The Kahars are an Indian community.
Some Kahar claim descent from the rishi Kashyap
In Bidar district of Karnataka, Meengar (Kahar) community belongs to Other Backward Classes (OBC). They are among 17 OBC communities that have been proposed for Scheduled Caste status by the Samajwadi Party-controlled Government of Uttar Pradesh. However, this proposal, which relates to votebank politics and has been made in the past, has been stayed by the courts; a prior attempt was also rejected by the Government of India.
They are found mainly in Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shahjahanpur, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Jaunpur and Ambedkar Nagar districts of Uttar Pradesh and most parts of Bihar and West Bengal. Although they are present in most parts of India but are concentrated in North India. Their main occupation is to officiate at the various holy occasions which occur along the banks of the Ganges river. With changing times this community has also abandoned its ancestral work and shifted to new avenues of modern living.
In Rajasthan, the Kahar have three sub-divisions, the Budana, Turaha and Mahara. These sub-divisions consist of clans, the main ones being the Pindwal, Bamnawat, Katariya, Bilawat, Kashyap and Oatasaniya. The origins of most of these sub-divisions are rooted in Rajasthan.