Lodhi Caste & Tradition

Lodhi / Lodh/ Mah Lodhi

India has a community of farmers known as the Lodhi. After leaving Uttar Pradesh, many of them moved to Madhya Pradesh. Although the Lodhi are classified as an Other Backward Class, they assert Rajput ancestry and choose to be referred to as "Lodhi-Rajput" despite knowing nothing about their Rajput ancestry or the prevalent Rajput customs. 

British Raj administrator Robert Vane Russell listed a number of potential etymologies for the word "Lodhi," one of them being derived from the word "lod" ("clod"), or lodh, which refers to the bark of a tree that the Lodhi of Northern India gather to manufacture dye and salt. Russell added that the term "Lodha" was originally used in the Central Provinces, but it was later perverted to refer to Lodhi.

History

A historical mention of a Lodhi village chief (nagar chaudhari) occurs in Navalshah Chanderia's Vardhamana Purana, written in Samvat 1825. It mentions a Gajrath pratishtha function organized by Bhisham Sahu, an ancestor of the author in Samvat 1651 (1594 AD) when a temple at Bhelsi was consecrated.The temple built during the rule of the Bundela ruler Jujhar Singh, still exists.

According to British records, the Lodhi are "Immigrants from the United Provinces" who migrated out of that region and, as a result, were able to rise in social standing, becoming local rulers and landowners who were only inferior to Brahmin, Rajput, and Bania.

An agricultural labouring caste known as the Lodhi. A handful of them, known as Mah Lodhi, were also involved in the production of salt and dye. The community's residents sought employment in other fields after private salt manufacturing was outlawed during British control. They shifted to farming after losing their caste-based job as salt producers.

The Raja of Panna called certain Lodhi families in Damoh and Sagar rajas, diwans, and lambardars, while some of these major landholders were given the title of thakur.These now-dominant Lodhi were crucial to the Bundela uprising of 1842.

Synonyms: 

Lodha Savara, Savara , Loniya (Bihar)

Lohi, (Gujarat)

Lodhi Rajput, Lonari, Loniya (Maharashtra & Madhya Pradesh)

Sabar [Orissa]

Banbate, Kisan, Lodh Rajput, Lodha Rajput, Tomar [Uttar Pradesh]

Sabara (West Bengal]

Lodh, Lodha Rajput, Lodhi, Maha Lodha [Delhi]

Endogamous divisions: Jaria, Patariha (R.E. Enthoven)

Handeya, Jariya, Loniya, Malgeshiya, Nathniya, Nava Khandewale. Noniya, Pathariya, Singor (S.S. Hassan)

Antarvedi, Bhoslya, Bhusiya, Jaiswar, Jariya, Khagi, Maha Lodha.

Machuria, Pathariha, Saksena, Singraur [W. Crooke)

Source: 

Communities, Segments, Synonyms, Surnames and Titles Book by K. S. Singh

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lodhi_(caste)