with incidents in life such as pregnancy, birth, marriage and death, are given below.

Muslims, believe like the Hindus in the immortality given by children especially male children and dread at the prospect of dying issueless. So after a year or two of married life, if their union is not blessed by an issue, some Muslim women resort to remedies to obtain children, Saints, living or dead, are appealed to, the former to bless by giving charms or medicines to the wife who yearns to be a mother. The charms given by exorcists consist of mystic and powerful names of god written on a piece of paper which is to be washed in rose-water and drunk. The exorcists have also to help after conception to secure that the issue may be male. During pregnancy - the lady has to abide by several restrictions. Greatest care is taken that no baneful influences interfere with a safe delivery. She must not go out of doors, especially on new-moons and Thursdays, and on all days at sunset must avoid groves and the sea and river side. She must avoid marriage or death ceremonies, must not pass under the city gates, and must cross no river or sea. During the period of pregnancy all the usual adornment of the person otherwise considered necessary may be laid aside and looked upon as, forbidden.

In villages a ceremony called satvasa at the end of the seventh month of pregnancy is held when the couples are made to sit together and women folk sing songs and make merry for a few hours.

For her first delivery the wife generally goes to her father's house and stays there till her confinement is over. Boy or girl, the new born child is laid in a bamboo sio or winnowing fan while the more pressing needs of its mother are being ministered to. That its Creator's name may be the first ward it hears, the father or any male Muslim present, as soon as the child is bathed, repeats in its ear the call to prayer, azan beginning with the words Alla-ho-Akbar: God is great. Ta accustom the child to noise, a copper or brass dish is sometimes struck at his ear before the father repeats to him the takbir or call to prayer; similarly to harden the child, cold water is sprinkled over hill before his bath. As soon as the first bath is over, pieces of black thread are wound lightly round the child's wrists and ankles as its first armour against the evil eye. Every morning and evening frankincense and rai-ispand, that is mustard and henna seed, is passed seven or nine times over the mother and the child from head to foot and thrown into fireplace and burned. Village Muslims, particularly husbandmen, worship on the fifth day the goddess Satvai, Mother Sixth who is supposed to register the destiny of the child on the sixth night after birth. On the sixth day mother and child are given fun bath and dressed in clean clothes. A dinner, as a mark of thanks giving, is given and also distributed. Usually the child is given a name on the first day, if not, on the sixth. For selecting the name of the child the father or grandfather or other male relatives open the Koran at a venture and the first letter of the first ward of the third line is the initial of the child's name. The class, of names recommended by the Prophet are the slave or servant of Allah or servant of the most Merciful, Abdullah or Abd-ur-Rehman. Parents who have lost children or whose children do not live give curious names showing deformity or the most object humility. The rite of akika or sacrifice which is purely a Muslim ceremony is observed on the seventh, fourteenth or twenty-first day after birth. It consists of two synchronal parts, the shaving of the child's head and the killing of a goat or two. The father of the child or some one specially named by him at a given sign, as the barber passes the razor along the head of the child, draws a knife across, the goat's throat.

Circumcision.

The child's first birthday salgirah is the next time far merry making. The rich generally celebrate the occasion with a feast. The bismillah, the taking the name of God, ceremony takes place when the boy or girl reaches the age of four years, four months and four days. The sunta or circumcisian ceremony distinguishing the Muslim from the Hindu, comes at the age of six or seven. Among the higher classes the recovery of the child from the operation is same times, celebrated with great rejoicing. Similarly when the boy or girl keeps his first Ramzan fast, it becomes a matter of rejoicing among the people of upper and middle classes.

Muslims have no ceremony to observe when a. girl attains puberty.

Marriage and Morals

With the Muslims marriage is a contract far the fulfilment of social obligations in the family. Boys between the ages of 16 and 22 and the girls between ten and eighteen are generally married. When their son reaches manhood, parents may, consult professional match makers and get information about the girl likely to make a good match for their son. Any courtship before the marriage is unknown to Muslims although sometimes a casual view of the girl by the boy from a distance may be connived at. Caste endogamy and observation of some Hindu marriage customs still prevail in rural areas among the uneducated; otherwise, during the last thirty years Muslim marriages take place without observing endogamous restrictions and with much simplified ceremonies.

The formal negotiations of marriage start with magni when the bridegroom's people ask for the bride's hand and the mehr (financial settlement) is made then and there. Well-to-do families have a betrothal a year or six months before marriage. The marriage proper starts with the manjh ceremony (formal sitting of the bride) which lasts for three days, during which at night' rajjaks or songs in the praise of Allah are sung to the music of drums by the women of the family. A ceremony of turmeric-rubbing may take place which is followed by biyapari feast in which incense is burnt in the name of Allah. Next comes the mehendi or henna ceremony in which the leaves of henna plant are presented to the bride along the wedding gifts and after which the leaves are used for staining her hands and feet.

The chief ceremony is the nikah, an Arabic word meaning conjunction or union and is understood in the sense of contract. Two male witnesses must bear testimony to the celebration of the nikah or marriage. Those witnesses directly approach the bride and, after repeating the name of the bridegroom and his age ask her whether she is willing to accept him in marriage or not. After hearing personally what the bride has to say they declare all that before the kazi and the assembled guests. The kazi thereupon makes the bridegroom and the bride's, father or Vali (lawful guardian) sit facing each other, and making each hold the other's right hand, registers the marriage in a special marriage register. The sum stipulated for the girl's dowry (mehr) is entered, and the bridegroom declares before all present that he has, chosen her as his wife with the said sum of dowry. The bride's father also declares that he gives the daughter to the bridegroom in marriage with due lawful ceremonies and with a certain sum as dowry. This over, the father-in-law, and son-in-law embrace each other, and dates and sweets are distributed and the assembled are treated to serbat or sweet cold drinks. A musical entertainment by qavals (a band of male singers who usually recite verses in Urdu) generally follows. About dawn the bride's brother calls the bridegroom to the women's apartment where the jalva ceremony is performed. The ceremony is meant to acquaint the couple with each other. They are made to see each other's face in' a mirror and if literate to read together the chapter of peace from Koran. The last ceremony is of leave-taking when the bride goes away with the bridegroom to his home. On each of the first four Fridays or char jumagis after marriage, the bride and the bridegroom are asked to dine at the bride's father's house.

Among Muslims polygamy is permitted to the number of four wives but is rare in practice. Marriage is prohibited to the ordinary relations, but not between first cousins. A man cannot marry his foster-mother or foster-sister unless the foster brother and sister are nursed by the same woman at intervals widely separated. Sister's daughter is under the incest taboo. A man may not marry his wife's sister during the wife's life-time unless she has been divorced. - A Muslim cannot marry a polytheist but he may marry a Jewess or a Christian.

Divorce

Divorce among the Muslims is at the option of the husband but is rare in practice among the gentler classes. A man may divorce his wife at his own will and Koran demands no justification from the husband for divorcing his wife. However, while divorcing, the husband has to pay the wife, her mehr if it has not already been paid. A woman can claim divorce on the grounds of ill-treatment, insufficiency of maintenance and sterility on the part of the husband. Muhammedan law recognises various kinds of talaqs or divorces. Of the three main forms, the two namely, talaq-i-ahsan and talak-i-rajai are reversible. In talak-i-husn which is irreversible, the husband pronounces three different sentences of divorcement in as many months; the wife cannot be taken back until she had been married and divorced by another man. After divorce a woman cannot marry for three months called the iddat or a term during which the husband is bound to maintain, her.

