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Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s3: C. Subsidiary Professional Castes

Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s3

Language
German

Contents

C. Subsidiary Professional Castes

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§ 54. This comparatively small group comprises a number of bodies which, though not so directly concerned with the every-day life of the masses as those dealt with in the preceding paragraphs, exercise functions which are intimately connected with certain phases of the domestic or religious observances of at least the upper and middle classes of the Brahmanic community in most parts of the country, and stand immediately, as it were, between the village and the specially urban castes.

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**Bards and Genealogists** (782,500). These ancient professions are usually found more or less linked together, and in India the connection is peculiarly intimate. From the earliest times chants in praise of the founders and heroes of the clan have been recited to tickle the ear of the ruling Chief when sitting in formal assembly or heading a procession through his streets. Still more essential were they in battle, to encourage the fighting members of the community to emulate or excel the deeds of their ancestors. The annals of such enterprise with the personality of the principal performers became, naturally, the special study of those whose duty it was to set them to verse and directly connect them with the patrons before whom they have to be recited. The Bard, therefore, developed into a sort of Herald, and as his office, like all others in India, tended to become hereditary, the pedigree of those he served was transmitted in all its ramifications from father to son, with that marvellous accuracy of memory which is marked feature of the Brāhmanic intellect. The importance of such knowledge can hardly be overrated in a country where the licit and the prohibited degrees of affinity which form the basis of all arrangements of marriage or adoption, are the subject of most minute and complicated regulation throughout the community from top to bottom. In the course of time, therefore, the genealogist more or less split off from the bard, and took the higher rank at Court.

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His functions are chiefly exercised among the Rājputs, but in the Panjāb some of the Jāṭ clans, and in Gujarāt some of the leading Kaṇbī families, utilise his services. As a rule, each of the ruling and leading families keeps its own genealogist. The rest of the community is divided into circuits, assigned respectively to a certain member of the fraternity, who annually visits each family in order to learn what domestic occurrences have taken place since his previous visit. In modern times every one of these incidents is entered by him in his register. Such is the reputation of the genealogist for accuracy and knowledge that this register is accepted as final in any question of affinity or relationship, and even before such "vahī" were customary, no Rājput ever thought of disputing the decision of the genealogist upon these points. The principal caste coming under this head is the Bhāṭ, sometimes called Bharōt in Gujarāt and Rājbhāṭ in Bengal. A question has been raised whether the caste takes its origin from Brāhmans who in old days secularised themselves in order to act as Court poets and panegyrists, or whether the function devolved upon a member of the Rājput clan to which the Bhāṭ was attached. There is evidence on both sides. In every tract in which the Bhāṭ is found, the community contains two sections, of which the Brahma Bhāṭ is the higher.

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In Rājputāna, the Brahma, or Birm Bhāṭs are treated as Gaur Brāhmaṇs, and in the east of Oudh, that sub-caste of Brāhman which is native to the locality, actually performs the duties of bard, and sometimes of genealogist. Again, the person of a Bhāṭ has always been considered inviolable, like that of Brāhman. On the other hand, a Brāhman is never known to drop his exogamous subdivision by Gōtra, whilst the Bhāṭ are subdivided according to Rājput custom. The inviolability of the Bhāṭ, too, may be attributed not only to the character of herald or privileged messenger or forerunner of Chiefs, but to the inexpiable guilt of destroying the only recognised authority upon pedigree, and the apprehension of the vengeance or reprisals that would infallibly follow such an outrage. It is true that the Bhaṭrāzu of the Telugu country are subdivided into the Brāhmanical gōtra, but this branch of the caste is an exotic, introduced, under the name of Māgadha, through Orissa and probably from Bihār, in the course of invasions of the Āndhra region from the north, and has not kept up either its traditions or its occupation amongst the once military Dravidian castes to which it was attached. On the other side, there is the fact that the Bhāṭ is a distinctively Rājput institution, and, except for the colonies in Telingāna and eastern Bengal, is only found where Rājput influence is supreme.

