a livelihood. Everywhere
they made their mark so that they live in history, but they paid no
regard to the purity of their Rajput blood and took to themselves
wives from the women of the country as they could get them. The
Panwars of the Wainganga Valley have developed into a caste marrying
among themselves. They have no subcastes but thirty-six exogamous
sections. Some of these have the names of Rajput clans, while others
are derived from villages, titles or names of offices, or from
other castes. Among the titular names are Chaudhri (headman), Patlia
(patel or chief officer of a village) and Sonwania (one who purifies
offenders among the Gonds and other tribes). Among the names of other
castes are Bopcha or Korku, Bhoyar (a caste of cultivators), Pardhi
(hunter), Kohli (a local cultivating caste) and Sahria (from the Saonr
tribe). These names indicate how freely they have intermarried. It is
noticeable that the Bhoyars and Korkus of Betul both say that their
ancestors were Panwars of Dhar, and the occurrence of both names
among the Panwars of Balaghat may indicate that these castes also
have some Panwar blood. Three names, Rahmat (kind), Turukh or Turk,
and Farid (a well-known saint), are of Muhammadan origin, and indicate
intermarriage in that quarter.

7. Marriage customs

Girls are usually, but not necessarily, wedded before
adolescence. Occasionally a Panwar boy who cannot afford a regular
marriage will enter his prospective father-in-law's house and serve him
for a year or more, when he will obtain a daughter in marriage. And
sometimes a girl will contract a liking for some man or boy of the
caste and will go to his house, leaving her home. In such cases the
parents accept the accomplished fact, and the couple are married. If
the boy's parents refuse their consent they are temporarily put
out of caste, and subsequently the neighbours will not pay them the
customary visits on the occasions of family joys and griefs. Even if
a girl has lived with a man of another caste, as long as she has not
borne a child, she may be re-admitted to the community on payment of
such penalty as the elders may determine. If her own parents will not
take her back, a man of the same _gotra_ or section is appointed as
her guardian and she can be married from his house.

The ceremonies of a Panwar marriage are elaborate. Marriage-sheds are
erected at the houses both of the bride and bridegroom in accordance
with the usual practi