Cases where women have asked for divorce are rare. The woman has to apply to the kazi for the divorce and the divorce claimed by her is called kala which in Muhammedan law is the repudiation of a wife at her own desire when she forfeits her mehr, dowry. Among lower classes particularly no social disgrace is attached, to a divorced man or woman and they find no difficulty in securing new partners. Widow remarriage is freely practised and young widows always remarry. Generally, a man marrying for the first time does not marry a widow; however, there, is no objection to girls marrying widowers even when the former are marrying for the first time.

Death and Funeral

To a Muslim on the point of death the Sura-e-Yasin, the chapter of the Koran telling of death and the glorious future of the true believer, is recited in a low voice' and kalama or the religious formula La-ilah_il-Iallah Mahamud-ur-Rasul-ul-Iah is repeated so that the dying person may also repeat it. The creed and prayer for forgiveness are repeated and a few drops of honey are put into the mouth. After death, the eyes and mouth are closed and arrangement for the funeral is made without loss of time. The body is laid on a wooden platform carefully washed and perfumed and covered, with a scented shroud of white cloth. The body of male is bathed by males and that of a female by females. The male dead body is dressed in a Kafan, i.e., unstitched garment consisting of a kafni and a loincloth; in the case of a woman an odhani (scarf) is added to the kafni. If the death happens at night, the body is not taken away till dawn. Otherwise, no sooner as it is shrouded and friends and relatives have taken their last look it is laid on a bier called janaza (a cot like wooden structure), lifted on the bearers shoulders and borne away, the company of men rising the cry La-ilaha-illallah. Before the bier is being lifted, the mother generally says, "I withdraw all the claims upon you as a nurse," and if desired the wife or others also withdraw their claims. Upon the bier is a shawl, of green or of other dark colour for men and of red for women. The janaza bearers repeat the Kalama as they walk and change their shoulders. The grave is either where the deceased has asked to be buried or in the common burial ground provided for the community. At the mosque the bier is set down in the outer court, the mourners wash, and standing in a row, repeat the funeral prayer Allaho Akbar: God is great. Thence they move to the ready dug grave, and if the body is carried directly to the graveyard, the last prayers are offered in the open near the graveyard. The body is then lowered in the grave, the head to the north and leaning to the right side so that the face turns towards Mecca. They lay clods of consecrated earth close to the body, and the mourners fill the grave with earth. When it is closed, the learned among the present usually the Pesa Imam, recites, portions of the Koran and all present pray for the peace of the soul of the departed. Thence they retire to the house of the deceased and standing at the door repeat a prayer for the soul of the dead, and all but near relatives and friends who stay to dine, go to their houses. The duty of helping at funerals and of praying for the soul of the dead is solemnly enjoined on all Muslims and carefully observed by them.

Although not sanctioned by the religion, on the morning of the third day after death a feast called Ziarat is held. A sermon waiz is then preached by a Maulavi. After the recitation an offering of flowers and scent is carried to the grave. The custom of observing the tenth and fortieth days, the fourth month, the sixth month, the ninth month, and the last day of the first year by giving choice dinners to relatives and friends has now practically disappeared. Once in a year on a particular day, the Muslims offer prayers, distribute alms to the poor, feed the orphans in remembrance of their dead. They also visit the graveyard on that day.

Religion

The Muhammedans in the district, as elsewhere, belong to the two leading forms of Muslim faith, the Sunni and Siah, the former being found in far greater a number than the latter. The main point of difference between the two divisions is that the Sunnis consider Abubaker, Umar and Usman as the lawful successors of the Prophet, while the Siahs espouse the cause of Ali the fourth Khalifa and his sons Hasan and Hussain. In consequence the Siahs omit from the Koran certain passagers alleged to have been written by Usman and add a chapter In praise of Ali. They pray three instead of five times a day and in praying hold their hands open by their sides instead of folding them below the breast. Except these and a few other particulars, the belief and customs of the two sects are the same.

Beliefs

There are five fundamental points of Islam, (1) the profession of faith, that "there is no God but one and Muhammad is the Prophet of God"; (2) charity; (3) pilgrimage to Mecca; (4) the fast of the Ramzan; and (5) prayer. The Muhammedan religion is, thus divided into two branches, faith, and practice. Faith comprises belief in God, in his Angels, prophet, the revelation of Koran, the resurrection of the dead, the day of judgment, the God's absolute decrees. Practice includes prayer, charity, fasting during Ramzan and pilgrimage to Mecca. Muslim worship consists of a number of bows, and prostratians accompanied with prayers and verses from the Koran. Each of the five daily prayers has its separate form and on Fridays and on the days of Ramzan and Bakr festivals, the reading of the prayer is accompanied by a sermon. The funeral prayer is simply repeating several times the words Allah-o-Akbar that is God is great. At the fast-breaking festival Id-ul-Fitr commonly known as the Ramzan Id, men farm a procession and escort the kazi or other Muslims of high pasition to the Idgah, most of them repeating mentally the glorification of the name of Allah in the following words: Allah-o-Akbar, Allah-o-Akbar, LaIlaha Illallaho Allah-o-Akbar wa-lillahil-hamd. Great is Allah, Great is Allah, there is no name as great as Allah; great is Allah, unto Him be all praise.

Muslims are on the whole careful to observe the chief rules of their faith. Though very few attend the mosque five times a day, the Friday service is, well attended and almost all join the Ramzan Id and Baqr Id prayers:

Muslims have three kinds of religious buildings; mosques or masjids; namazgarhs or idgahs where the id or festival prayers; are uttered and, far the Siahs private mourning chapels imamvadas, where the praises of their early religious leaders or imams are read and their elegies sung.

In the district especially at Nanded and Kandhar Muslims are well supplied with mosques. But almost all the mosques; are old, and now-a-days partly from want of means and partly from lack of zeal, few new masques are built. In the ordinary mosque, a small flight of stone steps leads through a stone gateway, bearing in verse the date of its building, into a paved and cement lined court from forty yards long and about twenty wide. In the court is a pond about twenty feet square, its sides; lined with stone seats. At one end of the court are two rooms, one the hammam or bath-room, the other the room of the beadle mulla or mujavar, Opposite the gate is the place of prayer, a cement-lined brick pavement raised about a foot above the level of the court. It is open to the east and closed on the other three sides covered by a roof. About the middle of the west or Mecca wall is an arched niche mehrab, and close by a wooden or masonry pulpit nimbar, raised four or five steps from the ground and against the wall near the pulpit, a wooden staff asa, which according to old custom, the preacher holds in his hand or leans on. To meet the cast of repairs, lighting, and the beadle's pay most mosques have a small endowment, the rent of lands, houses or shops, the funds being entrusted to the matawalli or guardian, a member of the congregation.

"The ldgah also called Namazgarh or prayer-place used only by Sunnis, is generally built outside a town. It consists of a pavement of stone or cement raised three or four feet above the level of the ground. Along the west facing east is a wall with a small turret at each end. In the middle three to five steps rise from the pavement and farm the pulpit, from which on the Ramzan-id and Bakr-id festivals, after the prayers are over sermons are preached.

Imamvadas or the Leaders enclosures are used only by siahs. Here, during the early days of Muharram, the model of the Karbala shrine is kept and some chapter of some book commemorating the heroic sufferings and noble courage of the martyrs of Karbala is read.

