A History of the Mahrattas v1.c17.139

v1.c17.139

² [The proper name of this tribe is Bēdar (i.e. hunters). Dark, muscular and coarse-featured, the Bēdars (Beruds) are an aboriginal tribe of the Kanarese-speaking districts and were notorious for theft and gang-robbery until reduced to comparative harmlessness in 1820. Nowadays some of them are watchmen and husbandmen, but the majority still rank as a wandering criminal tribe, addicted to robbery under arms. Towards the close of the nineteenth century they committed a series of murders and depredations in the Belgaum and Dhārwār Districts. It has been suggested that the Rāmosīs of the Deccan are a branch of the Bēdar tribe, but the connexion has not