patronized them in the pursuit of learning. Having lost this patronage, as well as the fear of losing their honour, and of being punished, they neglect many of the forms of their religion, and apply to things, in their apprehension, more substantial. A number of bramhuns, however, may be found, especially at a distance from large towns, who despise worldly employments, and spend their lives in idolatrous ceremonies, or in visiting holy places, repeating the names of the gods, &c.

As it respects learning also, the bramhuns are equally sunk as in ceremonial purity: they are, it is true, the depositaries of all the knowledge their country contains, but it must be remembered, that a bramhun who can read what his forefathers wrote, is now scarcely to be found in Bengal. For an account of the state of religion among the bramhuns, see vol. 1, Introductory Chapter.

b

Many bramhuns are employed by Europeans and rich Hindoos; the Hindoo rajas 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 shōōdrus to cultivate their fields, that they may avoid the sin of killing insects with the ploughshare; others are drapers, shopkeepers, &c. The shastrů expressly forbids their selling milk,

See an article in the next volume, relative to the present state of learning in Bengal.

b A sensible bramhun, whose opinion I asked on this point, supposed that three-fourths of the bramhŭns in Bengal were the servants of others, and that the other quarter were supported as priests, and by teaching youth, &c.

iron, lac, salt, clarified butter, sesamum, &c. yet many bramhuns now deal in these things without regard to the shastru, or the opinions of stricter Hindoos, and add thereto the sale of skins, spirits, and flesh. A bramhun who is 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 procure beef for the butchers: many traffic in spirituous liquors.

It has become a practice in Bengal for men of property to promise annual presents to bramhuns, 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 bramhun'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 spiritual guides; from pretending to remove diseases by incantations, repeating the name of some god, &c.; many are employed as ghŭtŭkus, 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.

c Shoes made of cow leather are generally worn by the Hindoos. Such is the fate of laws which are neither rational nor moral; and such the obedience of a people destitute of moral feeling.

But the greatest means of support are the Dévotturus, viz. houses, lands, pools, orchards, &c. given in perpetuity to the gods; and the Brumhotturus, similar gifts to the bramhuns. The donors were former kings, and men of property, who expected 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 dévotturu, 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 bramhŭns, a house, or some other gift. Formerly, poor bramhuns solicited alms of rich land-owners, who gave them portions of land in perpetuity. In these ways, the dévotturus and brumhotturus have accumulated, till the produce amounts to an enor mous 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.d It has been lately ascertained, as my native informants say, that the lands given to the gods and bramhuns by the different rajahs in the zillah of Nudēēya, amount to eighteen lacks of bigahs, or about 600,000 When all these things are considered, it will ap. Tap. pear, that the clergy in catholic countries devour little of the national wealth compared with the bramhuns.

acres.

d It is necessary, however, to remark, that in this sum are included what are called Phukiranŭ, or lands granted to Můsŭlman saints; and Măhăttrauŭ, lands granted to shōōdrůs by kings, or great land-owners.

SECT. II. Of the Kshtriyŭ 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 kŭlēē-yoogŭ only two casts exist, bramhŭns and shōōdrus, the second and third orders having sunk into the fourth.

The sungskarus, including investiture with the poita, belong to the kshutriyus as well as to the bramhuns; with this difference, that the kshutriyus are permitted to possess only three parts of the gayŭtree. The daily religious ceremonies also of bramhuns and kshůtriyus are nearly the same; and the kshutriyus are permitted to read the védŭs, and worship their guardian deities, without the intervention of the bramhuns; on extraordinary occasions bramhuns are employed.

The Hindoo kings, both of the families of the sun and moon, belonged to this cast; but in the decline of the Hindoo power, many shudroo kings reigned in Hindoost'hanu. The duties of kings are thus laid down in the Rajturunginee: in a conversation betwixt Vikrŭmadityŭ and Bhurtree-Huree, two kshůtriyŭ kings, the former recommends to the latter the following duties, viz. "As Indrŭ, during the four rainy months, fills the earth with water, so a king should fill his treasury with money;-as Sōōryu, 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, sur

Formerly, a number of rajas of the Haree cast, one of the lowest classes of shōōdrus, reigned in Assam.

rounds 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 Yumŭ judges men without partiality or prejudice, and punishes all the guilty, so should a king punish, without favour, all offenders ;—as Vŭroonů, the regent of water, with his pashŭ,f binds his enemies, so let a king bind all malefactors safely in prison; -as Chundrů, the moon, by his cheering light, gives pleasure to all, so should a king, by gifts, &c. make all his people happy :-and as Prithivēē, the earth, sustains all alike, so a king ought to feel an equal affection and forbearance towards all." In the Bhagůvŭtŭ-Gēēta, Krishnu is represented as saying to Ŭrjoonŭ," 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 kshutriyŭs, 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 kshŭtriyů; and a few are found in Bengal who are petty land-owners, merchants, &c.

A divine weapon, in the shape of a rope.

Here we have another proof, that all false religions are identified as one, and that they have all the "image of the earthy." On one occasion, we find Krishnŭ preaching to Urjoonŭ the necessity of the annihilation of the passions; here, like a second Maliomet, he holds up to him the joys of a sensual paradise, if he dies in the field of honour.