Religious affairs of the Muslims are managed by several religious officers. Besides the beadle mujavar, and the mosque guardian matawalli, five other officers, namely, the priest mulla, the preacher khatib, among the Siahs the singer of elegies marsiahkhan, the law professor and doctor of divinity maulavi, and the civil judge kazi, are entrusted with religious duties. Of these the priest or mulla is the lowest. Any man becomes a mulla and he is appointed an applicatian to the warden of the mosque. The 'mulla’s duties as the servant of the masque are calling to prayer five times a day, acting as imam or leader of the prayer, and where there is no beadle, keeping the masque clean.

Besides these duties the mulla acts as a schoolmaster to the school maktab often located in a shed in the mosque enclosure, and as a dealer in charms (As a dealer in charms, the mulla write"s verses of the Koran, to be bound round the arms, or hung on the neck, to ward off or scare diseases, or to ward off evil spirits or the influence of the evil eye and dreams.).

The singer of elegies marsiahkhan is found only among Siahs. Together with some knowledge of Persian and Hindustani, he must have a good voice and a taste for music. At the Muharram time, from the first to the fourteenth day he sings elegies in honour of Hasan, Hussain and other martyrs of Karbala. He composes his elegies far the occasion and sings them or recites them at the lmamwadas.

The preacher or Khatib does the duty of reading the sermon Khutba on Fridays and feast-days except in cities and towns where generally the kazi or judge does the work.

The law doctor maulavi is in many respects the most important and prosperous of Muslim religious officers. Except a few who have a name for learning, the maulavis are the representatives of the great preachers and holy men who came to the Deccan during fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. In honour of most of these saints, their representatives hold a yearly meeting or urus. Some maulavis who are descendants of the early missionaries follow the profession of spiritual guides pirzadahs and spend several months of the year doing little beyond preaching an occasional sermon or reading prayers. Some may act also as curers of diseases with charms and amulets. Sometimes a maulavi possesses in addition to his other religious accomplishments that of knowing the whole of Koran by heart and has the title of Haflz prefixed to his name. As a rule the people treat a Hafiz with much consideration.

Under the Muhammedan rule, the kazi was the civil and criminal judge. Now except that he leads the public prayers on the days of the Ramzan and Bakr feasts, he is little more than a registrar of marriages and divorce.

Houses and Housing

Housing in general, particularly in towns and cities, has, undergone considerable change during the last 100 years or so. This has been in consonance with the changes in social customs, economic conditions, and sense of safety of the people, so also with the better knowledge on their part of sanitary and hygenic principles, and of various new and improved building materials.

Houses in villages are generally built in a haphazard manner without proper planning. An individual house is usually sited, more with reference to the convenience of the builder than with any regard for the health and convenience of the neighbour or of the public. In older days, due to unsettled conditions and the difficulty of guarding a house with large windows and doors against robbers, even the well-to-do were forced to live in houses of coarse material with no openings in walls except a door purposely kept so low that no man could enter without stooping nearly double.

The better classes of cultivators live in houses of stone and brick masonry, which are generally surrounded by a high compound wall. A low doorway opens into a courtyard, and across it is the main building, which consists of an open verandah extending the width of the court, and supported on wooden posts. This verandah is sometimes double, the inner portion being raised a step above the outer; and several doors in the back wall, open into second court, or into small rooms, which are used as sleeping chambers and cooking apartments. These houses are known as dhabas of Kunbis, Musalmans and Pardesis and have low flat-terraced roofs of clay or salt-earth, resting on strong wooden beams which run from wall to wall. The houses of the ordinary cultivators are built in skeleton form, the roof being supported on wooden posts, and earth filled in between these to form the wall, but some of these houses, up to a feet above the basement, are of rough stone in mud. The principal room is entered through a law door; and three or four rooms are used far stores, sleeping apartments and far a kitchen. A wall in front shuts in a small courtyard where the washing is done and where the cooking utensils are cleaned. The cattle-shed is erected within the compound, are in one of the fields. Smaller houses do not possess fore-courts; and the poorest classes live in little chappar huts, with a fence of cotton stalks or branches of trees filled in with earth, and the roof thatched with long grass and leaves over a framework of bamboo and twigs of branches. The houses in towns range from small insanitary dwellings of the poor classes or labourers to well-designed and constructed bungalows of the rich people. The poorer class of people have houses similar to those in villages constructed of mud walls and cheap materials, but the further disadvantages of insufficient living area contributes to insanitary slums. Whereas in villages the houses generally belong to the occupants themselves, in large towns a majority of them are owned by a few landlords and rented. The middle class people who happen to be residents of the place, and, therefore, have ancestral lands or houses, live in better types of houses constructed of locally available black stone or burnt bricks with high plinths of coursed or uncoursed rubble masonry, wall plastered with lime, mortar and generally white or colour washed, and with flooring generally of murums or as in recent years of stone-paving or concrete flooring. The doors and windows are usually 1.830 into 0.915 metres i.e., 6' into 3' and 3' and 4', respectively, and provided with iron bars or metalled jali for safety. The roof generally consists of timber rafters with country or Mangalore tiles.

Dress

Hindus Female

The traditional dress of the Maharashtrian Hindu women in the district is the full Maratha sadi (robe) of eight or nine yards, and a short-sleeved coli (bodice) reaching the waist covering both the back and the chest, the ends being tied in front. This sadi which is known as a lugade in Marathi can be coarse or fine, embroidered, jari or silk bordered and in any gay colour according to taste and means.

Apart from the two lengthwise borders known as kanth or kinar it has also two breadthwise borders (padars) at the two ends of which one is more decorated than the other. The made of wearing the sadi favoured by women of the Brahman and similar communities is with hind pleats tucked into the waist at the back centre. Women of the Maratha and other communities allow the sadi to hang- from the waist straight like a skirt with pleats clustered in front and draw its end which covers the bosom and the back over the head. Same of them, particularly when working in fields tuck the hanging front pleats at the, back centre. Sadis of five or six yards in length have become fashionable during the last twenty years among young ladies in urban centres and they have now even invaded the villages. These sadis are worn cylindrically over a parkar or ghagra (petticoat). The use of blouses, polkas, zampars with an underwear of brassiers has become quite common. New types of coli in the form of blouses with low-cut necks, and close-fitting sleeves have also come in fashion now-a-days. Ladies of Pardesi or North Indian Brahman community are found sometimes holding to the Upper Indian dress: a petticoat, a pair of drawers or Lahangas, a coloured sheet or odhani which covers the bosom and part of the head, and a backless bodice with its ends tied at the back. Similarly Marvadi ladies excluding those who have taken to the local style of dress and wear the robe instead of the petticoat or lahanga, sometimes display their native dress of gay colours: a multipleated petticoat (ghagra) with a multicoloured odhani and a backless bodice or a kacoli closed in front and tied behind with strings. Out of doors when they meet strangers and respectable or elderly persons, they modestly veil their faces with the odhani or the upper-robe. But the more picturesque is the traditional dress of Vanjari (Caran) women who may dress in Rajputani fashion. They draw their shoulder-robe (odhani) over the point of a narrow stick about eight inches long, cup-shaped where It rests on the head and narrow at the point, standing like a huge comb, from the knot of the hair at the back of their head. They weir a coarse petticoat general green or blue, with a fancy pattern, so also a open-back bodice often red and highly worked in fancy patterns studded with glass pieces.

There has been a considerable change in the ensemble of the people during the last fifty years. Fashion cropping up among the urbanites now-a-days spread all over the country, as it were contagiously in no time.

