12. Social customs
The Rājpūts wear the sacred thread, but many of them have abandoned the proper upanayana or thread ceremony, and simply invest boys with it at their marriage. In former times, when a boy became fit to bear arms, the ceremony of kharg bandai, or binding on of the sword, was performed, and considered to mark his attainment of manhood. The king himself had his sword thus bound on by the first of his vassals. The Rājpūts take food cooked with water (katchi) only from Brāhmans, and that cooked without water (pakki) from Banias, and sometimes from Lodhis and Dhīmars. Brāhmans will take pakki food from Rājpūts, and Nais and Dhīmars katchi food. When a man is ill, however, he may take food from members of such castes as Kurmi and Lodhi as a matter of convenience without incurring caste penalties. The large turbans and long moustaches and beards no longer characterise their appearance, and the only point which distinguishes a Rājpūt is that his name ends with Singh (lion). But this suffix has also been adopted by others, especially the Sikhs, and by such castes as the Lodhis and Rāj-Gonds who aspire to rank as Rājpūts. A Rājpūt is usually addressed as Thākur or lord, a title which properly applies only to a Rājpūt landholder, but has now come into general use. The head of a state has the designation of Rāja or Rāna, and those of the leading states of Mahārāja or Mahārāna, that is, great king. Mahārāna, which appears to be a Gujarāti form, is used by the Sesodia family of Udaipur. The sons of a Rāja are called Kunwar or prince. The title Rao appears to be a Marāthi form of Rāj or Rāja; it is retained by one or two chiefs, but has now been generally adopted as an honorific suffix by Marātha Brāhmans. Rawat appears to have been originally equivalent to Rājpūt, being simply a diminutive of Rājpūtra, the Sanskrit form of the latter. It is the name of a clan of Rājpūts in the Punjab, and is used as an honorific designation by Ahīrs, Saonrs, Kols and others.