A History of the Mahrattas v1.c7.67

v1.c7.67

¹ Independent of other Hindoo observances, all classes of the Shunkerjatee have a sort of moral and religious government amongst themselves; they have heads or chiefs, now termed Muqudum, Chowdree, &c. &c., whose power seems to be the result of supposed suffrage, rather than of any regular election. There is no one Muqudum who has any very general authority in the Mahratta country; but all classes are subject to the same sort of rules: they are frequently strict in enforcing both spiritual and temporal observances. An infringement of what is customary is liable to a general inquiry in the community, every member of which may be readily roused to a jealous defence of what is considered either privilege or propriety. The lower casts of the Shunkerjatee are not less particular than the others; and hence it is, that in native regiments, the European officers often complain of having no trouble with affairs of cast except among low-cast men. For the origin of the Shunkerjatee, to those who may be desirous of acquiring minute information, reference may be made to Mr. Colebrook’s writings on the subject, in the Asiatic Researches, vol. v. The most remarkable thing in the classification of the Shunkerjatee is, that the offspring of the Shooder, with a woman of the Bramin class, is the lowest of all. The term Shunkerjatee in the Mahratta country, is applied to the mixed classes, which, in many other parts of India, and in Sanskrit manuscripts, are styled Wurn Shunkur [Varna Shankar]: this term is in use in Maharashtra, but is applied to any sort of employment in which a person may be engaged unbecoming his cast. A Bramin’s child by a slave girl is termed Sindey [Sinde]. [By the rules of hypergamy the Brahman could marry a woman of any of the four orders, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaish, and Sūdra; the Kshatriya could marry a female of three orders, including his own, but could not marry a Brahman woman; the Vaish could marry a woman of his own order or a Sūdra woman; while a Sūdra could only marry within his own order. The offspring of illegal connections between the men of any one of these orders