SONDIA. The principal among the illegitimate Rajputs in Central India, of mixed caste, are the Sondia, who have spread from Sondwarra in Malwa (a country to which they give the name) to many adjoining districts. This tribe is divided into many families, which take their name from Ttajput ancestors ; but all intermarry. Second marriages amonoo their women are very common, and front the arict usages of the Rajputs upon this point, there is none on which they deem the Sondia to have .so degraded the- race from which they are descended. The Sondia have been either cultivators or plunderers, according to the strength or weakness of the government over thein-;,bitt they have always had a predatory tendency, and have. cherished its habits even when obliged to subsist by agriculture. Their dress is nearly tlie same as that of the other inhabitants, though they imitate in some degree the Rajputs in the shape of their turbands. They are, in general, robust and active, but rude and ignorant to a degree. No race.can be more despised and dreaded than the Sondia are by the other inhabitants of the country. A cansiderable number occupy the districts of Dig Puch-pabar and GUD grar or Chow mela. They are Hindus, but abstaining from the flesh of kine is their only feathre. They chink.
use opium, and are of vicious habits ; their women are bold and immoral ; widows remarry. During. the rebellion of 1857-58, they gave considerable trouble. Another tribe, the Bhilalah, who have sprung from Rajputs of the Bhil tribe, derive their name from associating with the Bhils, among whom, front the superior rank of their sires, they obtain respect and consequence. Tbe chiefs of the Mills in the Vindltya mountains are almost all Bhilalah. This class combine with the pride and pretensions of the Rajputs the cunning and roguery of the Bhils ; and appear to be, almost without exception, a debauched aud ignorant race, often courageous from constant exposure to danger, but invariably marked by au equal want of honour and of shame. The Bhilalah and Sondia chiefs were the only robbers in 3Ialwa. whom under no circumstances travellers could trust. There are oaths of a sacred but obscure kind among those that are Rajputs, or who boast their blood, which are almost a disgrace to take, but which it is asserted, the basest was never known to 'break, before Mundroop Singh, a Bhil alah, and some of his associates, plunderers on the Nerbadda, showed the example.-111alcolds Central India, ii. pp. 15,153.