The child is initiated to the wear of its first swaddling-cloth lungota consisting of a triangular piece of a cloth tied round its waist so as to cover the buttocks and the front. Topade, kunci, and angade or jhabale follow it as the traditional pieces of clothing. When the baby grows two or three years old, bandi or peti (sleeveless jacket), sadara or pairan (shirt) for the upper part, and caddi, tuman or colana (short-pants) for the lower part are sewn for the use of boys, and parakar (petticoat), caddi (drawers), polka (bodice) and jhaga (frock) for the use of girls. In towns, girls may persist in the use of frocks even to the age of twelve or more which is generally the time for adopting the wear of sadi and coli in the rural parts. Boys till they are ten or twelve years old (or even much later) continue to wear short pants and sadara or a shirt and may then adopt the dhoti.

Male

The tenacious dhoti as an article of wear for adult males still persists both in the urban and rural areas. The standard Brahmanic mode of wearing it among the Deccanis is to have its hind pleats, neatly and properly done from its portion which is on the left side of the wearer, and the front pleats from the right sides surplus portion carefully smoothed and a few of them are taken up and tucked over the already tucked up bunch at, the navel. The peasants and lower class, people wear a shorter dhoti (sometimes known as punca) and have but few pickers in front and behind, their ends hanging and fluttering loose. For making the dhotar, a fit wear for work, its front pleats are drawn up between the legs and tucked behind. With Marvadis it is the usual fashion of wear. Some Kunbis and Pardesis have the left-side end of the dhoti drawn up at the back without pleating it, and the portion coming from the right side rolled up length wise and wrapped round the loins once and tied in a knot at the front with the remaining portion.

The ordinary dress of the upper class Hindu, is for the men indoors, a dhotar (waist-cloth) of the fine texture and a sadara or pairan (shirt). A well-to-do Maratha usually wears indoors a tuman or lengha (loose trousers or slacks) and a short shirt perahan of fine muslin. While going out a gentleman puts on a shirt or sadara over a muslin or knitted underwear, then sometimes a waistcoat and over it a coat; a cap or a rumal (head-scarf) and on ceremonial occasion a sapha or pataka (silk or cotton head scarf) is worn as a head-dress. Now-a-days many persons wear, out of doors a "Nehru shirt" with or without a kalbaja (waist coat) and a "Gandhi cap".

The dress ensemble of well-to-do young urbanite consists of all the items of the dress of the western type. His outdoor dress displays various combinations. He may wear a long shirt of the "Nehru" type over a lengha (loose trousers or slacks), or a pair of short pants and a shirt, the two flaps of the shirt being allowed to hang loose on the shorts or tucked inside them, or as it more usual now-a-days wear a pair of trousers in combination with a shirt or a half shirt, a bush-shirt, or a bush-coat over a vest or any knitted underwear. The shirt is usually tucked underneath the trousers and its sleeves rolled up in a band above the elbow. He sometimes goes in for a full western suit including trousers, shirt, and opencollar coat worn perhaps over a waistcoat, and a necktie. On some ceremonial occasion he may prefer to dress after Indian style in seravani or acakan and a survar or a cuqidar payjama. Among the urbanites the use of dhotar is getting rare and it is in some evidence among the middle-aged; it is also getting fashionable to go bare-headed.

Among the labouring and agricultural classes, the men wear indoors a loin cloth or shorts, a waistcloth and sometimes a jakit (waist:-coat), kabaja or bandi and a paitan (sandals).

Muslims Male

Among Muslims the dress of the different communities displays considerable variety. An adult Muslim generally wears a turban as a head-dress. The small flat Moghal turban of fine white cloth which is known as nastalik is worn by respectable Sayyads, land proprietors and government servants. Attars Gaundis, Sutars and others may wear plain turbans, but mostly they prefer red and white and wear the turban larger than the correct Moghal shape. Bagbans and other classes of local converts wear large white or red loosely rolled Hindu-like turbans. The Bohora turban is white, oval and tightly wound and Memans wear silk or silver bordered phetas or headscarves. Some wear cotton or half silk turbans daily and silk and jari gold thread turbans on holidays and public feasts. The most common turban used by Muslims is the voluminous Deccani one known as pataka its end fluttering on the back being called semala.

Muslims in the villages dress as people of other communities do, and as such cannot be differentiated from others in point of dress. They generally wear dhoti, shirt, coat and a turban called pataka. Bohoras and, Memans and some Baghas dress in tight or loose trousers. Among townsmen seravani and payjama have an impress of traditional wear. Cudidar payjama and seravanis are also worn in imitation of Uttar Prades and Panjabi Muslims. Some land proprietors, well-to-do traders and craftsmen wear the kudata or Muslim shirt falling to the knee and over the shirt a kafcha or tight waistcoat and an angarkha or overcoat and some of them the kaba or Moghal buttoned coat. Bohoras and Memans wear a shirt falling to the knee and over the shirt is a waistcoat and a long coat. The tendency among urban youth of all classes is, however, to take to the use of trousers and shirts or bush-shirt. At the time of prayer a Muslim wears a lungi (loin cloth) and a pairan as, according to Islamic teachings, during prayer a man should not expose that part of his body which is below the waist and above the knees.

Except some who prefer curl-toed and high heeled Upper India shoes all Muslims wear sandals or shoes, some Bohoras using English shaped shoes or boots with stocks and stockings. The, middle and low classes wear shoes of different fashions.

Female

The women in rich and well-to-do families dress in the odhani or headscarf, the kudati and short sleeveless shirt a few in angias or short sleeved bodices, worked with gold and silver thread and many in colis or short-sleeved bodices covering the back and fastened in a knot in front and tight payjamas or trousers. Except widows who have to be content with white, women generally dress in red, yellow, green, crimson, and other bright colours. Bohora women wear the short headscarf or odhani, the short-sleeved backless bodice or angnia and the petticoat or ghagara and out of doors the all covering burakha or veil with gauze -eye-holes. Meman women dress in a short headscarf, a long shirt falling to the knee and loose trousers. Some women of other Deccan classes such as Attars, Gaundis, Kalasigars and Rangrezes wear the high class Muslim trousers while others wear the Maratha robe and bodice. The women of all other Deccan classes dress in robes and bodices. The women of high class Muslim families always wear low heeled slippers called zanani jute and Bohora women wear sandals indoors and Leather slippers far going out. The women of all high class Muslims and of most classes of local converts except the Bagban, Kasab, Pinjara, Tamboli and Tukara never appear in public. When Bohora women go out they shroud the whole figure of a large cloak with gauze eye openings. The women of same of the local classes who appear in public, when they go out of doors, cover their bodies with loose white sheets, except the face and the feet. The women of Bohoras and Zarmindars (proprietors), when they can afford it, almost always dress in silk. The everyday dress of other women is of cotton. The women of upper class families embroider their shirts and bodices with gold and silver lace generally with much skill and taste. In poor families the women have seldom more than one or two changes, of garment and their whale wardrobe in mast cases is of cotton. Upper class families keep their children clean and brightly dressed, the bays on festive occasions wearing embroidered skull caps, satin shirts, embroidered with gold and silver lace and silk, tight or loose trousers and the girls a head scarf, izar trousers or a petticoat. The children of most local and poor classes have to help their parents in work and are seldom neatly or gaily dressed.

