Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.22

c48.s2.22

c) **Carpenters** (2,688,100) and d) **Blacksmiths** (2,362,300). It is the Lōhār and Baṛhaī, who refer themselves back to Viśvakarman, and who have a joint sub-caste called Ojhā claiming to be Brāhmans, not apparently without a certain degree of recognition, though not to the full extent of their desire. In the west, the Sutār, or carpenter, throws back to the Gūjar or Vāniā, and in the Dekkan, to the inevitable Viśvakarman. The Lōhār seems everywhere constant to the latter. There seems to be a general tendency to make these two functions interchangeable even though the castes remain distinct. In the Marāṭhā districts, both above and below the Sahyādri, the Sutār does the village ironwork, consisting mainly of simple repairs such as retyring cart-wheels or reshoeing the plough and so on. In the western Panjāb it is the same. In the east of that Province, the Tarkhān and the Lōhār are the same caste by origin, but the carpenter stands higher, and when both occupations are followed, sub-sections are formed which do not eat together or intermarry. There is also a body of Lōhār in the south, along the Rājputāna border, consisting of Rājputs who, from stress of circumstances, probably famine, were driven to adopt this means of getting their living, and though called Lōhār, are apart from and above the rest. The Khāti, again, is both carpenter and blacksmith in some parts of the north, ranking with the former, but along the Jamnā the caste is wheelwright, and considered a subdivision of the Baṛhaī.