still maintain a number; others are employed in the courts of justice; some find a subsistence from the offerings where a celebrated image is set up; many are employed as pundits to Europeans; others pursue a mercantile life; while a number become farmers, employing shoodrus to cultivate their fields, that they may avoid the sin of killing insects with the plough-share; others are drapers, shop-keepers, &c. The shastru expressly forbids their selling milk, iron, lac, salt, clarified butter, sesamum, &c. yet many bramhŭns now deal in these things without regard to the shastră, or the opinions of stricter Hindoos, and add thereto the sale of skins, spirits, and flesh. A bramhun who is an accomptant will write the accounts, and receive the allowance called dustooree, upon every joint of beef purchased by his employer, without a qualm, but if you mention his killing a cow, he claps his hands on his ears in the utmost haste, as though he were shocked beyond expression. I have heard of a bramhun at Calcutta, who was accustomed to steal beef, and sell it to the butchers: many traffic in spirituous liquors.

It has become a practice in Bengal for men of property to promise annual presents to bramhans, especially to such as are reputed learned; these presents very frequently descend from father to son: they consist of corn, or garments, or money, according to the promise of the giver; and instances occur of a bramhon's receiving as much as a thousand roopees from one donor. These annual donations are generally given at the festivals.

Other sources of support arise from collecting disciples, and becoming their spiri tual guides; from pretending to remove diseases by incantations, repeating the name of some god, &c.; many are employed as ghŭtukus, in contracting marriages. Large presents are also received at the numerous festivals, and it is said, that no fewer than five thousand bramhuns subsist in Calcutta on the bounty of rich Hindoos.

But the greatest means of support are the Dévotturus, viz. houses, lands, pools, orchards, &c. given in perpetuity to the gods; and the Brumhottărus, similar gifts to the bramhuns. The donors were former kings, and men of property, who ex

pected heaven as the reward of their piety. It is still not uncommon for houses, trees, pools, &c. to be offered to these celestial and terrestrial deities; but it is far from being so frequent as formerly; and indeed the Honourable Company, I am informed, forbid this appropriation of lands, as the revenue is thereby injured. When a gift is made as a dévotturů, the donor, in presenting it, entreats the officiating priests who own the image to worship the god with the produce of what he gives. Sometimes a son on the death of his father and mother, to rescue them from misery, presents to his spiritual guide, or, to the bramhins, a house, or some other gift. Formerly, poor bramhüns solicited alms of rich land-owners, who gave them portions of land in perpetuity, In these ways, the dévotturus and brůmhottürůs have accummulated, till the produce amounts to an enormous sum. I have been informed, that in the district of Burdwan, the property applied to the support of idolatry amounts to the annual rent of fifteen or twenty lacks of roopees.*. It has been lately ascertained, as my native informants say, that the lands given to the gods and bramhữns by the different rajahs in the zillah of Nudeya, amount to eighteen lacks of bigahs, or about 600,000 acres. When all these things are considered, it will appear, that the clergy in catholic countries devour little of the national wealth compared with the bramhans.

SECTION II.

Of the Kshatriyŭ cast.

THIS is the second order of Hindoos; said to have been created "to protect the earth, the cattle, and bramhuns." Some affirm, that there are now no kshŭtriyŭs; that in the kule-yoogŭ only two casts exist, bramhŭns and shōōdrus, the second and third orders having sunk into the fourth.

The singskarus, including investiture with the poita, belong to the kshůtriyus as well as to the bramhans; with this difference, that the kshůtriyus are permitted to

*It is necessary, however, to remark, that in this sum are included what are called Phukiranů, or lands granted to Mŭsŭlman saints; and Múhŭttranŭ, lauds granted to shōōdrus by kings, or great land-owners,

possess only three parts of the gayutree. The daily religious ceremonies also of bramhuns and kshutriyus are nearly the same; and the kshatriyus are permitted to read the vedas, and worship their guardian deities, without the intervention of the bramhúns; on extraordinary occasions bramhuns are employed.

The Hindoo kings, both of the families of the sun and moon, belonged this cast; but in the decline of the Hindoo power, many shōōdrů kings reigned in Hindoost'hanů.* The duties of kings are thus laid down in the Rajtürünginee: in a conversation betwixt Vikrumadityŭ and Bhurtree-Hŭree, two kshŭtriyŭ kings, the former recommends to the latter the following duties, viz. "As Indrů, during the four rainy months, fills the earth with water, so a king should fill his treasury with money;-as, Sooryu, the sun, in warming the earth eight months, does not scorch it, so a king, in drawing revenues from his people, ought not to oppress them;-as Vayoo, the wind, surrounds and fills every thing, so the king, by his officers and spies, should become acquainted with the affairs and circumstances of his whole people ;-as Yumů judges men without partiality or prejudice, and punishes all the guilty, so should a king punish, without favour, all offenders;-as Viroonů, the regent of water, with his pashu,† binds his enemies, so let a king bind all malefactors safely in prison;-as Chandru, the moon, by his cheering light, gives pleasure to all, so should a king, by gifts, &c. make all his people happy ;—and as Prithivee, the earth, sustains all alike, so a king ought to feel an equal affection and forbearance towards all." In the Bhagŭvuth-Geeta, Krishnu is represented as saying to Urjoonů, “A soldier of the kshutriyŭ tribe hath no duty superior to fighting. Such soldiers as are the favourites of heaven, obtain such a glorious fight as this. If thou art slain, thou wilt obtain heaven; if thou art victorious, thou wilt enjoy a world."

