The following recent instance of an Aghori devouring human corpses is reported from the Punjab: [11] "The loathsome story of a human ghoul from Patiala shows that the influence of the Aghorpanthi has not yet completely died out in this country. It is said that for some time past human graves have been found robbed of their contents, and the mystery could not be solved until the other day, when the police succeeded in arresting a man in the act of desecrating a child's grave, some forty miles distant from the capital (Patiala). The ghoul not only did not conceal the undevoured portion of the corpse he had with him, but told his captors the whole story of his gruesome career. He is a low-caste Hindu named Ram Nath, and is, according to a gentleman who saw him, 'a singularly mild and respectful-looking man, instead of a red-eyed and ravenous savage,' as he had expected to find him from the accounts of his disgusting propensities. He became an orphan at five and fell into the hands of two Sadhus of his own caste, who were evidently Aghorpanthis. They taught him to eat human flesh, which formed the staple of their food. The meat was procured from the graves in the villages they passed through. When Ram Nath was thoroughly educated in this rank the Sadhus deserted him. Since then he had been living on human carrion only, roaming about the country like a hungry vulture. He cannot eat cooked food, and therefore gets two seers of raw meat from the State every day. It is also reported that the Maharaja has now prohibited his being given anything but cooked food with a view to reforming him."

Sir J. B. Fuller relates the following incident of the employment of an Aghori as a servant: [12] "There are actually ten thousand persons who at census time classed themselves as Aghoris. All of them do not practise cannibalism and some of them attempt to rise in the world. One of them secured service as a cook with a British officer of my acquaintance. My friend was in camp in the jungle with his wife and children, when his other servants came to him in a body and refused to remain in service unless the cook was dismissed, since they had discovered, they declared, that during the night-time he visited cemeteries and dug up the bodies of freshly buried children. The cook was absent, but they pointed to a box of his that emitted a sickening smell. The man was incontinently expelled, but for long afterwards the family were haunted by reminiscences of the curries they had eaten."

Ahir

List of Paragraphs

1. General notice. 2. Former dominance of the Abhiras. 3. Ahir dialects. 4. The Yadavas and Krishna. 5. The modern Ahirs an occupational caste. 6. Subcastes. 7. The Dauwa or wet-nurse Ahirs. Fosterage. 8. Exogamy. 9. Marriage customs. 10. Birth customs. 11. Funeral rites. Bringing back the soul. 12. Religion. Krishna and other deified cowherds. 13. Caste deities. 14. Other deities. 15. The Diwali festival. 16. Omens. 17. Social customs. 18. Ornaments. 19. Occupation. 20. Preparations of milk.

1. General notice.

Ahir, [13] Gaoli, Guala, Golkar, Gaolan, Rawat, Gahra, Mahakul.--The caste, of cowherds, milkmen and cattle-breeders. In 1911 the Ahirs numbered nearly 750,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, being the sixth caste in point of numbers. This figure, however, excludes 150,000 Gowaris or graziers of the Maratha Districts, and if these were added the Ahirs would outnumber the Telis and rank fifth. The name Ahir is derived from Abhira, a tribe mentioned several times in inscriptions and the Hindu sacred books. Goala, a cowherd, from Gopala, [14] a protector of cows, is the Bengali name for the caste, and Gaoli, with the same signification, is now used in the Central Provinces to signify a dairyman as opposed to a grazier. The Gaolans appear to be an inferior class of Gaolis in Berar. The Golkars of Chanda may be derived from the Telugu Golars or graziers, with a probable admixture of Gond blood. They are described as wild-looking people scattered about in the most thickly forested tracts of the District, where they graze and tend cattle. Rawat, a corruption of Rajputra or a princeling, is the name borne by the Ahir caste in Chhattisgarh; while Gahra is their designation in the Uriya country. The Mahakul Ahirs are a small group found in the Jashpur State, and said to belong to the Nandvansi division. The name means 'Great family.'

