ofession was military service,
and it is probable that like the Khandaits and Paiks they formed the
levies of some of the Uriya Rajas, and gradually became a caste. They
have three subdivisions, of which the first consists of the Taonlas
whose ancestors were soldiers. These consider themselves superior to
the others, and their family names as Naik (leader), Padhan (chief),
Khandait (swordsman), and Behra (master of the kitchen) indicate
their ancestral profession. The other subcastes are called Dangua and
Khond; the Danguas, who are hill-dwellers, are more primitive than the
military Taonlas, and the Khonds are apparently members of that tribe
of comparatively pure descent who marry among themselves and not with
other Taonlas. In Orissa Dr. Hunter says that the Taonlas are allied
to the Savaras, and that they will admit a member of any caste, from
whose hands they can take water, into the community. This is also the
case in Bamra. The candidate has simply to worship Kalapat, the god
of the Taonlas, and after drinking some water in which basil leaves
have been dipped, to touch the food prepared for a caste feast, and
his initiation is complete. As usual among the mixed castes, female
morality is very lax, and a Taonla woman may have a _liaison_ with a
man of her own or any other caste from whom a Taonla can take water
without incurring any penalty whatsoever. A man committing a similar
offence must give a feast to the caste. In Sonpur the Taonlas admit a
close connection with Chasas, and say that some of their families are
descended from the union of Chasa men and Taonla women. They will eat
the leavings of Chasas. The custom may be accounted for by the fact
that the Taonlas are now generally farmservants and field-labourers,
and the Chasas, as cultivators, would be their employers. A similar
close connection is observable among other castes standing in the
same position towards each other as the Panwars and Gonds and the
Rajbhars and Lodhis.

The Taonlas have no exogamous divisions as they all belong to the
same _gotra_, that of the Nag or cobra. Their marriages are therefore
regulated by relationship in the ordinary manner. If two families
find that they have no common ancestor up to the third generation they
consider it lawful to intermarry. The marriage ritual is of the usual
Uriya form. After the marriage the bride and the bridegroom have a
ceremony of throwing a mahua branch into a river together. Divorce and
wido