hari caste of
shell-cutters of Bengal. According to their traditions their original
ancestor was created by Viswakarma, the celestial architect, for the
business of making a pinnacle for the temple of Jagannath at Puri,
in which eight metals had to be combined. He left two sons, one of
whom became the ancestor of the Khadras, and the other of the Kasars,
with whom the Khadras thus claim affinity. They have no subcastes but
four _gotras_ or clans called after the Nag or cobra, the Singh or
lion, and Kasyap and Kachchap, both derived from the tortoise. They
also have four _bargas_ or family names, which are Patra (a term of
respect), Das (slave), Sao (banker) and Maharana (artificer). The
groups are supposed to be descended from four families who migrated
from Curtack. Neither _bargas_ nor _gotras_ are now considered in the
arrangement of marriages, which are prohibited between blood relatives
for three generations. Marriage is infant, and a girl arriving at
puberty while still unwed is permanently expelled from the caste. The
Khadras still follow the old rule of writing the _lagun_ or date
of the marriage on a palm-leaf, with which they send Rs. 10-4 as a
bride-price to the girl's father, the acceptance of this constituting
a confirmation of the betrothal. The marriage ceremony resembles
that of the other Uriya castes, and the Khadras have the rite called
_badapani_ or breaking the bachelorhood. A little water brought from
seven houses is sprinkled over the bridegroom and his loin-cloth is
then snatched away, leaving him naked. In this state he runs towards
his own house, but some boys are posted at a little distance who give
him a new cloth. Widow-marriage and divorce are permitted, but the
hand of a widow must not be sought so long as she remains in her late
husband's house, and does not return to her father. When a bachelor
marries a widow he must first perform the regular ceremony with a
leaf-cup filled with flowers, after which he can take the widow as
his second wife. All important agreements are confirmed by a peculiar
custom called _heskani_. A deer-skin is spread on the ground before
the caste committee, and the person making the agreement bows before
it a number of times. To break an agreement made by the _heskani_
rite is believed to involve terrible calamities. The Khadras eat the
flesh of animals and fish but not that of birds, and they do not drink
country liquor. When an estate is to be partitioned the elde