2. Former dominance of the Abhiras.

The Abhiras appear to have been one of the immigrant tribes from Central Asia who entered India shortly before or about the commencement of the Christian era. In the Puranas and Mahabharata they are spoken of as Dasyu or robbers, and Mlechchhas or foreigners, in the story which says that Arjuna, after he had burned the dead bodies of Krishna and Balaram at Dwarka, was proceeding with the widows of the Yadava princes to Mathura through the Punjab when he was waylaid by the Abhiras and deprived of his treasures and beautiful women. [15] An inscription of the Saka era 102, or A.D. 180, speaks of a grant made by the Senapati or commander-in-chief of the state, who is called an Abhira, the locality being Sunda in Kathiawar. Another inscription found in Nasik and assigned by Mr. Enthoven to the fourth century speaks of an Abhira king, and the Puranas say that after the Andhrabhrityas the Deccan was held by the Abhiras, the west coast tract from the Tapti to Deogarh being called by their name. [16] In the time of Samudragupta in the middle of the fourth century the Abhiras were settled in Eastern Rajputana and Malwa. [17] When the Kathis arrived in Gujarat in the eighth century, they found the greater part of the country in the possession of the Ahirs. [18] In the Mirzapur District of the United Provinces a tract known as Ahraura is considered to be named after the tribe; and near Jhansi another piece of country is called Ahirwar. [19] Elliot states that Ahirs were also Rajas of Nepal about the commencement of our era. [20] In Khandesh, Mr. Enthoven states, the settlements of the Ahirs were important. In many castes there is a separate division of Ahirs, such as the Ahir Sunars, Sutars, Lohars, Shimpis, Salis, Guraos and Kolis. The fort of Asirgarh in Nimar bordering on Khandesh is supposed to have been founded by one Asa Ahir, who lived in the beginning of the fifteenth century. It is said that his ancestors had held land here for seven hundred years, and he had 10,000 cattle, 20,000 sheep and 1000 mares, with 2000 followers; but was still known to the people, to whom his benevolence had endeared him, by the simple name of Asa. This derivation of Asirgarh is clearly erroneous, as it was known as Asir or Asirgarh, and held by the Tak and Chauhan Rajputs from the eleventh century. But the story need not on that account, Mr. Grant says, [21] be set down as wholly a fable. Firishta, who records it, has usually a good credit, and more probably the real existence of a line of Ahir chieftains in the Tapti valley suggested a convenient ethnology for the fortress. Other traditions of the past domination of the pastoral tribes remain in the Central Provinces. Deogarh on the Chhindwara plateau was, according to the legend, the last seat of Gaoli power prior to its subversion by the Gonds in the sixteenth century. Jatba, the founder of the Deogarh Gond dynasty, is said to have entered the service of the Gaoli rulers, Mansur and Gansur, and subsequently with the aid of the goddess Devi to have slain them and usurped their kingdom. But a Gaoli chief still retained possession of the fort of Narnala for a few years longer, when he also was slain by the Muhammadans. Similarly the fort of Gawilgarh on the southern crest of the Satpuras is said to be named after a Gaoli chief who founded it. The Saugor traditions bring down the Gaoli supremacy to a much later date, as the tracts of Etawa and Khurai are held to have been governed by their chieftains till the close of the seventeenth century.

3. Ahir dialects.

Certain dialects called after the Abhiras or Ahirs still remain. One, known as Ahirwati, is spoken in the Rohtak and Gurgaon Districts of the Punjab and round Delhi. This is akin to Mewati, one of the forms of Rajasthani or the language of Rajputana. The Malwi dialect of Rajasthani is also known as Ahiri; and that curious form of Gujarati, which is half a Bhil dialect, and is generally known as Khandeshi, also bears the name of Ahirani. [22] The above linguistic facts seem to prove only that the Abhiras, or their occupational successors, the Ahirs, were strongly settled in the Delhi country of the Punjab, Malwa and Khandesh. They do not seem to throw much light on the origin of the Abhiras or Ahirs, and necessarily refer only to a small section of the existing Ahir caste, the great bulk of whom speak the Aryan language current where they dwell. Another authority states, however, that the Ahirs of Gujarat still retain a dialect of their own, and concludes that this and the other Ahir dialects are the remains of the distinct Abhira language.