visits and taxation. Their appearance causes a disturbance
in every household. Those who have already visited 'The Lord of the
World' at Puri are called upon to pay an instalment towards the debt
contracted by them while at the sacred shrine, which, though paid
many times over, is never completely satisfied. That, however, is a
small matter compared with the misery and distraction caused by the
'Jagannath mania,' which is excited by the preachings and pictures of
the Panda. A fresh batch of old ladies become determined to visit the
shrine, and neither the waitings and protestations of the children nor
the prospect of a long and toilsome journey can dissuade them. The
arrangements of the family are for the time being altogether upset,
and the grief of those left behind is heightened by the fact that
they look upon the pilgrims as going to meet almost certain death...."

This vivid statement of the objections to the habit of pilgrimage from
a Brahman writer is very interesting. Since the opening of the railway
to Puri the danger and expense as well as the period of absence have
been greatly reduced; but the pilgrimages are still responsible for
a large mortality, as cholera frequently breaks out among the vast
assembly at the temple, and the pilgrims, hastily returning to all
parts of India, carry the disease with them, and cause epidemics in
many localities. All castes now eat the rice cooked at the temple of
Jagannath together without defilement, and friendships are cemented
by eating a little of this rice together as a sacred bond.

Chadar

_Chadar, [439] Kotwar._--A small caste of weavers and village
watchmen resident in the Districts of Saugor, Damoh, Jubbulpore and
Narsinghpur. They numbered 28,000 persons in 1911. The caste is not
found outside the northern Districts of the Central Provinces. The
name is derived from the Sanskrit _chirkar_, a weaver, and belongs
to Bundelkhand, but beyond this the Chadars have no knowledge or
traditions of their origin. They are probably an occupational group
formed from members of the Dravidian tribes and others who took to the
profession of village watchmen. A number of other occupational castes
of low status are found in the northern Districts, and their existence
is probably to be accounted for by the fact that the forest tribes
were subjected and their tribal organisation destroyed by the invading
Bundelas and other Hindus some centuries ago. They were deprived
of th