Amnāit.—Subcaste of Bhatra.
Amrite.—(From Amrit nectar.) A section of Kirār.
Anapa.—(Leather-dealers.) Subcaste of Mādgi.
Anavala.—A subdivision of Gujarāti or Khedāwāl Brāhmans. They derive their name from the village Anaval in Baroda. They are otherwise known as Bhatela, Desai or Mastān.
Andhra, Tailanga.—One of the five orders of the Pānch Dravid Brāhmans inhabiting the Telugu country.
Antarvedi.—A resident of Antarved or the Doāb, the tract of land between the Ganges and the Jumna rivers. Subcaste of Chamār.
Apastambha.—A Sutra of the Vedas. A subdivision of Brāhmans following that Sutra and forming a caste subdivision. But they marry with Rig-Vedis, though the Sutra belongs to the Black Yajur-Vedi.
Athārvarvedi, Anthārwarvedi.—A subcaste of Brāhmans who follow the Athārvar-Veda and are very rarely met with.
Arab.—This designation is sometimes returned by the descendants of the Arab mercenaries of the Bhonsla kings. These were at one time largely employed by the different rulers of southern India and made the best of soldiers. In the Marātha armies[2] their rate of pay was Rs. 12 a month, while the ordinary infantry received only Rs. 5. General Hislop stated their character as follows:[3]
“There are perhaps no troops in the world that will make a stouter or more determined stand at their posts than the Arabs. They are entirely unacquainted with military evolutions, and undisciplined; but every Arab has a pride and heart of his own that never forsakes him as long as he has legs to stand on. They are naturally brave and possess the greatest coolness and quickness of sight: hardy and fierce through habit, and bred to the use of the matchlock from their boyhood: and they attain a precision and skill in the use of it that would almost exceed belief, bringing down or wounding the smallest object at a considerable distance, and not unfrequently birds with a single bullet. They are generally armed with a matchlock, a couple of swords, with three or four small daggers stuck in front of their belts, and a shield. On common occasions of attack and defence they fire but one bullet, but when hard pressed at the breach they drop in two, three, and four at a time, from their mouths, always carrying in them from eight to ten bullets, which are of a small size. We may calculate the whole number of Arabs in the service of the Peshwa and the Berār Rāja at 6000 men, a loose and undisciplined body, but every man of them a tough and hardy soldier. It was to the Arabs alone those Provinces looked, and placed their dependence on. Their own troops fled and abandoned them, seldom or never daring to meet our smallest detachment. Nothing can exceed the horror and atarm with which some of our native troops view the Arab. At Nāgpur in November 1817 the Arabs alone attacked us on the defence and reduced us to the last extremity, when we were saved by Captain Fitzgerald’s charge. The Arabs attacked us at Koregaon and would have certainly destroyed us had not the Peshwa withdrawn his troops on General Smith’s approach. The Arabs kept General Doveton at bay with his whole army at Nāgpur for several days, repulsing our attack at the breach, and they gained their fullest terms. The Arabs worsted us for a month at Mālegaon and saved their credit. They terrified the Surat authorities by their fame alone. They gained their terms of money from Sir John Malcolm at Asīrgarh. They maintained to the last for their prince their post at Alamner and nobly refused to be bought over there. They attacked us bravely, but unfortunately at Tālner. They attacked Captain Spark’s detachment on the defence and destroyed it. They attacked a battalion of the 14th Madras Infantry with 26-pounders and compelled them to seek shelter in a village; and they gave us a furious wind-up at Asīrgarh. Yet the whole of these Arabs were not 6000.”