45
of them was also assured of an annual income 'in kind to
be paid at the time of harvest by different farmers accord-
ing to the latters' need for the services of the former. The
vestige of this practice, once widely current, is still found
in the payment in terms of paddy made by a few fanners
to their barbers.
Slowly but surely the members of Anavil families began
to increase. Originally, they together with the class of
village artisans constituted the Ujaliparaj. As the fame
of the improved economic condition of the Kaliparaj be-
gan to spread far and wide, a few Rajput families migrated
from the north,1 to enjoy a settled life. Similarly but
with a different intention did the Banias9 and the Parsis
come to this village. The former hoped to get custom-
ers in their business of money-lending. The latter
thought that there was a wide and permanent market for
the liquor3 they dealt in in this village of the Kaliparaj,
well-known for their irresistable craving for intoxicating
beverages. The Kolis, of course, originally formed a
section of the Kaliparaj, but gradually they raised their
standard of living, thanks to their contact with the fair
races and are now regarded as members of the Ujaliparaj
class. The Bharwads and Machhis migrated to this vil-
lage later in its history. As the number of the Ujaliparaj
Hindus went on increasing, Modh Brahmins were invited
to stay in the village to serve them as priests and were
granted Inam lands. Whence, why and when the Ma-
hommedans came is involved in obscurity. There is only
one Christian family. Its head immigrated to this place
about 12 years back as a servant of the Church of Eng-
land Missionary Society (Gujarat Division).
This, in brief, is the history of the village that we have
1 It may be noted that one of the intelligent Rajput residents of Segwa,
an adjoining village, told us that he and his caste had run away from
Patan in North Gujarat due to the oppression of their sowkars,
% One of the Bania money-lenders gave us to understand that the Banias
originally migrated about two hundred years ago from Marwar to Untdi,
a village about 7 miles from Atgam and thence to this village.
3 This is supported by the fact that there is still extent a native furnace
for manufacturing liquor in the compound of one of the Parsi families. •