User:Orh Rajput/sandbox

Orh.- A tribe recorded in the recent Census as a sub-caste of Koris and almost entirely confined to Bulandshahr and Aligarh. They appear to have their origin in Central India. "The Ods in Kathiawar are professional pond diggers. They claim to be Kshatriyas, the descendants of Bhagiratha, son of Sagara. According to the Raas Mala, Sindh Raj sent for a number of Ods from Malwa to dig the Sahasraling Lake at Pittan. He fell in love with one of them, called Jasma, and wished to take her to his palace. She declined and tried to make her escape. He pursued her and on overtaking her, slew several of the Ods. Jasma committed suicide, cursing the king, and declaring that the lake should never hold water. The curse was removed by the sacrifice of Mayo Dhed. The Ods lead a wandering life, coming to Kathiawar for work, and returning to their houses in Marwar and Central India during the rains."(1)

In the Dakkhin they are known as Vadar.(2)

Of the Ods in the Panjab Mr. Ibbetson writes:(3) " The Od or Odh is a wandering tribe, whose proper home appears to be Western Hindustan and Rajputana; at least the Ods of the Panjab usually hail from those parts. They will not, as a rule, take petty jobs; but prefer small contracts on roads, canals, railways and the like, or will build a house of abode and dig a tank or even a well. They are vagrants, wandering about with their families in search of employment on earthwork. They settle down in temporary reed huts on the edge of the work; the men dig, the women carry the earth to the donkeys, which they always have with them, and the children drive the donkeys to the spoil bank. In the salt range tract they also quarry and carry stone; and in parts of the North-West Provinces they are said to be wandering peddlers. They eat anything and everything, and though not infrequently Musalmans, especially in the West, are always out-caste. They have a speech of their own, called OdkiItalic text, of which I know nothing, but which is very probably nothing more than the ordinary dialect of their place of origin. They wear  woolen clothes or at least one woolen garment. They claim descent from one Bhagiratha, who vowed never to drink twice out of the same well, and so dug a fresh one every day till one day he dug down and down and never came up again. It is in mourning for him that they wear wool, and in imitation of him they bury their dead even when Hindu, though they marry by the Hindu ceremony. Till the re-appearance of Bhagiratha they will, they say, remain out-caste. They are said to claim Rajput or Kshatriya origin and to come from Marwar. They worship Rama and Siva. They are, for a vagrant tribe, singularly free from all imputation of crime. In Bihar they are described a sub-caste of Luniya.(4)

2. North – Westren Provinces Branch.- There can be little doubt that the Orh of these Provinces, (mainly based on the notes by M. Atmaram, Head Master, High School, Mathura) are of the same race as those already described. They have the same tradition of descent from Bhagiratha, son of Raja Sagara, and a woman named Gandharani. They are not allowed to marry in their own gotra or that of their mother or grandmother. They lead a settled life, and do not admit outsiders. Marriage is both infant and adult, and sexual license before marriage is neither recognised nor tolerated. Polyandry is not permitted, but polygamy is allowed. They marry in the way common to all respectable Hindu castes, and the binding part of it is the perambulation (Bhanwar) of the pair around the sacred fire. Widow marriage is allowed, and the ceremony is known as dharaicha. The widow is allowed full freedom of choice; but she can marry by the levirate any of the younger brothers of her late husband. A wife can be divorced for infidelity, and such a woman can be married again by the dharaicha form.

3. Religion.- They are usually Hindus of the Vaishnava sect. Their special godlings are the Miyan Sahib of Amroha in the Moradabad District, whom they worship in any month except Muharram; Devi in Chait and Kuar ; Masani of Karanbas and Zahir Pir in Sawan and Bhadon; Kuanwala, "the god of the well," in Sawan, and the ordinary Hindu gods. The offering to these godlings consists of sweetmeats (batasha) and coconuts, which the priests receive. They employ Brahmans as their priests, and these are received on terms of equality with other Brahmans. They burn their dead and leave their ashes on the burning ground. No ceremony, except the ordinary Sraddha in the month of Kuar, is performed.

4. Occupation.- Their occupation in Mathura is the weaving of coarse cloth (dobra), and most of them still follow this trade. But some of them have taken to agriculture and landholding and are dealers in grain, and lend money and grain usually on very usurious rates in the villages.

5. Social rules.- They eat meat, fish, and fowls, and drink spirits. They abstain from the flesh of monkeys, cows, pork, and uncloven-footed animals, crocodiles, snakes vermin, and the leavings of other people. They are thus in these Provinces in a far higher grade than their vagrant brethren in to be Punjab.

'''DISTRIBUTION ORH ACCORDING TO THE CENSUS 1891: DITRICTs. Numbers:''' DehraDun 41, Farrukhabad 5, Meerut 936, Etawah 1,Bulandshahr 5,876, Etah 86, Aligarh 2,966, Moradabad 60, Mathura 763, Jhansi 2, Agra 15 TOTAL 10,75

Reference
The tribes and castes of the North-western provinces and oudh,vol.iv, 94-96. 1. Bombay Gazetteer, VIII, 158, sq 2. Ibid, XV, 347: XVI, 64: Indian Antiquary, III, 155. 3. Punjab Ethnography, Para.. 573. 4. Risley, Tribes and Castes, II, 150.