, turmeric and incense, after which
the man, breaking his bangle from off his wrist, throws it into the
water, apparently as a propitiatory offering for the success of the
marriage. It is not stated what the bangle is made of, but it may be
assumed that a valuable one would not thus be thrown away. As among
some of the other Maratha castes, the bridegroom must be wrapped in a
blanket on his journey to the bride's village. If a bachelor desires
to espouse a widow he must first go through the ceremony of marriage
with a swallow-wort plant. Polygamy is freely permitted, and some
Dangris are known to have as many as five wives. As already stated,
wives are of great assistance in gardening work, which demands much
hand-labour. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are allowed. The
Dangris commonly bury the dead, and they place cotton leaves over the
eyes and ears of the corpse. In Bhandara they say that this is done
when it is believed the dead person was possessed by an evil spirit,
and there is possibly some idea of preventing the escape of the spirit
from the body. In Wardha the Dangris have rather a bad reputation,
and a saying current about them is '_Dangri beta puha chor_,' or
'A Dangri will steal even a shred of cotton'; but this may be a libel.

Darzi

List of Paragraphs

1. _General notice._
2. _Subdivisions._
3. _Sewn clothes not formerly worn._
4. _Occupation._
5. _Religion._

1. General notice.

_Darzi, Shimpi, Chhipi, Suji._--The occupational caste of tailors. In
1911 a total of 51,000 persons were returned as belonging to the caste
in the Central Provinces and Berar. The Darzis are an urban caste and
are most numerous in Districts with large towns. Mr. Crooke derives
the word Darzi from the Persian _darz_, meaning a seam. The name Suji
from _sui_, a needle, was formerly more common. Shimpi is the Maratha
name, and Chhipi, from Chhipa a calico-printer or dyer, is another
name used for the caste, probably because it is largely recruited from
the Chhipas. In Bombay they say that when Parasurama was destroying
the Kshatriyas, two Rajput brothers hid themselves in a temple and
were protected by the priest, who set one of them to sew dresses for
the idol and the other to dye and stamp them. The first brother was
called Chhipi and from him the Darzis are descended, the name being
corrupted to Shimpi, and the second was called Chhipa and was the
ancestor of the dyers. T