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tails, the ingenuity, and the skill displayed in these works will bear comparison with those of any nation, ancient or modern, in the face of the earth. But the concep- tion of a great architect, the genius of a true artist is often wanting in these magnificent edifices. A Br&hman poet in Ujjayini has conceived a Sakuntala in verse, but there is no Sakuntala in stone among the millions of sculptured figures in India ! By her position and her civilisation India should have been the mistress of the Indian Ocean, as Greece and Rome were of the Mediterranean ; and a Hindu mercantile navy should have swept the seas from China to Egypt. But the genius of Brahmans and Kshatriyas did not descend to the art of navigation ; civilized India depended on the rude Arabians for commerce with the West ; and the imperfect maritime communication which Hindus had with Sumatra, Java and China in the Buddhist Period, — as we know from Fa Hian's pages, — was soon forgotten, and it was considered a sin to cross the seas. Hindu genius struggled against the dishonour cast on arts, Hindu architects and sculptors, and goldsmiths and weavers attained all that it was possible to attain by skill and industry and ingenuity and long training ; but the genius which marks the literature and thought of ancient India is absent in her industrial arts, her mechanical inventions and her maritime enterprise. No nation has such just reasons to be proud of its J l < Digitized by Google CHAP. IX.] SOCIAL MANNERS, &C. I49 past as the Hindus. But the proudest nations of the earth are at the same time those who are the most keenly alive to their shortcomings, and most eagerly assiduous in removing them ; and greatness does not long survive where such endeavour is wanting. India too has had her shortcomings, and it is necessary that we should remember them and seek to remove them. And we should never forget that monopoly is hurtful to those who hold it, as to those who are excluded from it ; and that a monopoly of learning and honour is the worst kind of monopoly that the world has known. The nation is degraded under a permanent social subjection, and then drags down the monopolists in the common national ruin We have seen before, that in order to make the dis- tinctions of caste immutable, the ancient SGtrakdras had conceived that the different castes sprang from the union of men and women of different original castes ; and Manu of course adopts and hands down the childish myth. The following is a list of Manu's mixed castes, or if we may so call it, Manu's theory of the Origin of the Human Species ! Sons begotten by the first three castes on wives of the next lower castes were considered similar to their fathers, and did not form new castes. Father, Mother. Castes formed. Br&hman Vaisya Ambashtha Do. Sudra Nish&da Kshatriya Do. Ugra Do. Brahman SQta Vaisya Do. Vaideha Digitized ISO BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. Father. Vaisya S<idra Do. Do. Brahman Do. Do. Nishada Sudra Kshattri Vaidehaka Firsl three castes Mother, Kshatriya Vaisya Kshatriya Br&hman Ugra Ambashtha Ayogava Sudra Nishada Ugra Ambashtha by wives of their same caste, but not perform- V ing sacred rites. From Brahman Vratyas ) From Kshatriya Vratyas ! From Vaisya Vratyas Castes formed. M&gadha Ayogava Kshattri Chand&Ia Avrita Abhira Dhigvana Pukkasa Kukkutaka Svap&ka Vena Vratyas. 'Bhrijjakantaka Avantya Vatadhana Tushpadha Saikha (Jhalla Malla Lichchivi \ Nata Karana Khasa \Dravida / Sudhanvan Acharya Karusha Vijanman Maitra .Satvata Digitized by Google CHAP. IX.] SOCIAL MANNERS, &C. 1 5 1 Mother. CasUs formed. Dasyu Ayogava bairindnra Vaideha Do. Mail re yak a Nishada iJo. Margava or Dasa or Kaivarta Do. Vaidena Karavara Vaidehika Karavara Andnra Do. XNisnaua M eda Chandala Vaidena randusopaka Nishada Do. Ahindika Chandala Pukkasa Sopaka Chandala Nishada Antyavasayin. As if this list of Non- Aryan races was not suffici- ently long, the great legislator tries to include by a sweeping rule all the known races of the earth ! The Paundrakas (North Bengal men), the Udras (Oriyas), the Dravidas (Southern Indians), the Kambojas (Kabu- lis), theYavanas (Bactrian Greeks), the Sakas (Turanian invaders), the Paradas, the Pahlavas (Persians), the Chinas (Chinese), the Kirdtas (hill men), and the Daradas and Khasas are said to have been Kshatriyas before, but to have " gradually sunk in this world to the condition of SQdras" through omission of the sacred rites and for " not consulting Brahmans " (X, 43 & 44). On carefully looking over the foregoing list of mixed castes, we find that they include all the aboriginal and foreign races who were known to Manu, but they do not include the profession — castes of the modern day. We find no mention of Kayasthas and Vaidyas and Gold- Digitized 1 52 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. smiths and Blacksmiths and Vaniks, and Potters and Weavers, and other artisans who form castes in modern times! How have these castes sprung r When did they spring into existence ? And shall we believe in the myth of a further permutation and combination among the men and women of Manu's mixed castes in order to account for the existence of the scores of new castes in the modern day ? Again when we survey the modern Hindu castes, we do not in many provinces of India find any trace of the ancient Vaisya caste, which formed the mass of the nation in the days of Manu. Where are those Vaisyas gone? When and how did they disappear from most provinces of India? And shall we, con- sistently with the myth spoken of before, believe that the Vaisyas were so apt to marry women of other castes, and so little fond of their own women, that they continually formed alliances with other castes, until they simply married themselves out of their caste- existence ? The student of Indian history is spared the humilia- tion of accepting such nursery tales ! Common-sense will suggest to him that the Vaisyas of Manu have now been disunited into new modern castes according to the professions they follow. Manu knew of goldsmiths and blacksmiths and physicians, and speaks of them as we have seen before, but does not reckon them as separate castes. They were not castes but profes* Digitized by Google CHAP. IX.] SOCIAL MANNERS, &C. 153 sicns in Manu's time. Scribes and physicians and artisans, though looked down upon by Manu, still belonged to the common undivided Vaiysa caste. Scribes and physicians and artisans were still entitled in Manu's time to the privileges of the ancient Aryans, to acquire religious knowledge, to perform religious rites, and to wear the sacrificial thread. However much, then, we may deplore the results of the caste-system, it is im- portant to remember that even in the centuries imme- diately subsequent to the Christian Era, the system had not reached its worst stage, sacred learning had not yet become the monopoly of priests, and honest citizens, who gained a livelihood as scribes, physicians, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, potters, &c, were still Vaisyas, still united as one caste, and still entitled to all the literary and religious heritage of Aryans. We will illustrate these remarks by a few facts taken from the modern state of Bengal. Bengal Proper, i.e., the country in which the Bengali is the spoken tongue, (comprising the Presidency, Burdwan, Rajshahi, Dacca, and Chittagong fiscal divisions), has a population of about 35^ millions according to the census of 1881. Roughly speaking, 18 millions are Mahommedans, 17 millions are Hindus (including aborigines), and the re- maining half-million is made up of Buddhists, Christ- ians, &c. The castes which make up the 17 million Hindus are about a hundred in number ; and those which num- Digitized 154 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. bcr 200,000 souls or more are shewn in the follow- ing list : — I. Kaivarta 2,006 thousands. 17. Baniya 318 thousands. 2. Chandala 1* l8. 306 9i 3- Koch 1,215 it 19. Kamar 280 • 4. Brahman 1,077 99 20. Kumar 252 5- K&yastha 1,056 ! 21. Bauri 252 i 6. Bagdi 720 22. Teor 229 7- Gowala f r M 013 23. Dhobi 227 > 8. Sadgop 547 9- Napit 447 13.760 . 10. Vaishnav 439 > Other castes num- ii. Chamar 410 91 bering less than 12. Sunri 383 l 200,000 souls 3.494 tf IS- Teli 383 99 14. Jeleya 375 99 Total Hindu po- IS- Tanti 330 it pulation 17.254 16. Pod 325 99 The two most numerous castes, the Kaivarta and the Chandala, find mention in Manu's list of mixed castes. The Kaivartas of Bengal form a solid body of two million people, making nearly one- eighth of the entire Hindu population of Bengal. They have much the same physical features, follow the same pursuits of fishing and agriculture, and possess the same mental characteristics of patience and industry, docility, and dulness. Three- fourths of them inhabit the south-western corner of Bengal, i e. y the districts of Midnapur, Hooghly and Howrah, 24-Pergunnahs, Nuddea and Murshedabad. Is there any one among our readers who is so simple as Digitized by Google CHAP. IX.] SOCIAL MANNERS, &C.