THE PEOPLE

HOUSES AND HOUSING

In Tirora tahsil, houses are usually tiled, in Bhandara both tiled and thatched and in Sakoli usually thatched. Landed gentry have dhabedar or terraced houses. Private latrines do not exist in villages and the country people dislike them. The cattle are tied in a shed near the main dwelling or in a verandah behind the house as they must be always under the owner's eye. Grain is kept in round bamboo-work receptacles called dholas, supported on wooden posts with thatched covers. Those for seed-grains are often outside the house and are only opened when sowing time comes while those for food are kept inside the house and the requisite amount of grain is allowed to run out daily from a hole in the side. Among the most essential articles of furniture are a roller and a slab of stone for pounding spices and a stone mortar and pestle; these articles are worshipped by several castes at marriages. Many households have bothris or mattresses made of old clothes and rags sewn together. If struck with one of these by a Hindu, a Mang is put out of caste temporarily. An ordinary cultivator or agricultural labourer sleeps on straw and covers himself with one of such mattresses and in the cold season with kamblis, country woollen blankets.

Among the towns and villages, better and more furniture is coming into vogue like tables, chairs, boxes, cots of wood and in some places steel also. The tendency to make use of more clothes also is there. In the towns, houses are now better built with cement and concrete and multi-storied buildings are also gradually coming up. The standard of life in villages also is thus improving.

TOP