Dāngiwāra.—Name of part of the Saugor District, which is called after the Dāngi caste. Subcaste of Kadera.
Dāngua.—(A hill-dweller.) Subcaste of Taonla.
Dangūr.—A small caste of hemp weavers numbering about 100 persons, and residing almost entirely in the village of Māsod in Betūl District. They are of the same standing as the caste of Kumrāwat or Patbina which pursues this occupation in other Districts, but acknowledge no connection with them and are probably an occupational offshoot of the Kunbi caste, from whose members they readily accept any kind of cooked food. Like many other small occupational castes with no definite traditions, they profess to have a Kshatriya origin, calling themselves Bhagore Rājpūts, while their families are known by such high-sounding titles as Rāthor, Chauhān, Gaur, Solanki and other well-known Rājpūt names. These pretensions have no foundation in fact, and the Dangūrs formerly did not abjure pork, while they still eat fowls and drink liquor. They neither bathe nor clean their kitchens daily. They may eat food taken from one place to another, but not if they are wearing shoes, this being only permissible in the case when the bridegroom takes his food wearing his marriage shoes.
Dantele.—(With teeth.) A section of Purānia Sunārs in Saugor.
Daraihān.—A small caste of debased Rājpūts found in the Bilāspur District of Chhattīsgarh and numbering some 2000 persons in 1901. They say that their ancestors were Rājpūts from Upper India who settled in Chhattīsgarh some generations back in the village of Dargaon in Raipur District. Thence they were given the name of Dargaihān, which has been corrupted into Daraihān. Others say that the name is derived from dāri, a prostitute, but this is perhaps a libel. In any case they do not care about the name Daraihān and prefer to call themselves Kshatriyas. They have now no connection with the Rājpūts of Upper India, and have developed into an endogamous group who marry among themselves. It seems likely that the caste are an inferior branch of the Daharia cultivating caste of Chhattīsgarh, which is derived from the Daharia clan of Rājpūts.[31]
Like other Rājpūts the Daraihāns have an elaborate system of septs and subsepts, the former having the names of Rājpūt clans, while the latter are taken from the eponymous gotras of the Brāhmans. There are fourteen septs, named as a rule after the principal Rājpūt clans, of whom four, the Chandel, Kachhwāha, Dhāndhul and Sakrawāra, rank higher than the other ten, and will take daughters from these in marriage, but not give their daughters in return. Besides the septs they have the standard Brāhmanical gotras, as Kausilya, Bhāradwāj, Vasishtha and so on to the number of seven, and the members of each sept are divided into these gotras. Theoretically a man should not take a wife whose sept or gotra is the same as his own. The marriage of first cousins is forbidden, and while the grandchildren of two sisters may intermarry, for the descendants of a brother and a sister the affinity is a bar till the third generation. But the small numbers of the caste must make the arrangement of matches very difficult, and it is doubtful whether these rules are strictly observed. They permit the practice of Gunrāvat or giving a bride for a bride. In other respects the social customs of the caste resemble those of their neighbours, the Daharias, and their rules as to the conduct of women are strict. The men are well built and have regular features and fair complexions, from which their Rājpūt ancestry may still be recognised. They wear the sacred thread. The Daraihāns are good and intelligent cultivators, many of them being proprietors or large tenants, and unlike the Daharias they do not object to driving the plough with their own hands. In the poorer families even the women work in the fields. They have a strong clannish feeling and will readily combine for the support or protection of any member of the caste who may be in need of it.
Darbānia.—(Door-keeper.) Title of Khangūr.
Darshani.—Title of the most holy members of the Kānphata Jogis.
Darshni.—(From darshan, seeing, beholding, as of a god.) A sub-division of Jogi.
Darwān.—(A door-keeper.) Title of Dahāit.