[94] Institutes, III., 15. [↑]
[95] Bühler, Sacred Laws of the Aryas, Part I., Intro. L. [↑]
[96] Mayne, Hindu Law, 117. [↑]
[97] Kinship in Arabia, 143, 154, 155, 159, 165. [↑]
THE
TRIBES AND CASTES
OF THE
NORTH-WESTERN PROVINCES AND OUDH.
Volume I.
A
Abhyâgat.—(Sans. “Abhyâgata,” “a guest,” “a visitor”) is hardly a special sect. It is referred generally to mendicants and Brâhmans who live by begging. It is practically synonymous with Atît (q.v.). Some live a solitary life, others associate in monasteries (math) under an abbot (mahant).
Agariya.[1]—A Dravidian tribe found in scanty numbers only in the hilly parts of Mirzâpur south of the Son, where, according to the last Census, they number 481 males and 457 females, in all 938 souls. The Mirzâpur Agariyas confined themselves almost entirely to mining and smelting iron. They are certainly quite a different people from those described by Colonel Dalton and Mr. Risley in Chota Nâgpur,[2] who claim to be Kshatriya immigrants from the neighbourhood of Agra and live by cultivation. The Mirzâpur Agariyas seem to be almost certainly of non-Aryan origin. A tribe of the same name and occupation in the Mandla District of the Central Provinces is described as a sub-division of the Gonds and among the laziest and most drunken of that race.[3] Colonel Dalton and Mr. Risley again describe a people of the same name as a sub-division of the Korwas, who are undoubtedly Dravidians.[4] It is with these people that the Mirzâpur tribe are almost certainly connected.