dren should
bear their father's name and not their mother's. [136]

In Nimar some Agarwalas worship Goba Pir, the god of the sweepers. He
is represented by a pole some 30 feet long on which are hung a cloth
and cocoanuts. The sweepers carry this through the city almost daily
during the month of Shrawan (July), and people offer cocoanuts, tying
them on to the pole. Some Agarwalas offer vermilion to the god in token
of worship, and a few invite it to the compounds of their houses and
keep it there all night for the same purpose. When a feast is given in
the caste the Agarwalas do not take their own brass vessels according
to the usual practice, but the host gives them little earthen pots
to drink from which are afterwards broken, and leaf-plates for their
food. The Agarwalas will take food cooked without water (_pakki_) from
Oswal, Maheshri and Khandelwal Banias. The Agarwalas of the Central
Provinces hold some substantial estates in Chhattisgarh; these were
obtained at the first settlements during 1860-70, when considerable
depression existed, and many of the village headmen were unwilling to
accept the revenue assessed on their villages. The more enterprising
Banias stepped in and took them, and have profited enormously owing to
the increase in the value of land. Akbar's great minister, Todar Mal,
who first introduced an assessment of the land-revenue based on the
measurement and survey of the land, is said to have been an Agarwala.

Bania, Agrahari

_Bania, Agrahari._ [137]--This subcaste numbered nearly 2000 persons
in 1911, resident principally in Jubbulpore, Raipur and Bilaspur,
and some of the Feudatory States. Mr. Crooke states that they claim
partly a Vaishya and partly a Brahmanical descent, and wear the sacred
thread. Like that of the Agarwala Banias their name has been connected
with the cities of Agra and Agroha. There is no doubt that they are
closely connected with the Agarwalas, and Mr. Nesfield suggests that
the two groups must have been sections of one and the same caste
which quarrelled on some trifling matter connected with cooking or
eating, and have remained separate ever since. The Agrahari Banias
are Hindus, and some of them belong to the Nanakpanthi sect. They
are principally dealers in provisions, and they have acquired some
discredit as compared with their kinsfolk the Agarwalas, through
not secluding their women and allowing them to attend the shop. They
also retail various sweet-smell