Ornaments

Hindus

All classes among the Hindus wear ornaments, and a consider able amount of capital is unproductively locked up either in the; owner's or in the pawn-broker's hands. Ornaments differing in types, as used by men and women and by boys and girls, are worn in the hands, ears and nose, on the arms, wrists, fingers, legs and toes, across the shoulders and round the neck and the waist. There are ornaments for the daily wear as also for special occasions. They also differ according to the community and the economic and social status of the wearer.

It is no more a fashion for males to display ornaments on their persons. However, it is not rare for some rich sahukars to exhibit on their bodies ornaments such as bhikbalis ear-rings, anguthis, (finger rings), and kanthi and goph (necklaces). Men of the Marvadi community are sometimes found wearing caukadas or ear-rings, the gold necklace or kanthi, the wristlets called kadas and pocis, the silver belt called katdora, and silver anklets or todas. A boy's ornaments, in a rich family are silver or gold bindalya, managatya, kadas and, todas or wristlets, sakhali and sarpoti or waist-chains, and silver cala, tordya, valas and jhanjiris or anklets.

Women from all Hindu communities wear ornaments, perhaps those of the Marvadi community being more famous for their cost and design. As a rule they wear ivory bracelets on their arms up to their shoulders, the armlets caned vankis and bajubands, the bracelets called lasanyas the silver anklets called valas, sakhalls; and painjans, and the necklaces called bormal, putalyacimal, the nose-rings called naths the ear-rings called karna phul and the finger rings called mudis. All these ornaments are made of gold inlaid with pearls. Of late years many Marvadi women have given up wearing ivory bracelets, and use very thin ivory bangles.

There has been a considerable change in the fashion of female ornaments during the last fifty years. Few and select ornaments of delicate and artistic shapes are preferred to the old ones that are often crude and heavy. Head ornaments are generally getting out of fashion, brooches and phule of fancy; shapes replacing the old mud, agraphul, bindi-bijora, nag-gonde etc. Ornaments such as caukade and kudi, preferably of pearls and precious stones are used as ear ornaments by elderly ladies, girls generally preferring ear-rings of various types and shapes. Mangalsutras of various types, the black beads being stringed together in different patterns of gold chain-work, are now-a-days used as ornament by married women. Besides, necklaces known as candrahara, capalahara, bakulihara, boramal, galasari, ekadani, Kolhapuri-saja, mohan-mala all made of gold have replaced the old thusis, saris, vajrafikas and putalyaci or moharaci mala. Similarly, the old heavy wrist ornaments such as gotha and patalya have been replaced by bangles of various patterns, so also the old Vakyas and Bajubands by bracelets of delicate shapes.

Muslims

The only ornament worn by men of the upper and respectable Muslim families is gold or diamond finger-ring. Kasab, Pinjara and Tambala, when they can afford it, wear a bali or large gold earring and toda or silver anklet on the right foot.

The women are very fond of gold and silver ornaments and, excepting a few women who are very conscious of their religion, all adorn themselves with many types of ornaments. The women of upper class families wear many kinds of gold necklaces, nose-rings, earrings, bracelets and silver anklets. Except their nose-rings and necklaces the ornaments of most local Muslim women are of silver. Almost all women wear glass as well as gold and silver anklets. The galesar or gold and glass-bead marriage necklace, is put on during the marriage night and is never taken off till the husband's death. Almost all women begin married life with a good store of ornaments.

The girl's ornaments are a nose-ring either the nath in the side flesh of one nostril or the bulak in the gristle between the two nostrils or the earrings called balis, silver or gold ornaments and sol silver anklets. A rich woman's ornaments include latakan and tika for the forehead, thusi, vajratik, male, candrahar, putalis and mal cavaldona and panpot for the neck, path bulak, kanta and besar for the nose balis, bugadis, karnafuls, kams, dnadulis for the ear, bazubanda and dnadilis for the arms; patalis, pouncis, kangana, and gajara for the wrists, arsis and callas for the fingers; kadas, todas, pazebs, luls and painjans for the ankles and jodavis for the toes. Ankle and toe ornaments are always of silver. When a women is married her parents give at least one gold nosering and a set of. earrings of gold among the well-to-do and of silver 'among the poor, and silver finger rings.

Food

The main stand-by as staple food of all the classes and communities in the district is jowar; wheat and rice gets but a secondary place. The pulses in popular use are tur (pigeon pea), harbhara (Gram), lakh (Chichling Vetch), math (Kidney Bean), mug (Green Gram), udid (Black Gram) and val (Spiked Dolichos); the edible oils in use are those extracted from karadai (Safflower-oil), bhuimug (Groundnut oil) and javas (Linseed oil); the locally grown leafy or green vegetables in common use are alu (colocasia antiquorum) with corms, leaf. stalks and leaves, ambadi, (Deccan hemp), cakvat (Chenopodium Album), churd (Rumex Resicaris), ghol (Purslane) and methi (Fenugreek); and the fruity ones in use are deadangar (Pumpkin), bhui-kohala (Ashgourd), Valuk (Cucumber) and Dudhi-bhopala {bottle-gourd). The condiments in usual use are mirci (Chillis), Miri (pepper), kothimbir (Coriander) and lasun (garlic).

Dietary habits of communities, who have retained the impress of their mother provinces such as South India, North India, Gujarat and Bengal sometimes differ considerably from those of the local communities, the main dividing line in the food habits of the people being, however, the inclusion or otherwise of animal food in the diet. Among the Hindus, communities such as Brahmans, Jains and Lingayats and some Marathas who are under a vow, eschew animal food as a religious custom; other communities, though ordinarily vegetarian, may take meat or fish occasionally. For any Hindu castes, it is considered sacrilegious to eat beef. Besides, Hindus observe certain taboos in respect of articles of food (singly or in combination) as per family or caste traditions and on religious and medical grounds.

Hindus

Hindus generally take two meals a day, the first between ten and twelve in the morning and the second between eight and ten at night. Marvadis or Jain sravaks, according to their religious precepts, finish their evening meal before sunset. Tea with some snacks in the morning and tiffin in the afternoon is now-a-days usual in the case of towns people. For the morning meal a family in good circumstances, generally has jowar bhakri (bread) served with ghee or butter, or poli or capati (bread of wheaten flour) served with ghee and sugar, varan, cooked split pulse, amti, split pulse boiled and mixed with spices of various kinds, one or two kinds of vegetables, pickles and other similar preparations to season the food. Some may begin their meal with a small quantity of rice of fine quality served with varan and ghee or have it served as the last course taken with milk, curds or butter-milk. In the evening meal, usually rice and varan are avoided so also curds and butter-milk. In the family of a trader or merchant in middling circumstances rice and wheat are scarce and so also free use of ghee and other dairy products and the vegetables are of cheap quality. The diet of poorer classes of artisans, town-workmen, and field labourers consists of jowar bread and rice and wheat on occasion, cooked vegetables and split pulse, and chutney made of garlic, chillis and salt used as appetiser almost daily. Habitually they take three meals a day: a light breakfast or nyahari consisting of bhakri, chutney and plain water; a lunch consisting of jowar or millet bread, cooked vegetables and split pulse and the supper or evening meal consisting of bread, rice, vegetables and milk, buttermilk nr curds. Occasionally they eat eggs, fowl meat and other flesh but very few can have the luxury except on festive occasions and holidays like Dasara and, Holi.