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Even in Gujarāt, where the Bhāṭs are numerous, all their sections trace their origin to some part of Rājputāna, and, as a rule, the Bhāṭs in regular employ dress as Rājputs and have Rājput names. In regard to the distribution of the work of the caste, the Brahma-Bhāṭ usually takes upon himself the duties of poet and reciter whilst the others look after the pedigree. In upper India, too, the former do not take up permanent posts, but are engaged for the occasion. In Rājputāna itself, the male Bhāṭ, it is said, undertakes the care of the pedigree of the male line, and his wife that of the female. In these days, the Bhāṭ does not enjoy by any means the same position as of yore, though a good reciter has still a high value, and in Gujarāt, a popular genealogist has considerable influence as counsellor in the households of his clients. Even in the west, however, the Bhāṭ has been obliged to leave his traditional profession to a great extent for trade and cultivation, like the Bhaṭrāzu of the south. In eastern Bengal, where the caste is exotic, it ranks much lower than in upper or western India, though it wears, as elsewhere, the sacred thread. The Bhāṭ there still practises the profession of genealogist, and each member of the fraternity has his circuit which he visits annually.

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At other times he is in request only in connection with marriage ceremonies, in which he takes the part of herald between the two houses concerned, and acts also as go-between in the preliminary stages of the family arrangement. But in the eastern districts, the Bhāṭ has been reduced even to the trade of making leaf-umbrellas. Some of the Rājputāna Bhāṭ acquire herds of cattle and carry salt, grain and piece-goods to localities remote from the railways.

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In this respect they fall into line with the Cāraṇ, a bard and genealogist of a lower type, whose range lies between Kach and Rājputāna. The name seems to connect the caste with grazing, and it is by cattle-breeding and transport by pack-bullock that the Cāraṇ mainly now gets his living. There is an old and long obsolete connection between the Cāraṇ and the Kumbhār, or potter caste, the link being said to have been the joint trade of ass-breeding, but the relations have now passed into the stage of violent but unexplained hostility. It is possible, of course, that this misty tradition may account to some extent for the inferior position which the Cāraṇ, even when he is exclusively a bard or genealogist, occupies with reference to the Bhāṭ. The Cāraṇ caste is subdivided into geographical sections with numerous exogamous sub-sections. The families in permanent employ as genealogists intermarry with each other only, not as a matter of caste, but, as amongst the Jāṭs of the Panjāb, on purely social considerations. They have thus acquired a physical appearance far superior to that of the cultivating and cattle-breeding sections of their community. The profession, however, as among the Bhāṭ, has gone down, and only a minority now live by it. Most of the western, or Kach, Cāraṇ live by transport on pack-bullocks. Here again their trade has suffered by the extension of railways across the desert tracts, but many of them have adapted their operations to the new order and ply along the main feeder roads to the chief stations. The Cāraṇ who are thus engaged bear a striking resemblance to the Banjārā of upper India and the Dekkan in appearance, dress and customs. The Banjārā of the north have, in fact, a large subdivision called Cāraṇ, and it is possible that there was of old some tribal connection between them and the Cāraṇ of the west, lost through the migration of the latter.

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The Cāraṇ shares with the Bhāṭ the reputation of personal inviolability, and numerous cases are on record, extending even down to 1861, of their killing one of their girls or old women, or inflicting serious, even fatal, wounds upon their own persons, in order to fix the guilt of certain acts upon those opposed to them. In earlier times, from at least the 15th century downwards, both castes were the professional securities for the performance of a contract or the repayment of a debt, and no important document of this sort would be accepted as valid without the “dagger” and signature of a Bhāṭ or Cāraṇ at the foot of it. This practice arose, apparently, out of that of obtaining the guarantee or escort of one of these castes for every caravan or transport train from the coast across Central India. But the origin of the notion of the inviolability of the Cāraṇ is as obscure as in the case of the Bhāṭ. The Cāraṇ, it is true, has the reputation of being a violent and turbulent character, whose ghost is particularly vindictive and malevolent. The curse of a Cāraṇ, therefore, was powerful against one’s enemies, and a member of the caste used to be engaged, like Balaam, to accompany the army of the Chief to battle, and curse the foe. The women of the caste, too, are reprehensibly familiar with spells and charms, and in north Gujarāt, the tombs of some of them are worshipped like those of the local goddesses. On the whole, however, the sacredness of the office of an authoritative repository of the family pedigree and achievements seems to be the more probable source of the conception.

