Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s6.29

c48.s6.29

and is used as a general title by the inhabitants. The exogamous subdivisions of the tribes, however, are still in existence, and seem to consist of the descendants of an individual, by whose trade or nickname the section is called. In 1720, the then Chief, called by the Muslim title of Gharīb Navāz, was persuaded by some Brāhmans at his court that he and his subjects were Kṣatriya of the Lunar race. The monarch thereupon embraced their creed and was invested with the sacred thread, and with him a large number of his people. Since then, not only have most of the Meithei become Kṣatriya, but the rank has been conferred by the Chief upon a plentiful supply of recruits from the surrounding Kuki and Nāgā tribes. The result is that at the Census only 33 of the inhabitants of the State returned the tribal name, whilst the 33,000 Maṇipurī found on the record are bastard Bengālī enumerated in Kacār and its vicinity. The Brāhmans who first entered the State upon their mission of conversion were given wives of the class of Kēi, or Nāgā slaves of the Chief, into which body their descendants also married, so that the sacerdotal caste does not bear any special title to respect in the eyes of the local Kṣatriya, to whom many of them act as cooks, for the convert is most particular as to diet and intercourse with his inferiors. Nevertheless, they have 300 deities of the old worship who are still propitiated through the native priest, or Maiba, and in every house hangs the basket containing the household god. The connection of the ruling family with the Jādav clan has naturally attracted the Maṇipurī Kṣatriya to Mathurā, the centre of Kṛṣṇa-worship, where a small colony of them appears to reside. They also observe the great Kṛṣṇa festivals in their native country. The Lōi clan of the population seem to be descended from the Mayarang, and now to constitute a sort of receptacle for anyone degraded from the Kṣatriya class. The Lōi are the helots and labourers of the State, and the original families of the clan have their own dialect. It seems, however, that a Lōi who embraces Brāhmanism and has never been degraded from any other position, may be made at once a Kṣatriya.