[460] The rule that the kotwar had to make good all thefts occurring in his village or perpetrated by criminals belonging to it, can only have been enforced to a very partial extent, as unless he could trace the property he would be unable to pay any substantial sum out of his own means.

Still, it apparently had a considerable effect in the protection of property in the rural area, for which the regular police probably did very little.

It was similarly the custom to employ a _chaukidar_ or night-watchman to guard private houses when the owners could afford it, and this man was taken from a criminal caste on the same principle.
The kotwar was also the guardian of the village boundaries, and his opinion was often taken as authoritative in all cases of disputes about land.

This position he perhaps occupied as a representative of the pre-Aryan tribes, the oldest residents of the country, and his appointment may have also been partly based on the idea that it was proper to employ one of them as the guardian of the village lands, just as the priest of the village gods of the earth and fields was usually taken from these tribes.
In some localities those members of an impure caste such as the Mahars, who hold the office of village watchman, obtain a certain rise in status on account of the office, and show a tendency to marry among themselves.

Similarly persons of the impure Ganda caste, who joined the Kabirpanthi sect and now form a separate and somewhat higher caste under the name of Panka, usually work as village watchmen in preference to the Gandas.