Special dishes or feast menus differ according to the caste, status and economic condition. Otherwise on feast occasions are prepared dishes such as poli and puran polis or rolls of sugar and dough and stuffed cakes, sweet-balls, or ladus sugar mixed with rice or sakharbhat, basundi or boiled condensed milk with sugar and cardamom. The particular holiday dishes of Gujarati Brahmans are polis or sugar rolled polis and lapasi, wheat flour, boiled with sugar and clarified butter, and that of the Marvadi Brahmans, sweet-balls or ladus of wheat or gram flour, fried cakes, or shira, puris stuffed with wheat flour boiled in clarified butter and mixed with sugar. The special holiday dishes of Kunbis and other agricultural communities are puran polis or wheat cakes stuffed with boiled pulse and molasses and fried cakes or telaci and bailed rice flour mixed with molasses caned gulavani.

Muslims

Though all Muslims have no objection to non-vegetarian food, few can afford meat even occasionally. An animal becomes a lawful food for Muhammedans if it is butchered by cutting the throat and repeating at the time the words Bismillah Allaho Akbar or in the name of God, God is great. Fish and locusts may be eaten without being killed in this manner. Cloven-footed animals, birds that pick up food with their bills, and fish with scales are lawful but not birds or beasts of prey. Swine's flesh is especially prohibited. The bulk of the local Muslims prefer mutton to beef. Communities such as Bagbans, Dhavads, Bakar-Kasaba, and Pinjaras who still retain strong Hindu leanings strictly eschew beef: otherwise almost all Deccan Muslims eat buffaloe or cow flesh without scruple as it is cheaper than mutton. Rice-land proprietors, Bohoras, Memans, and the government servants eat fowls and eggs, daily or weekly, or once a month.

What the Muslims from the district eat differs according to their means and native customs. A rich Muslim takes three Ideals a day: a breakfast of tea or coffee with sweets or snacks; a midday meal of unleavened bread capati, minced meat, khima or kofta, cream malai, vegetables and sometimes rice, for drink and tea or sometimes sarbat and at about seven, an evening meal of jowar bread, rice and pulse-khicadi or rice and meat-pulav, with clarified butter and some kind of meat or kadhi a dish, made of curds, mangoes, lemons or plantains and sugared-water sarbat. A middle class Muslim has in the early morning a cup of tea or coffee with or without a piece of a special kind of water-break; about eleven o'clock, a regular morning meal, nasta, of unleavened wheat or jowar bread and mutton with or without vegetables or cream and about eight or nine an evening meal or khana of wheat or jowar bread or boiled rice and clarified butter, mutton-soup or gal and vegetable curry or kadi, that is curds and whey, gramflour, and turmeric. A meat dish is generally accompanied with a vegetable dish and chutney. Dal curry is used with pulav. Before beginning to eat they wash their hands and mouth. Food is served in copper plates tinned both sides. Generally, all members of the house eat from, the same plate. They sit on the ground, around the plate with folded legs, one knee raised above the ground.

At public dinners of almost all Muslim classes, the chief dishes are biryani, rice boiled with fried mutton, clarified butter and spices; lards, rice boiled with clarified butter, sugar, saffron, almonds, cardamoms, cloves, pepper, and cinnamon; pulav, rice boiled with mutton, clarified butter and spices; and khuska kalia, boiled rice and curry. Pulav, which is given by the middle classes and the poor, is rice boiled with clarified butter and eaten with mutton curry, with pulse and vegetables. The occasions for these dinners are marriage, death, initiation or bismillah and sacrifice or akika ceremonies.

Feasts & Festivals

Hindus

The Hindus observe a variety of fasts, feasts and festivals throughout the year. Associated as they are primarily with a religious spirit, all could be called holidays. But as celebrations they may be distinguished as sana or holiday, utsava or festival, jayantis and punyatithis or birth and death anniversaries of gods, goddesses, saints and heroes and jatras or religious fairs. Besides, there are days for observing penances and upavasas or fasts which are matters generally left to individual discretion.

The most important holidays, common to almost all castes and sects in the district are: (1) Gudhhi Padva, (2) Ram-Navami, (3) Hanuman Jayanti, (4)1 Aksayyatritiya, (5) Asadhi Ekadasi, (6) Nag Pancami, (7) Rakhi Paurnima, (8) Gokulastami', (9) Pola, (10) Ganesacaturthi (11) Navratra, (12) Dasara, (13) Divali, (14) Kartiki Ekadasi, (15) Makar Sankrant, (16) Mahasiwratra, and (17) Holi.

