Damoh has a population of 262,641 souls ; there are a few Mahomedans who are cotton carders, weavers, and the like. There are upwards of sixty different castes or sects of Hindus, amongst whom as under : Kurmi, . • . . 34,907 Brahman, . . 23,666 Lodhi 31 980 Ahir, 15,281 Chamar, . . . 28,401 Dania, . . . 9,783 Gond, . . . . 26,724 Rajput, . . 9,187 The Lodhi came from Bundelkhand three cen turies ago.
The Kurmi from the Doab about A.D. 1620. The Kurmi are a large class of cultivators in the eastern and central portions of Bengal, few in Dehli and in the Upper Doab. According to Sir Henry Elliot, under the different names of Kurmi, Kum Kunabi, Kumbhi, they extend throughout the greater part of Hindustan, Berar, and the Western Dekhan. They are famous as agricul turists, but frequently engage in other occupa tions. The Kurmi women, like the Jatni, assist the men in husbandry, and have passed into a proverb for industry : Bhalee jat koonbin kee, k'hoorpee hat'h K'het nirawen apne pee ki aat'h.' The Kurmi of the Hindustan provinces are said to have seven subdivisions, which are usually enumerated as K'h ureebind, Puturya,G'horchurha, Jyswar, Canoujea, Kewut, and Jhooneya.
The Gond of Mandla have the Lamjina Shadi, in which the betrothed lad serves an apprentice ship for his future wife. A Gond girl, however, may
exercise her own will and run off with a man, but it is quite allowable for her first cousin or the man whom she has deserted to abduct her from the man whom she has chosen. The Shadi Bandhoni is a compulsory marriage. In the Shadi Baitho a woman goes to a man's house. Widows re-marry either to a younger brother of their deceased husband, or to some other man.
To burn dead men is deemed the more honourable mode of disposing of the remains ; women are always buried. When the father of a family dies, if well-to-do, they clothe the corpse in a new dress, and bury or burn the remains ; his spirit is, however, supposed to dwell in the house till it be released, and till released, the spirit is the only object of worship in the house. After the funeral, a piece of turmeric and a pice are tied up in a cloth and suspended to one of the beams of the house. When the time comes to lay the spirit, the cloth is removed, and, with a portion of the flesh of a goat or a pig, is offered to the village deity ; a feast is given to relatives, the elders, and the release is complete. Human sacrifices were made till after the middle of the 19th century at the temples of Kali at Lank, and at the shrine of Danteswari in Bastar.