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The only other caste which it is necessary to mention under this head is that of the Ḍūm or Mīrāsī of the Panjāb. The members of this community are both minstrels and genealogists. Their Brāhmanic name of Ḍūm may have some relation to the former accomplishment, as the Ḍom are, as stated in the preceding paragraph, to some extent, musicians. But the Ḍūm as they exist in the present day are far above the Ḍom alike in appearance, position and attainments, though still amongst the lower classes out of communion with the peasantry and artisans. They are almost all Muslim, and the name of Mīrāsī is derived from the Arabic for inheritance and may thus be taken to refer to their work as genealogists. In this capacity they are much below the Bhāṭ, and officiate chiefly in the families of the lower agricultural population and for the impure castes. Some Jāṭ families employ them, but the accredited genealogist for that race, strange to say, is the Saṅsī, a criminal vagrant tribe of the province, whilst the families ambitious of a rise in society engage, as above remarked, the Jāgā Bhāṭ. The musical attainments of the Mīrāsī are considerable. Some only sing, others play the flute, pipe, lute, cymbals and different sorts of drum. Their women also dance and sing occasionally, but only for the delectation, it is said, of patrons of their own sex. Those who are genealogists in permanent employ of a definite circle of clients hold their office hereditarily, and do not associate or intermarry with those similarly engaged among the impure castes. The profession is by no means unremunerative, especially where agricultural prosperity connotes the necessity of an improved family tree. Even in the open market, the Mīrāsī is a popular and well-paid feature of every fair and large wedding. Unfortunately, the Mīrāsī, like the Bhāṭ in the eastern parts of India, is a shameless blackmailer, and the refusal or inadequate requital of his demand is followed by often witty and invariably outspoken burlesques of the genealogy of the ill-advised recusant. In eastern Bengal, the Bhāṭ, who there resembles the Mīrāsī rather than his own namesake of Rājputāna, is said to vary his stock ridicule of the manners and customs of Europeans with depreciatory references to the ancestry of any local magnate whose purse-strings may have been drawn too tightly on the Bard's last visitation.

§ 55. Astrologers and Exorcists

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The importance of the horoscope, or birth-letter, and of a lucky day and hour for each domestic ceremony is so great in the eyes of the Brahmanic community that the duty of casting the one and of ascertaining the others is usually entrusted to none but a Brāhman. In many cases he is maintained by the village for the purpose and remunerated out of the crops, and in most Native States the Jyōtisi is an honoured official, endowed with salary and estate by the Chief. His function does not entail any separation from his sub-caste, so that this class of astrologer does not figure in the census returns. There is, however, a much lower grade in the profession, called by the same name, or rather, by its popular abbreviation, Jōsi, who is so returned, chiefly in the upper Gangetic plain and in Central India. He lives by palmistry, exorcism and omen-reading, and accepts remuneration for averting the evil influences of eclipses and of the phases of certain maleficent planets, especially Saturn, and generally pandering to pre-Aryan credulity. The subdivisions of the caste indicate, too that the Jōsi is a community of very mixed descent, and if connected at all with the Brahman, is only one of the degraded sections. This seems to be admitted in the case of the Dākaut, the astrologer of the Jamnā valley and Rājputāna, who is of the Āgrohā stock, unclassed for taking to an unorthodox course of life.