Many in the Western provinces still claim the distinction of kshutriyus, wear the poita, and perform the ceremonies belonging to this cast: they marry and visit only among themselves. The present raja of Burdwan is a kshŭtriyŭ; but the few who are found in Bengal are petty land owners, merchants, &c.

Formerly, a number of rajas of the Haree cast, one of the lowest classes of slōōdrus, reigned in Assam. A divine weapon, in the shape of a rope.

SECTION III.

The Voishyus.

THIE third order of Hindoos are called Voishyus, whose business is said to consist in "keeping cattle, carrying on trade, lending upon interest, cultivating land," &c. They marry and fraternize among themselves; they are forbidden to read the védés; and through the bramhuns alone can they perform religious ceremonies. They wear the poita, and in some punctilios are raised above the shoodrus, though in reality they are equally the slaves of the bramhŏns. The few voishyŭs in Bengal are farmers, merchants, &c. In the west of Hindoost'hanŭ they are more numerous.

SECTION IV.

The Shoodrus.

THE rules of the shastrus respecting the shoodrus are so unjust and inhuman, that every benevolent person must feel the greatest indignation at the Hindoo lawgivers, and rejoice that Providence has placed so great a portion of this people under the equitable laws of the British Government. Having already enlarged on this subject in the first section, it may suffice here to observe, that the shōodrus are forbidden "to accumulate superfluous wealth," and, as it respects the world to come, the bramhun is prohibited "from giving spiritual counsel to a shōodrů, or to inform him of the legal expiation for his sin."*

Such is the degraded state in which the Hindoo laws have placed the great body of the people, for it is admitted, that there is not in Bengal more than one bramhun to a thousand shoodrus. The shoodrǎ cannot perform one religious ceremony in which there are either offerings, prayers, sacrifices, or burnt-offerings, except through the bramhŭns; and the only way in which he can obtain any hope of a better birth, is, by becoming the constant slave of bramhŭns. In the morning, after cleaning the

Sir W. Jones's translation of Munoo,

house of the bramhun, he must fetch him water, flowers, clay,* and wood for worship; he must next wash his feet and clothes, anoint his body with oil, wait upon him while he worships; collect all the materials for his dinner; after dinner, present to him water to wash his mouth; after which, from the same dish, he is permitted to eat what the bramhun leaves. He must cleanse the ground where the bramhun has eaten, as well as the dishes used at dinner; must wait on him with betel, tobacco, &c. and in the evening supply him with water, light his lamp, and prepare his bed. After lying down, he must rub his legs with oil, and, when the bramhun has fallen asleep, he may take his repose. He who, in this manner, serves bramhŭns, is declared by the shastră to act meritoriously. On the contrary, the shoodrů who envies and injures bramhŭns, will sink into the world of torment.

At present, however, no shōōdră will serve a bramhun without wages, and in some cases, as, if his wages are withheld, the shoodrů will contend warmly with his master. He will offer to the bramhuns, things which cost him nothing, such as prostrations, bows, flattery, &c. and, if he may be repaid in the next world, he will present him with something rather more solid. Some shoodrus, however, reverence bramhuns as gods, and the whole of the "swinish multitude" pay them exterior honours. In bowing to a bramhun, the shoodru raises his joined hands to his forehead, and gently bows the head; the bramhun never returns the compliment, but gives the shoodrů a blessing, extending the right hand a little, as a person would do when carrying water in it. In bowing to a bramhun, the sins of the shoodrŭ enter the fire, which, by an Eastern figure, is said to lodge in the bramhun's hand, and are consumed. If a bramhún stretch out his hand before a shōōdră have bowed to him, he will sink into a state of misery; and if the shoodru meet a bramhun, and bow not to him, he will meet with the same fate.

The shoodrus practise the ceremonies belonging to their order using the formulas of the pooranŭs; but a person of this class is prohibited from repeating a single peTo form the lingu. + Some kaist❜hus reverence the bramhuns more than is done by any other shōōdrus. This blessing is sometimes given, but in general the shōōdrü bows, and the bramhun, without taking any notice, passes on.