PEOPLE AND CULTURE

Hindu life is replete with celebration of all kinds. There are holidays and other religious festivals and birthday anniversaries of various deities and mythological heroes which as a rule are observed every year.

Gudi Padva, Rama Navami, Hanuman, Jayanti, Ashadhi and kartiki Ekadashis, Gokulashtami, Poda, Ganesh Chaturthi, Gauripujan, Dasara, Divali, and Holi, are the main holidays which are  celebrated with enthusiasm.

Among Muslims Muharram, Ramzan Id and Bakr-Id festivals and some other fairs are observed.

DRESS

There is little that could be written about the dress of the people. Men as a rule use white clothes, sometimes with a red turban that is folded. Cultivators use rough loin-cloth of strong and sturdy make. On the head they have a small piece of cloth which they call rumal. Under the hear cloth. men often wear little cotton caps.

Women wear one long cloth secured round the waist and folded over shoulders which is called sari when it has a silk border and a lugde when it has cotton borders.

Ponwar, Dhimar, and Kohli women often wear white clothes, locally called karvan. Immigrants from the north as the Umre kalars, Bhaore Manas, Kirars and others wear the angia or breast-cloth tied behind while those of the south have the choli which is tied in front. Mahalodhi women wear no choli and have nothing over their breasts undernearth the sari.

FOOD

Cultivators in Bhandara eat ambil, a gruel of boiled jovari and water at  about ten and two O'clock. Tamarind vinegar is mixed with this to add to its relish and it is eaten with salt, onions and chillies. For the evening meal they have bhakar or thick chapattis made of Jvari with vegetable and pulse, or besan, i.e., gram flour cooked in water with salt, chillies and onions.

The people generally smoke home-grown tobacco and the bidis made in Tirora are sent  outside the district also. Most men smoke and a good many chew tobacco and some take it in the form of snuff. Women do not usually smoke but many of them chew tobacco.

If a man is eating food and he is touched by a person of any caste other than from which he is allowed to accept food the meal is polluted and must be thrown away.

ORNAMENTS

Men hardly use any ornaments but among women they are popular. Even in this respect fashions have much changed and there is a desire to imitate people from cities like Nagpur. For Children, a number of bracelets, anklets and necklaces are used. They are of gold among well to-do but of silver among the poor.