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The Gaṇak, again, of the Brahmaputra valley, are said to have been cast out by their Bengal fellows for undertaking the duties of family-priest to the carpenter caste. The Gaṇak moved into Assam, where, through the influence they acquired as court astrologers to the Kōch and Āhōm Chiefs, they settled down into a rank inferior to that of the Brāhman alone. A distinction must be drawn between the Jōsi of the plains of upper India and the same caste as found in the Kumāon hills. In the latter tract the Jōsi, whatever his position before his migration, has acquired the status of Brāhman in his present home, and intermarries with the Kanaujiyā and other sub-castes. This may be due in part to his worldly success, as for many generations the Jōsi has almost monopolised the sweets of State appointments in Kumāon, and flourished on them. In the Dravidian country, the profession of exorcist is widely spread, owing to the prevailing demonolatry, which requires variety of treatment. The determination of a lucky day, too, probably falls to the priests of the different communities of the lower classes, and to the Brāhman in the upper. On the Malabar coast, however, there are a few small castes which appear to be somewhat specialised in these arts. The Kaṇiśan, Pāṇan and Vēlan combine exorcism not only with devil-dancing, which is the usual twin calling, but with herbalism also.

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Probably all three castes are descended from the hill tribes of the neighbourhood, but have long been settled in the lowlands under the protection of the Nayar. In most parts of India there are specialists in exorcism and protective spells, though they may not have been yet formed into castes. The averter of hail, for instance, is an institution in parts of Bengal, in the lower Himālaya and in the north Dekkan. In the Kumaon tracts the duties fall to a special section of the Dōm. In Bengal, there seems to be a caste for the purpose, called the S'īlārī, but it is not returned at the Census. Possibly it has died out, since it is frankly admitted there that people did not think it worth while to maintain a wizard who could only keep hail off the crops of his patron without having the power to call it down upon those of his neighbours. The Garpagārī of the Marāṭhā tracts is a distinct caste, though, like the S'īlārī, it is on the wane; not, however, for the same reason, as the want of confidence now felt in the exorcist is here due to his inefficiency even as a protector of the crop, without any after-thought regarding his powers of maleficence. It is worth noting, perhaps, that these exorcists of the forces of Nature must be remunerated in kind, never in cash.

§ 56. Temple services. a) Priests

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In treating of the Brāhman, it was mentioned that whilst the post of priest in a family of a pure caste was one which could be occupied with credit by a member of the sacerdotal order, ministration in a temple was held to be a duty only to be undertaken by a degraded, or at least, one of the lower, sub-divisions of Brāhmans. The distinction, it was pointed out, lies probably in the divergence of the worship of the non-Āryan deities of the existing pantheon from the old Vedic sacrifices, still held in reverence, at least in theory, by all orthodox Brāhmans. There is also the risk, or perhaps the certainty, of contamination to be incurred in disposing of the offerings made in the course of these services. Notwithstanding these drawbacks, Brāhmans are found to perform the necessary offices before the god in the great majority of the temples of their creed. Equally low in the estimation of the order is the Brāhman who subsists upon the fees and offerings of pilgrims at the great centres of religious resort, and still lower, the Mahābrāhman, who takes part in funeral rites. All these, however, are included under the general title of Brāhman. Outside this designation are some small classes who claim to be Brahmans because they perform temple service, but who are recruited from the lay castes of the vicinity.

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The Pujārī and Bhōjkī, of the Panjāb Himālaya are cases of this kind, and, though repudiated by the Sārasvat Brāhmans to whom they have attached themselves, they seem to have all the position of the order among the people to whom they minister. The Bhōjak and Sēvak of west Rājputāna, again, who have been mentioned in connection with the Banyā, are held to be Brāhmans, albeit degraded by their connection with the Jain worship. The real reason for the lowness of their position is surmised to be their foreign origin, of which mention was made above. The impure castes, and, in the Dravidian country, a good many of the lower agricultural castes, employ their own caste-fellows for priestly duties outside the temple, whilst a few castes, in the south, officiate for not only their own body but for other castes of similar or slightly superior rank. Generally, however, these semi-priestly castes are themselves of low rank. The Paṇḍāram, for instance, is generally considered to be a branch of the Āṇḍi, a fraternity of Tamil religious mendicants; but there is one subdivision considerably above the average of the latter class, which is educated to a certain extent, wears the sacred thread, presides over monastic and temple establishments, and officiates as priests to the great Veḷḷāḷan peasantry and the castes immediately below and above it.

