Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c46.14

c46.14

§ 9. In addition to the Christians, Parsis and Arabs, the west coast of India has also afforded refuge to successive small bodies of Israelites, of which the more ancient, at all events, hold the tradition that like the Parsis, they were driven by persecution from their fatherland. Like the sons of Īrān, again, they have kept up their religion and customs and lost their mother-tongue. The earliest colony is that of Cochin, on the Malabar coast, which dates from the Christian era, if not from an earlier period. It consists of two sections, the White, which has kept its breed pure, and gets its brides occasionally from Syria and Baghdād, and the Black, which is suspected of intermarriage with Indians or of the incorporation of local converts in days of yore, and is therefore socially avoided by the others. The total number of both communities does not exceed 1300, and is not increasing. Another Jewish settlement of apparently distinct origin from those further south, is that of the Beni-Israel, on the mainland near Bombay. The members thereof possess the physical characteristics of their race, and keep up their religious observances, though they have adopted the dress and language of their Marāṭhā neighbours. Unlike their compatriots in general, they are engaged chiefly in cultivation, and have taken to a considerable extent also to military service in the