A History of Assam c15.s1.5

c15.s1.5

The social distinctions between the aristocracy and the common people and, in later times, between the higher and lower castes, were rigidly enforced. None but the highest nobles had a right to wear shoes, or to carry an umbrella, or to travel in a palanquin, but the last mentioned privilege might be purchased for a sum of one thousand rupees. Persons of humble birth who wished to wear the *chaddar*, or shawl, were obliged to fold it over the left shoulder, and not over the right, as the upper classes did. The common people were not permitted to build houses of masonry, or with a rounded end, and no one but the king himself was allowed to have both ends of his house rounded. Musalmans, Morias, Doms and Hāris were forbidden to wear their hair long, and members of the two latter communities were further distinguished by having a fish and a broom, respectively, tattooed on their foreheads.