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Some of the Dāsari, too, in the Telugu country, rise far above the rest, and do service in temples and with respectable families of any caste below the Brāhman. The Vaḷḷuvan, once the priests of the Pallava dynasties, now officiate for the Paḷḷan and Paraiyan and have lost much of their former position by so doing. Like several low castes in various parts of India, the Vaḷḷuvan have produced a widely popular poet, Tiruvaḷḷuvan, who is said to have married into a Veḷḷāḷan family. It is conjectured that the sacerdotal functions of this caste were superseded by those of the Brāhman, when the latter found his way into the Dravidian region. Now, besides their employment by the castes above mentioned, the Vaḷḷuvan have to look to astrology and herbalistic medicine for their living, and here they enjoy the custom and confidence of far higher castes. In some villages, indeed, the Vaḷḷuvan is on the staff, and receives his annual quota of threshed grain from each household. It may be remarked that they do not ever intermarry with the castes to which they act as priests, unless they belong to the pure section. The Tambaḷa, a small caste of temple-priests in Telingāna, hold almost the rank of Brāhmans, and where they have taken to cultivation are still quite in the upper line. It is said that their name, the local rendering of Tamil, is due to their having been sent up from the south by the great reformer, S'aṅkarācārya, to labour on the Coromandel coast.

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As they are mostly worshippers of S'iva, many have joined, it is said, the Liṅgāyat community in the inland districts. The true priests of the latter, however, are the Jaṅgam, a caste of considerable influence in the Karnatic. It seems to have been called into being to satisfy the desire of the converts of Basava to retain priests for their Dravidian forms of worship after they had split from the Brāhmans. In the tracts where Liṅgvantism is most powerful the Jaṅgam are subdivided into the usual monastic and secular sections. The former, in turn, are either stationary in monasteries, or put in charge of a circle of villages, each of which they visit in turn, imparting doctrine and counsel. In the outlying parts of the Karnatic, the Jaṅgam is not unfrequently a wandering mendicant of a religious type, living upon doles from every class of the population. The secular Jaṅgam, again, is often a trader or money-lender. The Census returns of this caste, though possibly fairly accurate in the aggregate, are defective in detail. In the south Dravidian districts, that is, the term Jaṅgam is used of any Liṅgāyat, whilst in the north on the contrary, many Jaṅgam are returned as Liṅgāyat or as Vīrs'aiv Brāhman. A small caste corresponding somewhat to the Vaḷḷuvan, is found in Gujarāt and the north Dekkan, called the Gāruḍā, which serves the leather-working castes as priest.

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In some parts they eat with their clients, but in Gujarāt they are generally superior to the latter in education and physical appearance. From one of their subdivisions it might be surmised that they are the descendants of a superior class driven out of Rajputāna, like so many others in the west. The Gāruḍī of the Marāṭhā country is of a lower type altogether, and belongs to the Māṅg caste.

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In the Panjāb, there is one caste requiring notice, the Bharāi, which, however, is often returned simply as S'ēkh. The Bharāi is the special guardian and ministrant of the shrine of the popular Saint Sakhī Sarvar, of the Indus. Whether he is, since his canonisation, Muslim or Brāhmanist, it is difficult to judge from the crowds that throng to his tomb; but the Bharāi are of the former creed. They haunt the centre and submontane parts of the Province, and live by conducting pilgrims down to the shrine at Nigāhā, in the Dērajāt. It is said that some of the Bharāi have taken to music and call themselves Mirāsī. The only other occupation with which they are associated is circumcision, which rite they perform in supersession of the barber on the lower Indus. Along the Paṭhān frontier, there is a body, incoherent and multifarious, which locally arrogates to itself the title of Ulama, or the learned. The entrance-qualification, however, appears to be only the knowledge by rote of a sufficient number of texts of the Kurān to serve as spells or curses for the practical purposes of life. On the other hand, the term may include the highly educated Maulvī of the city mosque, and the Kāzi, who may or may not be erudite in the law he administers. It is not, however, a caste, and as a functional body, enjoys as low a reputation for piety as for erudition, and is the subject of many biting proverbs along the frontier.

