ABSTRACT
The villagers present their magician with rice, or other food, when his charms have been efficacious, as money is an inauspicious gift.
In Bengal this caste has broken up into so many divisions that it has become almost impossible to distinguish the minute shades of difference between them. It is allied to the great Bania tribe, and claims to be descended from Vai]sya parents, although now degraded, and not included in the nine clean `Súdra castes. One authority157 describes them as the offspring of a Baidyá and a Vai]sya female; while another158 connects them with the issue of a Bráhman and a Vai]sya woman, and therefore the same as the Parasava, or mixed order, of Menu. Among the Marhattas Sonárs claim to be Upa-Bráhmanas, or minor Bráhmans.
