country of the south. The Ares of
the Central Provinces appear to be Kunbis who have migrated into the
Telugu country. The names of their subcastes are those of the Kunbis,
as Khaire, Tirelle, a form of Tirole, and Dhanoj for Dhanoje. Other
subdivisions are called Kayat and Kattri, and these seem to be the
descendants of Kayasth and Khatri ancestors. The caste admit Brahmans,
Banias, and Komtis into the community and seem to be, as shown by
Mr. Stuart, a mixed group of immigrants from Maharashtra into the
Telugu country. Some of them wear the sacred thread and others do
not. Some of their family names are taken from those of animals and
plants, and they bury persons who die unmarried, placing their feet
towards the north like the forest tribes.

_Arka_.--A sept of Gonds in Chanda who worship the saras crane.

_Armachi_.--(The _dhaura_ tree.) A totemistic sept of Gonds.

_Arora_, _Rora_.--An important trading and mercantile caste of the
Punjab, of which a few persons were returned from the Nimar District in
1901. Sir D. Ibbetson was of opinion that the Aroras were the Khatris
of Aror, the ancient capital of Scinde, represented by the modern
Rori. He described the Arora as follows: [413] "Like the Khatri and
unlike the Bania he is no mere trader; but his social position is
far inferior to theirs, partly no doubt because he is looked down
upon simply as being a Hindu in the portions of the Province which
are his special habitat. He is commonly known as a Kirar, a word
almost synonymous with coward, and even more contemptuous than is
the name Bania in the east of the province. The Arora is active and
enterprising, industrious and thrifty.... 'When an Arora girds up
his loins he makes it only two miles from Jhang to Lahore.' He will
turn his hand to any work, he makes a most admirable cultivator,
and a large proportion of the Aroras of the lower Chenab are purely
agricultural in their avocations. He is found throughout Afghanistan
and even Turkistan and is the Hindu trader of those countries; while
in the western Punjab he will sew clothes, weave matting and baskets,
make vessels of brass and copper and do goldsmith's work. But he is a
terrible coward, and is so branded in the proverbs of the countryside:
The thieves were four and we eighty-four; the thieves came on and we
ran away; and again: To meet a Rathi armed with a hoe makes a company
of nine Kirars (Aroras) feel alone. Yet the peasant has a wholesome
dread of the