regarded
as the tutelary deity of the caste, and is worshipped twice a year
with offerings of flowers, rice and sugar. Images are sometimes made
of him, but more commonly the weaver's loom or some of the tools
of the craft are regarded as the dwelling-place or symbol of the
god. In past times the Tantis made the famous fine cotton cloth,
known as _abrawan_ or 'running water,' which was supplied only to
the imperial zenana at Delhi. Sir H. Risley relates the following
stories illustrating its gossamer texture. On one occasion a daughter
of Aurangzeb was reproached on entering the room for her immodest
attire, through which her limbs could be seen, and excused herself by
the plea that she had on seven folds of cloth over her body. Again
in the reign of Alivardi Khan (1742-56), a Dacca Tanti was flogged
and banished from the city for not preventing his cow from eating up
a piece of _abrawan_ cloth which had been laid out to bleach on the
grass. The famous female spinners who used to wind the fine native
thread were still to be found in 1873, but their art has now died
out. In illustration of their delicate touch it is told that one of
them wound 88 yards of thread on a reel, and the whole weight of the
thread was only one _rati_ or two grains. Nowadays the finest thread
spun weighs 70 yards to the _rati_. The best cloths were woven by
the Dacca Tantis, to whom the Koshtis of Burhanpur in the Central
Provinces stood second. The Bamanmara tank in the old village of
Dhanpur in Pendra zamindari of Bilaspur is so named from the fact
that about a century ago some Brahman traders were murdered on its
bank for the sake of the fine cloths they were carrying rolled up
in hollow bamboo sticks. In Bengal the Tantis are included among
the castes from whom a Brahman can take water. Sir H. Risley is
of opinion that they have to some extent raised themselves to this
position by their own influence, their trade being prosperous and
lucrative, and having long ago attained to the development of an
urban industry. The ordinary status of the weaving castes being at
the bottom of the social scale, the superior position of the Bengal
Tantis is an interesting exception. It is analogous to that of the
Koshtis in the Central Provinces, also a class of urban weavers,
who rank above the impure castes, though they have not attained to
the position of the Tantis, as Brahmans will not take water from them.

_Tanwar_.--A subcaste of Kawar, to which zami