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§ 51. b) **Temple-servants** (300,500). There are certain castes in almost every part of India, but especially in the south, which are dedicated to offices within the temple other than those of actual worship. They wash the images of the god, deck it with flowers, and keep the precincts clean. Most of them have other and more secular avocations, generally connected with leaves or flowers, such as umbrella-making, the preparation of leaf-platters for Brāhmanic festivals and garlands for ceremonial use. The caste most widely spread of all thus engaged is the Mālī, or garland-maker; but as nearly the whole of the caste is in the present day occupied in gardening or agriculture, it has been reviewed already under the head of special cultivation. In Bengal there is still enough of the traditional work left to justify a separate subdivision to perform it. In other provinces, too, the growth of flowers and the making of garlands, particularly those for the temple, are the work of special bodies, but they are generally distinct from the Mālī. Such are the Phūl-Mālī, Phulārī, Hūgār, and the like. It is still necessary to be specially brought up to the trade, lest mistakes be made which would be ruinous. One god has to be decked with flowers which are abhorrent to another; certain flowers, too, are required by convention for certain occasions, and the marriage-coronet must contain the prescribed flowers and no others. The small castes above mentioned are generally found south of the Vindhya, in connection with the caste of Guraō, which is accredited to certain temples, usually those of S'iva, where the post is permanent and hereditary. The Guraō also make the leaf platters required for caste-feasts and other banquets on a large scale, a task which in upper India is performed by the Bārī, who, however, does not serve temples. In the Telugu country, the Sātānī does the work of the Guraō and a good deal more, for it appears that this caste was brought into being to aid the propaganda of Rāmānuja, its patron. It is associated, therefore, more closely with religion than a mere temple servant, and acts as priest to several other castes in a good position, as well as the lower classes. In contradistinction to the Gurao, the Sātānī is Vaiṣṇava, and those of the caste who are brought up as priests are fairly conversant with the Purānic authorities of their sect. Formerly, the Sātānī called in Brāhmans for their ceremonies, but of late their own priests have come into favour. The Balija community generally employ the Sātāni, but those who are redundant in this capacity, take to umbrella and garland making. The Tulu caste of Dēvādiga is not found outside Kanarā, and where not engaged in temple service, the caste has taken to cultivation and the lower grades of State service. The curious trans-formation of the Barber into the temple servant in Malabar has been already mentioned, and there are about 8,000 of the Mārāyān who combine that duty with the manipulation of the temple drums when required.

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§ 58. **Dancers, Singers &c.** (135,900). That these professions should be placed immediately after those connected with temple-service is by no

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means so anomalous as regards sequence as it may appear at first sight. In India, as in other oriental countries, dancing and singing are professional accomplishments or ceremonial observances, and only among some of the wilder tribes is the dance a form of private recreation. In Brāhmanic circles there are recognised dances, generally of a religious significance, danced among women, and, also, a few highly heterodox tripudiations associated with the rites of some particular sect, and ignored by the rest of the community. There are, again, the sword-dances of the Khattak and other frontier tribes, and most of the more primitive forest communities have their reel or square-dance with its traditional figures handed down as a tribal possession. With these exceptions, the dance in India is a performance by trained professionals, of a character which may be called posture-singing, or illustrating by gestures the words sung by the performer. The subject of the ode, except amongst the Muslim, is usually connected with religion or mythology. In the Dravidian region the dancing takes place within or before the temple, in honour of the god, especially of S'iva in his many forms, and the performers are dedicated to him and form part of the establishment of the temple. The women have their off-time, of course, which is spent in the practice of the ancient mystery everywhere, now as of yore, associated with professional dancing.

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In fact, the old Dutch travellers when introduced to these bevies, did not mince their words, but habitually refer to them under the title of "danshoer", an appellation even more applicable to the dancing castes of the north than to those in the south, since the former have no connection with religion beyond the dedication of the individual to the worship of a certain god, if she be of the Brāhmanic faith. It is worth noting that owing possibly to this connection with the popular pantheon or, as some think, to the more distant tradition of communistic marriage, the courtesan is not a degraded member of Indian society, but, like the Hetaira of Athens, is not only tolerated, but respected. There is, of course, every grade to be found amongst them, as in all countries where inequality of purse is the rule, from the ragged nomad in her filthy little reed-booth, whose musical and terpsichorean attainments are of the lowest, to the highly-trained singer of the great city, well versed in alike classical and popular poetry, whose diction is often quoted as the standard of Hindī or Urdū polite conversation. It may have been gathered from what has been stated above, that the two arts, dancing and singing, go together, and comparatively few and those only of the highest rank, sing without the plastic accompaniment.

