2. Internal structure.
The caste has two main divisions in Berār, the Dukar Kolhātis and the Khām or Pāl Kolhātis. The name of the former is derived from dukar, hog, because they are accustomed to hunt the wild pig with dogs and spears when these animals become too numerous and damage the crops of the villagers. They also labour for themselves by cultivating land and taking service as village watchmen; and they are daring criminals and commit dacoity, burglary and theft; but they do not steal cattle. The Khām Kolhātis, on the other hand, are a lazy, good-for-nothing class of men, who, beyond making a few combs and shuttles of bone, will set their hands to no kind of labour, but subsist mainly by the immoral pursuits of their women. At every large fair may be seen some of the portable huts of this tribe, made of rusa grass,[3] the women decked in jewels and gaudy attire sitting at each door, while the men are lounging lazily at the back. The Dukar Kolhāti women, Mr. Kitts states, also resort to the same mode of life, but take up their abode in villages instead of attending fairs. Among the Dukar Kolhātis the subdivisions have Rājpūt names; and just as a Chauhān Rājpūt may not marry another Chauhān so also a Chauhān Dukar Kolhāti may not marry a person of his own clan. In Bilāspur they are said to have four subcastes, the Marethi or those coming from the Marātha country, the Bānsberia or pole-jumpers, the Suarwāle or hunters of the wild pig, and the Muhammadan Kolhātis, none of whom marry or take food with each other. Each group is further subdivided into the Asal and Kamsal (Kam-asal), or the pure and mixed Kolhātis, who marry among themselves, outsiders being admitted to the Kamsal or mixed group.