Provinces. Subcaste of Kunbi,
Mahar and Mali.

_Baoria_.--Synonym of Badhak.

_Bara-hazar._--(Twelve thousand.) Subcaste of Chero.

_Barade, Berari_.--A resident of Berar. Subcaste of Bahna, Barhai,
Chamar, Dhangar, Dhobi, Khatik, Mang and Nai.

_Baram_ or _Birm_.--Subcaste of Bhat.

_Barapatre_.--(A large leaf-plate.) A section of Koshti.

_Baraua_.--(A fisherman.) Synonym of Dhimar; title of Dhimar.

_Bardhia_.--(From _bardh_, a term for the edge of a weapon.) Synonym
of Sikligar.

_Bardia_.--One who uses bullocks for transport. Subcaste of Kumhar.

_Baretha_.--(A washerman.) Synonym for Dhobi.

_Barga_.--Subcaste of Oraon.

_Bargah_, [418] _Bargaha_, _Barghat_.--A small caste of cultivators
belonging principally to the Bilaspur District. They appear to
be immigrants from Rewah, where the caste is numerically strong,
and they are also found in the adjacent Districts of the United
Provinces and Bengal. In the United Provinces they are employed as
higher domestic servants and make leaf-plates, while their women act
as midwives. [419] Here they claim kinship with the Goala Ahirs, but
in the Central Provinces and Bengal they advance pretensions to be
Rajputs. They have a story, however, which shows their connection
with the Ahirs, to the effect that on one occasion Brahma stole
Krishna's cows and cowherds. Krishna created new ones to replace them,
exactly similar to those lost, but Brahma subsequently returned the
originals, and the Bargahas are the descendants of the artificial
cowherds created by Krishna. In Sarguja, Bargaha is used as a title
by Ahirs, while in Rewah the Bargahs are looked on as the bastard
offspring of Baghel Rajputs. Dr. Buchanan writes of them as follows:
[420] "In Gorakhpur the Rajput chiefs have certain families of Ahirs,
the women of which act as wet-nurses to their children, while the men
attend to their persons. These families are called Bargaha; they have
received, of course, great favours and many of them are very rich,
but others look down upon them as having admitted their women to too
great familiarity with their chiefs." In the United Provinces they
also claim to be Rajputs, as they returned themselves as a clan of
Rajputs in 1881. [421] Their position as described by Buchanan is
precisely the same as that of the Dauwa Ahirs, who are the household
servants of Bundela Rajputs in Bundelkhand, and the facts set forth
above leave little or no doubt that the Bargahs are a mixed c