Lohar

Traditional Indian society was modeled
as a collection of endogamous subgroups (in which marriage is decreed by
law to occur only between members of
the same group) known as jatis (“birth”).
The jatis were organized (and their
social status determined) by the group’s
hereditary occupation, over which each
391
Lohar
group had a monopoly. The Lohars’
hereditary occupation was blacksmithing and iron working.