(1) The Hindu New year, for those who abide by the Saka era, begins with the first of Caitra and the day is known as Gudhi Padava. A gudhi-a decorated bamboo pole-is hoisted by each householder in front of his house and worshipped as a goddess with an offering of puran poli. (2) Raim-Navami, the ninth of Caitra sud is the day for celebrating the birthday of god Rama, the seventh incarnation of Visu. Exactly at 12 noon the Haridas announces in Sri Rama's temple by tossing of gulal the birth of Sri Rama. A special idol of Rama is then cradled amidst birthday festivity. The devout observe a partial fast till 12 noon that day. (3) On the full-moon day of Caitra, exactly at sunrise, is celebrated the birthday of the god Hanuman, Rama's devotee and henchman. Some women observe the day as a fast. (4) Aksayatrtiya, the third of Vaisakh sud is considered one of the luckiest day of the year and as an auspicious beginning of field activities. Cultivators do some spade work on the day. The gods are worshipped and an earthen waterpot, a bamboo fan, fruits etc. are given to the priest so that the dead may not suffer from the burning heat of the season. (5) Asadhi Ekadasi, the eleventh of Asadh sud is the beginning of caturmnas (holy season) and is observed as a day of fast and prayer by many. Followers of Varkari cult who make it a point to visit the temple of Vithoba of Pandharapur initiate their dindyas (sacred tours) that day. (6) Nag pancami, the fifth of Sravana sud, is held sacred to serpents and in many a Hindu home, a Naga (cobra) is worshipped and a feast enjoyed. In the afternoon village women dressed in their best go, with music to a white ant-hill (varul). in which the cobra is believed to live, lay milk and sugar near the ant-hill, offer prayer and dance round the ant-hill in a ring-singing songs in chorus. In villages, activities like digging and ploughing which are believed to hurt snakes are completely suspended and the day is enjoyed in festive gathering of sports and games. (7) Rakhi Paurrnima, the fifteenth of Sravan sud, which is also known as Narali Paurnima is at places observed as a day of social gathering and festivity. Brahmans and others entitled to wear the sacred thread change the old sacred threads for new ones. Priests bind rakhis (thread anklets) on their patrons' wrists and receive some money. (8) Gokulastami, the eighth of Sravan vad, is observed as the birthday anniversary of Lord Sri Krisna with a fast, puja and bhajan and the next day with the festival of breaking the handi celebrated in temples. (9) Pola coming on the new-moon day of Sravan; is also known as bendar. In villages it is observed as a gala festival by agricultural communities. . That day the oxen have a rest. Their horns are covered with tinsel or red, and palas fibre tassels are tied to their tips. Garlands or flowers are put round their necks, they are fed with sugar and their owners worship them. In the evening after the headman's cattle, all the oxen are driven round the Hanuman's temple. At places rivalry prevails among the villages as to whose oxen should lead. (10) Ganes Caturthi, the fourth of Bhadrapad sud is observed in honour of god Ganapati when a painted clay image of the deity, specially bought for the day, is worshipped and a naivedya of modaka sweets is offered to the god. The image is kept in the house from one and half to ten, and sometimes even twenty-one days as may be the tradition with the family and then ceremonially immersed in a pond or a river. A special feature of the worship is that in towns, in recent times, it has come to be celebrated on a community scale by public contributions, and with the added attraction of religious and semi-social programmes being held each day during the festival. Conjoined with the Ganes festival, on the third and fourth day after Caturthi, women hold a feast for three days in honour of Parvati or Gauri, the mother of Ganes. The image of Gauri consists of a head-piece of brass or clay adorned with ornaments, and dressed in sadi etc. which is immersed on the Gaurivisarjana day. (11) Navaratra and (12) Dasara. The Dasara, so called from dasa (ten) and aha (day) is a ten-day festival in honour of goddess Durga, and is, therefore, also called Durgatsava. The first nine days are known as the Navaratra and on the first of these the ceremony of ghatasthapana or the invocation of the goddess to be present in the ghata is performed. A brass pot containing water, copper coin and a betel-nut, and its mouth covered with mango-leaves and a coconut, is set amidst handful of rice spread on a wooden stool. The pot thus decked represents the goddess and is daily worshipped for nine days. Throughout the period a Brahman priest reads the Saptasati hymns in praise of the goddess, and on the night of the ninth day a homa (sacred fire) is kindled in the temples of the goddess and usual offerings of clarified butter, samidha etc. are made. On the morning of the tenth or the Dasara day the Hindus take an early bath and worship their religious books (granthas) and household gods, and in the afternoon they don holiday attire and walk in procession to the temples. Here the people worship the Sami or apta tree, and after offering the leaves to the goddess distribute them among their friends and relatives calling them gold. The Dasara day is considered highly auspicious for the undertaking of any new work or business, and children who are commencing their studies generally attend school for the first time on this day. (13) Divali or Dipavali signifying "a feast of lights" starts from the thirteenth of Asvin Vad and lasts, for five days. The festival so called from dipa (lamps) and avali (raw) is celebrated in honour of the victory of Visnu over the demon Narakaslura, and is really a combination of four festivals, viz., Narakacaturdasi bathing, the. Laksmi-Puja or worship of the goddess of wealth, the Bali-pratipada or new year day of Bali, king of the lower regions, and the Bhau-Bij or greeting of brothers, and, sisters. During the period, each evening a number of. panatya (earthen oil.-lamps) are lighted in all frontages of the house and, in every nook and comer inside. (14) Kartiki Ekadasi, the eleventh of Kartik sud is the end of Caturmas and is observed as a day of fast and prayers by many. The day following which is known as baras or tulasi vivah, the sacred basil is married to Visnu. And with it opens the marriage season of the Hindus for the year. (15) Makar Sankrant, the day the sun enters Makara, the zodiac sign of Capricorns, is celebrated as Makar Sankrant. It is marked with a feast in the afternoon, and in the evening men and women dressed in new clothes, visit relatives and friends and offer tilgul or halava (sweet sesame) as greetings of the season. The day as a tithi (lunar date) falls on an uncertain day in the dark half of the pausa. (16) Maha-sivaratra, the thirteenth or fourteenth of Maghvad, is observed particularly by Sivabhaktas as a day of fast and worship. The night is spent in singing devotional songs and the next morning, after worshipping the god, all partake of a feast. (17) Holi or Simaga is a festival much more eagerly awaited in rural areas than in cities; it begins from the fifth of Phalgun vad and lasts till the Ranga-pancami day, the dark fifth of the month. Boys from all localities of the villages assemble at the place appointed for the holi and then go from house to house asking far firewood. Bonfires are lit from the tenth of Phalgun Sud out the biggest bonfire takes place on the full moon day. The next day known as dhulavada is also observed as a holiday. There used to be boisterous indulgence, an exchange of mud flinging and wayward pranks on that day. But the practice has now disappeared from cities and is fast disappearing also from rural areas. On Rangapancami, the sacred fire of the Holi is extinguished with coloured water.

Vratas (penances) and upavasas (fasts) are provinces assigned more to women than to men, and there occur throughout the year a number of religious observances of the kind in which women devoutly engage themselves. The rite of Rsi-pancami which falls on the fifth of Bhadrapad Sud is observed by married women to make amends for sins, committed without knowledge. Their chief rule that day is to eat nothing that is not handgrown. On the Haratalika day, i.e., the third of Bhadrapad Sud women worship clay figures of Parvati, Sakhi (her friend) and Sivalinga, and fast the whole day. On the dark fourths called Sankasti caturthis or trouble-clearing fourths, women fast all day long and at moon-rise break their fast by taking supper. During the four rainy months some women keep a partial fast an each of the sixteenth Mondays and on the sixteenth Monday feast seventeen dampatyas (couples). On vata-Savitri day, which falls on the Jyestha full-moon day, they worship a banyan tree or its boughs and observe a vrata so that their husbands may live a long life. The worship of Mangala-Gauri is a ceremony performed by married girls for the first five years of their marriage an every Tuesday of Sravana. In the month of Caitra starting from the bright third and on a convenient day, Brahman suvasinis hold in their homes the ceremony of haldi-kumku in honour of goddess Gauri who is worshipped with special decorations. The third of Vaisakh sud is the last day of the haladi-kumku ceremony, when the goddess is said to depart for the mother's house (maher).

The days of the week are supposed to be under the influence of some planet as also of some deity and to placate the evil influence and please the Governing deity the day is observed with a partial fast by many, e.g. Mondays which are sacred. to the moan, and from the crescent moon on Siv's forehead to Siv are kept as fast days by many high caste Hindu men and women. Thursday, called Guruvar or Brahaspativar is sacred to Guru or Brahaspati, the teacher of the gods, as also to god Dattatraya who is known as Sadguru, the Real Preceptor. To secure the friendly influence of Jupiter, so also in devotion to god Dattatraya people observe Thursday as a partial fast. The fun-moon day of Margasirasa which is known as Dattatreya Jayanti and that of Asadh as Guru-Paurnima, are celebrated in honour of god Dattatraya. Saturn or Sani, who is supposed to be a Chandal or Mang by caste, has as his great friend god Hanuman, and Saturday is held as sacred both to Saturn and Hanuman. A person who comes, under the evil influence of Saturn known as Sadesati eats nothing but udid (black gram) on Saturday, visits Hanuman's temple and offers the deity udid, red lead, leaves and flowers of rut and pours on the image a cup of sesame oil.

Jains

The Jains (Sravaks) keep most of the Brahmanic holidays and besides observe the yearly 'Sacred season' known as Pancusan. Among the Svetambars it begins with the twelfth of Sravan Vad and ends with the fifth of Bhadrapad Sud. Among the Digambaras the 'Sacred season' lasts for fifteen days beginning from the fifth of Bhadrapad Vad. A strict Svetambar ought to fast during the whole Pancusan week but in rare instances the rule is observed and almost all fast on the last day. During this week the Svetambaras generally do not work and both men and women flock several times during the day to the temples where the Sadhus read and explain the Kalpasutras, one of the religious books, of the Jains. Besides hearing the scriptures read to them, many prefer every day in the evening during the Pancusan week the parikraman ceremony which is something like a confession by a body of persons. Next in importance to the Pancusan is the Siddhachakra Puja or saint-wheel, which is performed twice a year in Caitra and Asvin and lasts for nine days beginning on the seventh and ending on fullmoon day.

