Groups belonging to Berar are called Berari, Warade or Baone; those from Gujarat are called Lad, the classical term for Gujarat, or Gujarati, and other names are Deccani from the Deccan, Nimari of Nimar, Havelia, the name of the wheat-growing tracts of Jubbulpore and Damoh; Chhattisgarhia, Kosaria, Ratanpuria (from the old town of Ratanpur in Bilaspur), and Raipuria (from Raipur town), all names for residents in Chhattisgarh; and so on.

Brahmans are divided into ten main divisions, named after different tracts in the north and south of India where they reside; [88] and these are further subdivided, as the Maharashtra Brahmans of the Maratha country of Bombay into the subcastes of Deshasth (belonging to the country) applied to those of the Poona country above the western Ghats; Karhara or those of the Satara District, from Karhar town; and Konkonasth or those of the Concan, the Bombay coast; similarly the Kanaujia division of the Panch-Gaur or northern Brahmans has as subdivisions the Kanaujia proper, the Jijhotia from Jajhoti, the old name of the Lalitpur and Saugor tract, which is part of Bundelkhand; the Sarwaria or those dwelling round the river Sarju in the United Provinces; the Mathuria from Muttra; and the Prayagwals or those of Allahabad (Prayag), who act as guides and priests to pilgrims who come to bathe in the Ganges at the sacred city.

The creation of new local subcastes seems to arise in two ways: when different groups of a caste settle in different tracts of country and are prevented from attending the caste feasts and assemblies, the practice of intermarriage and taking food together gradually ceases, they form separate endogamous groups and for purposes of distinction are named after the territory in which they reside; this is what has happened in the case of Brahmans and many other castes; and, secondly, when a fresh body of a caste arrives and settles in a tract where some of its members already reside, they do not amalgamate with the latter group, but form a fresh one and are named after the territory from which they have come, as in the case of such names as Pardeshi, Purabia, Gangapari ('from the other side of the Ganges'), and similar ones already cited.

In former times, when the difficulties of communication were great, these local subcastes readily multiplied; thus the Kanaujia Brahmans of Chhattisgarh are looked down upon by those of Saugor and Damoh, as Chhattisgarh has been for centuries a backward tract cut off from the rest of India, and they may be suspected of having intermarried with the local people or otherwise derogated from the standard of strict Hinduism.

Similarly the Kanaujia Brahmans of Bengal are split into several local subcastes named after tracts in Bengal, who marry among themselves and neither with other Kanaujias of Bengal nor with those of northern India.