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Recruited as they are from all castes, Brahmanic and Muslim, under a number of titles, honorific or the reverse, it is not worth while to dwell upon them here otherwise than cursorily, as an ancient and recognised grade in Indian society. In upper India, alongside the functional titles of Ṭavāif, Kasbī, Nāik, and so on, there are found the semi-religious designations of Rāmjani, Gandharp, Rās-dhārī and the lower ones of Kañcan, Besyā, Patūriya and so on. In the west, besides some of those above mentioned, there are the Naikin, of the semi-religious type, and the Kalāvant. The religious establishments referred to above are all in the south. In the Dekkan there are several of comparatively small renown and endowment, and only nine women have returned themselves under the specific name there given to them. Even in the Tamil country, where the accommodation for this class round the chief temples indicates the extent of the community in old times, the number returned is far below the actual, since many of the girls give the name of the caste in which they were born, instead of that to which they were dedicated when they wedded the god. It is the duty of the Dāsī to fan the god, present to him the sacred light, and to sing and dance before him when he is carried in procession. Owing to their Brāhmanic connection, they do not consort with the Kammālan, or artisans, who belong to the Left hand, nor, of course, with the impure castes.

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Their sons become musicians, often of considerable skill and learning, and occasionally marry into respectable castes. The daughters follow their mother. In the Telugu country, the caste is known as Bōgam or Sāni, and is widely scattered in small numbers. There is only one institution of the sort common in the Tamil region. The Kanarese Devali are mostly ascribed to a god or to temples, as in the south. Both here and in Teliṅgāna, the recruits are from the Paḷḷi, and Holeya, but on the coast, the breed is apparently from a fairer stock, like the Tīyan, or bastards of the Havik. All these dancing and singing castes have their strict rules about initiation, conduct, inheritance, and the observance of caste regulations, enforced through a caste Council, or Pancāyat, like the larger communities.

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§ 59. The majority of the castes coming under this head are here placed not on account of any ethnic distinction between them and those already described, but merely in consideration of the generally urban character of their occupations. Most of them, indeed, are but offshoots of larger bodies still unaffected by the influences of the city, and are finding their way back to the village as communication grows easier and the convenience they represent gets to be the object of a more effective demand. It should be understood, therefore, that these castes are not entirely confined to the towns, though it is there that they find at present the main field for their labours. They may be conveniently grouped as shopkeepers, artisans and domestic servants.

c48.s3.t2.7

§ 60. **Grocers &c.** (825,000). Under this head come the retailers not only of spices and condiments but of perfumery also, the functional name of the Banya who sells the former in one part of the country being the same as that of the extractor and seller of scents in another. The latter is but scantily represented in the Census returns, and is usually a Muslim. The large proportion of Brāhmanists coming under this title may be taken to be grocers returning their professional, in place of their caste, name. The Gandhai or Gandhabaṇik of Bengal is generally a druggist as well as the vendor of condiments, and when he sells sandal-wood and other fragrant articles which enter largely into domestic worship, he rises in position. The whole caste, indeed, pays homage in the spring to Gandheśvarī, the goddess of perfume, a manifestation of Durgā. The Gandhabaṇik also sells drugs, and is reputed to be well acquainted with all local medicinal products. A few take out licenses for the sale of opium and intoxicating preparations of hemp, but the actual sale of such articles is left to a Muslim assistant. The grocer of the upper Gangetic region generally belongs to the Kāsar- or Kēsar-vāṇī or Kasaundhan castes, both somewhat low branches of the great Banyā order. The latter derives its name from dealings in brass or bell-metal, and the former probably from saffron. Both now sell grain, salt and other commodities which their Bengal con-