colour among the Hindus. But they now use bullocks for ploughing, and
cut green trees except on the Amawas day. Many of them, especially
the younger generation, have begun to grow the Hindu _choti_ or
scalp-lock. They go on pilgrimage to all the Hindu sacred places, and
no doubt make presents there to Brahman priests. They offer _pindas_
or sacrificial cakes to the spirits of their deceased ancestors. They
observe some of the ordinary Hindu festivals, as the Anant Chaturthi,
and some of them employ Brahmans to read the Satya Narayan Katha,
the favourite Hindu sacred book. They still retain their special
observance of the Holi. The admission of proselytes has practically
ceased, and they marry among themselves like an ordinary Hindu caste,
in which light they are gradually coming to be regarded. The Bishnois
are usually cultivators or moneylenders by calling.

Bohra

List of Paragraphs

1. _Origin of the sect._
2. _Their religious tenets._
3. _The Mullahs._
4. _Bohra graveyards._
5. _Religious customs._
6. _Occupation._
7. _Houses and dress._

1. Origin of the sect.

_Bohra, Bohora._ [388]--A Muhammadan caste of traders who come
from Gujarat and speak Gujarati. At the last census they numbered
nearly 5000 persons, residing principally in the Nimar, Nagpur and
Amraoti Districts, Burhanpur being the headquarters of the sect in
the Central Provinces. The name is probably derived from the Hindi
_byohara_, a trader. Members of the caste are honorifically addressed
as Mullaji. According to the received account of the rise of the
Bohras in Gujarat a missionary, Abdulla, came from Yemen to Cambay
in A.D. 1067. By his miracles he converted the great king Sidhraj
of Anhilvada Patan in Gujarat, and he with numbers of his subjects
embraced the new faith. For two centuries and a half the Bohras
flourished, but with the establishment of Muzaffar Shah's power
(A.D. 1390-1413) in that country the spread of Sunni doctrines was
encouraged and the Bohra and other Shia sects suppressed. Since then,
with gradually lessening numbers, they have passed through several
bitter persecutions, meeting with little favour or protection, till at
the close of the eighteenth century they found shelter under British
rule. In 1539 the members of the sect living in Arabia were expelled
from there and came to Gujarat, where they were hospitably received by
their brethren, the headquarters of the s