File:Natives of northern India (1907) (14578644457).jpg

Identifier: nativesofnorther00croo (find matches)
Title: Natives of northern India
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Crooke, William, 1848-1923
Subjects: Ethnology -- India India -- Social conditions India -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : A. Constable and Company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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is burnt; no journey isundertaken, or auspicious day selected ; no house isbuilt, no agricultural operation begun, or harvestgathered in, without Brahmans being feed and fed ;a portion of all the produce of the fields is set apartfor their use ; they are consulted in sickness and indeath ; they are feasted in sorrow and in joy; andthough I believe them to possess but little real influencewith the people of the Punjab, a considerable portionof the wealth of the province is diverted into theiruseless pockets. Again, it is only a minority of the caste which isengaged in religious duties of any kind. They prac-tise all the learned professions, as lawyers, land-agents,or estate-managers; as clerks in public offices or com-mercial houses, as orderlies or messengers to officials,in the police, or as sepoys in the few regiments whichnow admit them. Large numbers of them are attachedto the land, as members of proprietary village com-munities, or as tenants, in which occupations the rule No. 11
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u THE CASTES OF THE PLAINS 97 that they must not hold the plough or allow theirwomen to do field-work seriously checks their pro-sperity. The Brahman caste is clearly composed of variouselements. Some of them, probably, as Mr. Risleysuggests, are descended from the bards, ministers, andfamily priests of the Raja in Vedic times. By degreesreligious ritual became more intricate, and thus amonopoly was created in the hands of the sacred order.But the Brahmans, as we find them at present, gainedrecruits from other sources. One section in the Pun-jab seems to represent Persian priests of the sacredfire, who entered India from Persia. Others, again,and those of the lower class, were apparently themedicine-men of those Dravidians who, when theyadopted Hinduism, brought their priests with them. The mixed origin of the caste may also be inferredfrom their territorial divisions. Five of these, eachquite isolated from the others, are found in NorthernIndia. These are probably descended from the

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