Blunt, Edward : The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the united provinces of Agra and Oudh (London, 1931)

COMMENSAL AND OTHER SIMILAR RESTRICTIONS OF CASTE

them, however, are not quite so low as the other castes
in this iist, whilst the Basor has all the intolerance of the
parvenu. This caste is a branch of the Dom tribe, that
has settled down to relative respectability, and now will
have nothing to do not only with the Dom and Dharkar,1
its close relations, the Bhangi and Dhobi which not long
ago were its equals, but extends its objection to the Musa-
har, which always was, and still is, a respectable though
somewhat primitive caste.

Of the five chief untouchables, the Dom is scarcely
Hinduized at all, and the Dharkar but little more so, and
the occupations of the Bhangi, Chamar and Dhobi put
them outside the pale. The Bhangi is a scavenger, the
Chamar deals in dead cattle, whilst the Dhobi handles
dirty clothes and that ill-omened beast, the donkey.

Principal authorities.—Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W. P. and
Oudh (1896).

Census Report, U.P., 1901 and 191 x.

Crooke, Natives of Northern india.

1 The Dharkar is also an offshoot of the Dom tribe.