usdhar or a holder of a
bow.) Synonym of Dhanwar.

_Dhanuk_.--(A bowman.) A caste. A subcaste of Mehtar.

_Dhanushban_.--(Bow and arrow.) A sept of Kawar.

_Dharampuria_.--(Resident of Dharampur.) Subcaste of Dhobi.

_Dhare_.--Title of Gowari.

_Dhari_.--A subcaste of Banjara. They are the bards of the caste.

_Dharkar_.--Subcaste of Basor.

_Dharmik_.--(Religious or virtuous.) A subcaste of Mahar and Maratha.

_Dhed_.--Synonym for Mahar.

_Dhengar_.--A subcaste of Bharewa (Kasar) and Gadaria.

_Dhera_. [440]--A small Telugu caste of weavers, the bulk of whom
reside in the Sonpur State, transferred to Bengal in 1905. The Dheras
were brought from Orissa by the Raja of Sonpur to make clothes for
the images of the gods, which they also claim to be their privilege in
Puri. Their exogamous groups are named after animals, plants or other
objects, and they practise totemism. The members of the Surya or sun
group will not eat during an eclipse. Those of the Nalla (black) sept
will not wear black clothes. Those of the Bansethi and Bhanala septs
will not use the _bandi_, a kind of cart from which they consider their
name to be derived. The Otals take their name from _utti_, a net, from
which pots are hung, and they will not use this net. Those of the Gunda
sept, who take their name from _gunda_, a bullet, will not eat any
game shot with a gun. Marriage within the sept is prohibited, but the
Dheras always, where practicable, arrange the marriage of a boy with
his maternal uncle's daughter. Even in childhood the members of such
families address each other as brother-in-law and sister-in-law. When
the bridegroom and bride go home after the marriage ceremony, the
bridegroom's sister bars the door of the house and will not let them
in until they have severally promised to give her their daughter for
her son. A girl must be married before arriving at adolescence on pain
of permanent exclusion from the caste. If a suitable husband has not
therefore been found when the period approaches, the parents marry
the girl to her elder sister's husband or any other married man. She
is not bound to enter into conjugal relations with the man to whom
she is thus united, and with his consent she may be consequently
married to any other man in the guise of a widow. If a bachelor takes
such a girl to wife, he must first be married to a _sahara_ tree
(_Streblus asper_). When a betrothal is arranged, an elderly member
of the bridegroom's fami