The Orh (also known as Oad, Odh, Orh Rajput or Orad Rajput) [1] [2] is a community of drifting labourers in Gujarat, Kathiawar, and parts of Rajasthan. [3] They are said to hold a variety of occupations. As artisans, they are carpenters, masons and stoneworkers and were considered to be Dalits. [4] [5] [6] As traders, they deal in grain, spices, perfumes, and cloth. [7] They are spread across 40 villages in Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh where they bear surnames like Gadahi, Bhagat, Galgat, Kahlia, Kudavali, Maangal, Majoka, Mundai, Sarvana, and Virpali. [2] The Orh are recognised as part of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) in the state of Rajasthan. [8] In Pakistan, the community is settled in Sindh, Balochistan and lower Punjab, where their primary occupation is to build mud-houses, locally referred to as Oadki houses. [9] [10]
Oads are not gypsies, but a drifting tribe of labourers in Gujarat, Kathiawad, and some parts of Rajasthan. They drift and shift lock, stock and barrel with their families wherever work is to be had.
The untouchables or Doms included various artisan castes, such as Tamta, Lohar, Orh, Koi, Ajari, Das Dholi, Mirasi, etc
ritually impure and so untouchables (Achhut) . They are village artisans who are more frequently described by their occupational subdivisions, e . g . Lobar (Blacksmith), Tamta (Coppersmith), Orh (Stoneworker and Mason) and so on .