ABSTRACT
In many villages in Gujarat—particularly in larger villages—one or two first-order divisions would be represented by more than one second-order division. For example, a good number of villages in central Gujarat used to have both Talapada and Pardeshi Kolis, and Brahmans belonging to two or three of their many second-order divisions. The migration of the Kolis of north Gujarat into central Gujarat and those of the latter into eastern Gujarat was a process of slow drift from one village to another over a period of time. Kolis were the largest first-order division in Gujarat. The Rajputs’ relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia and Palia. The Rajputs, in association with the Kolis, were probably the only horizontal unit which had continuous internal hierarchy, i.e., hypergamy unbroken by any endogamous sub-divisions, and which did not have discernible boundaries at the lowest level.