Lingayats

The Lingayats observe the second of Vaisakh as Lingayats Basava-Jayanti, the birth-anniversary day of Basava as a day of rejoicing and feast. According to the books, Basava removed feasts, penance and pilgrimage, rosaries and holy water, and reverence for cows, but this change probably never affects his followers. At present all Lingayats in the district fast on Sivaratra or Siva's, night on the thirteenth of Magh Vad, and on Nagapancami, the fifth of Sravan Sud, and follow their fasts with a feast. On Mondays in Sravan they keep partial fasts, that is, they only take one evening meal.

Scheduled Castes

Calling themselves Hindus, the Scheduled Castes observe all the chief Hindu holidays and festivals, though actual details, of the ceremonials may sometimes differ a great deal from those of the caste Hindus. Some may have their own festivals in addition. As devotees of god Khandoba of Jejuri they observe Campa Sasthi occurring on the sixth of Margasirasa sud with great religious fervour. Vaghbaras coming on the twelfth of both on dark and bright half of Kartik is observed by Madhav Kolis and others with special observances. Many agricultural communities observe ' field rites'. A land.-holder on the Tuesday, before he begins to plant his crop, kills a fowl and sprinkles its blood over the field and offers the field spirit a coconut and he-goat or fowl.

Muslims

Islam in its puritanical standpoint enjoins upon its followers to observe a few religious festivals, but in association with the tendencies of the Hindus, Muslims in the district would find occasions for celebrating a variety of festivities. The main incidents in the year for which Muslims show concern and observe a holiday are as follows.

With Muharram the Muslim year begins. But the tragedy of Karbala has converted it into a month of mourning for all Muslims, and especially for Siahs. Now the Muharram is celebrated as the anniversary of the martyrdom of Hussain at Karbala. Many prepare Tajiahs or tabuts, bamboo and tinsel models of the Imam at Karbala, and keeping them in their houses for several days, on the night of the ninth take them round the chief streets. As the tabuts pass poor Hindu and Muslim men and women in fulfilment of their vows throw themselves, in the road-way and roll in front of the Shrine. On the tenth day, with much show and noise the owners of the Shrines forming a procession take them by a river or lake and cast them into the water. The Akkari-char-Shambah, also called Cela Budh, is celebrated on the last Wednesday of the month of Safar, when Muslims go for picnicking in gardens or open spaces. The wafat or day of the Prophet's death Id-e-Milad falls on the twelfth of the month of Rubi-ul-Awwal, and is among Sunnis the greatest day in the year next to the ids. Another festival occasion which is held on the seventeenth day of the month is the Maulad or birthday of the Prophet. On the fourteenth evening of Saban comes the night of record, Sab-e-Barat or all sours Day. On this night, the fates of the unborn souls are held to be registered in heaven. Ramzan, the ninth month, is the month of fast for Muslims and at the end of the Ramzan fast, that is the first day of Savval the tenth month, comes the fast-breaking festival Id-ul-Fitr commonly known as the Ramzan Id. This feast is one of the two greatest Muslim festivals, the second great feast being the festival of sacrifice Id-Uz-aha quraban also known as Bugr-Id which falls on the tenth day of Zil-hijja, the twelfth month of the Muslim year.

Games and Recreation

The forms of games and other recreational activities in the district do not differ basically from any of those current in other districts of the Maharastra State. For the Hindus festivals such as Nag-pancami, Gokul-Astami, Ganes-Caturthi, Divali, Dasara and Simga, and, for the Muhammedans Muharram are occasions to pass time in merriment and playing games of various kinds. The tribal community of the Lamanis in the district are known to play the stick-dance of Tiparya and the ( folk-dance of Phugdya on the Gokul-Astami day.

Religious expositions and entertainments such as Purana, pravacana, katha and Kirtana are popular all over the district. Bhajana, the chanting of religious songs in chorus and a form of a religious, communion has now become a specialised entertainment activity of professionals known as Bhajana-Mandalis functioning in towns and big villages.

Major Indian games such as Kabaddi or hu-tu-tu, Kho-Kho, Langadi are played all over the district with some regional variations where the standardized rules of the games are not observed. On adding to these Viti-dandu and Lagorya, they form also the recreational activities popular with boys. Games of gotya {marbles), bhovara (top) and patang (kite) and tag and chase games such as andhali-kosimbir, lapandav are popular among boys of all ages,. Games such as aba-da-bi, gun-cun-toba, sur-parmnbi, Vagh-bakri are played by them in a team spirit. Games popular with girls are Bhatukali (house-keeping), sagaragote and Phugdya.

Of the popular indoor games current in the district the chief are: Buddhibal chess, patte cards and songatya the Indian back-gammon.

Recreational activities popular with the rural population in the district are cart-racing, fights between rams, cocks and buffaloes and betting on them, the Maharastrian burlesque known as Tamasa and semi-religious dances and expositions such as gondhal and bharud. Talim or akhada as indigenous institution for training athletes and wrestlers appear not much in evidence in the district. However, wrestling bouts or phadas and dangals held in villages and towns on festivals of Nag Pancami, Janmastami and Narali Paurnima receive a good patronage.

Organised cultural and recreational activities in this district are practically non-existent. In Nanded town there are five cinema theatres which show chiefly Indian films. They have sprang up between 1930 and 1966 and their total seating capacity is about 4,500. There is one theatre where plays are staged. lectures are held and sometimes musical programmes are given.

Badminton, Hockey, Volleyball are popular. There is also a Gymkhana where weight-lifting, sword-play and stick-fighting are taught. A painting school is also there. Deglur has one cinema theatre, a club named after Jawaharlal Nehru and a gymnasium. Kondilwadi also boasts of a talkie theatre and a Bhagini MandaI but all other tahsil towns are deficient in these amenities.

Temples

There are a number of temples possessing religious importance and sanctity. Besides their religious significance, many of the temples are places of social get together.

The following table gives the tahsil-wise number of temples mosques etc., in the Nanded district:-

Tahsil	Dharmashala	Math	Mosque	Dargah	Church Temple	Temple
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
(1) Bhokar Mahal	11	20	11	10	2	177
(2) Biloli	18	50	48	51	7	372
(3) Hadaganv	10	27	23	20	..	289
(4) Kandhar	28	45	47	35	3	411
(5)Delgur	15	40	43	14	2	196
(6) Kinwat	7	15	13	9	..	215
(7) Mukhed	14	25	47	42	3	277
(8) Nanded	18	54	58	51	6	349
District Total	121	276	290	232	23	2286

The temples of particular deities not generally found are given tahsil-wise as under:

Bhokar Mahal- Masai, Mahakali, Sitadevi, Gaurishankar, Dhurapa Devi, Konda Dev, Pandhari Nath, Dhula Dev, Gadacandi Devi.

Biloli- Kapilesvar, Visnu, Rajesvar, Virabhadra, Narsinha, Vaghadevi, Sangamesvar.

Hadaganv- Narmadesvar, Basavesvar, Naga Nath, Bahiroba, Mahagir, Braman Dev, Basavanna, Ramaling.

Kandhar- Ratnesvari Devi, Brahma Dev, Kapilesvar, Jyotirling, Baraling, Manik Prabhu, Risi Maharaj, Kukanai.

Deglur- Virabhadra, Mahesai, Basavanna.

Kinwat- Machhindra Nath, Vyankatesvar, Devadevsvari, Renuka Devi.

Mukhed- Drupatamai, Kakonai, Somaling, Mhaisai, Nagendra, Virabhadra.

Nanded- Gurudvar, Rokadoba, Asara Devi, Mallikarjun, Gayatri Narsinha, Kalesvar, Gopiraj, Gunfama Devi. Satyai.