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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, ze., the country in which the Bengali is the spoken tongue, (comprising the Presidency, Burdwan, Rajshahi, Dacca, and Chittagorig fiscal divisions), has a population of about 3534 millions according to the census of 1881. Roughly speaking, 18 millions are Mahommedans, t7 miltions are Hindus (iacluding aborigines}, and the re- maining half-million is made up of Buddhists, Christ- jans, &c. ; The castes which ‘make up the 17 million Hindus are about a hundred in number ; and those which num- 154 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK Iv. ber 200,000 souls or more are shewn in the follow- ing list :— 1. Kaivarta 2,006 thousands.} 17. Baniya 313 thousands, 2, Chandéla 1,564 3 18 Jugi 306 ‘ 3. Koch 1,215 ” 19. Kamar 286 is 4. Brdhman 1,077 35 20. Kumar 252 és 5. K&yastha 1,056 3 2t. Bauri 252 ‘i 6. Bagdi 720 3 22, Teor 229 a 7. Gowala 613 79 23. Dhobi 227 sy 8. Sadgop 5470s a 9. Napit 447 ” 13,760 a” 10. Vaishnav 439 ‘3 Other castes num- 1 Chamar 410 a bering less than ‘12. Sanri 383 is 200,000 souls 3,494 + 43. Teli 383 Py 34. Jeleya 375 33 Total Hindu po- "v5. Tanti 330. os pulation 17,254 45 ‘16, Pod 325 3 —_—_——— The two most numerous castes, the Kaivarta and the iChandala, find mention in Manu’s list of mixed castes. iThe Kaivartas of Bengal form a solid body of two “janillion people, making nearly one-eighth of the entire jHindu 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, 2¢, the districts of Midnapur, Hooghly and , Howrah, 24-Pergunnahs, Nuddea and Murshedabad. Is jthere any one among our readers who is so simple as CHAP. 1X.] SOCIAL MANNERS, &c. 155 to believe with Manu that this solid and numerous race of | men, possessing the same features and characteristics, and mostly inhabiting one definite part of Bengal, is descended from children borne by Ayogava women who deserted their own husbands and yielded themselves,—by the hundred thousand,—to the embraces of Nishadas ! Where are the traditions of this strange and universal elope- ment, this rape of the Ayogava women by’ Nishddas, compared to which the rape of the Sabine women was but child’s play ? Commen-sense brushes aside such nursery-tales and recognizes in the millions of hard- working and simple Kaivartas, one of those aboriginal races who inhabited Bengal before the Aryans came to the land, and who submitted themselves to the cjviliza- tion, the language and the religion of the conquering Hindus, and learnt from them to till the land where they had previously lived by fishing and hunting. Let us next turn to the Chandalas of Bengal. They too form a solid body of people numbering a million and a half, and inhabiting mostly the south-eastern dis- tricts of Bengal, Backergunj, Faridpur and Dacca, Jessore and Khulna. They are patient and hard-work- ing and unrivalled in boating and fishing ; and land- lords like to have them as tenants for bringing waste and marshy lands under cultivation. But-neverthe- ® The present writer has often witnessed the curious way in which the Chandalas of some parts of Backergunj District turn dee/s or marshes into solid cultivable lands, They either connect the deeds with tidal rivers by 156 BUDDILIST PERIOD. [BOOK IV. less the Chandalas are a soft, timid and submissive race, and bear without a complaint many wrongs from the sturdier Mussalmans of East Bengal. There is a marked family likeness, both physical and mental, among the Chandalas, which shews them to be one distinct race. And how was this race formcd? Manu has it that they are the issues of Brahman women who yielded themselves to the embraces of Sidras. As the number jof Brahmans in South Eastern Bengal was never very large in olden times, and does not even in the present day come to even a quarter of a million in the five dis- ‘tricts named above, it is difficult to account for the presence of a million Chand4las in those districts on ‘Manu’s theory. Shall we suppose that fair-skinned Brahman Desdemonas habitually bestowed their hands on swarthy Sidra swains? Shall we suppose that beau- teous but frail Brahman matrons were seduced from their lords—by the hundred thousand,—by gay Sddra Lotharios intent on creating a mew caste? And shall we further suppose that the children begotten of such unions thrived and multiplied in marshes and fishing ‘villages, amidst toil and privations——more than true- ‘born Brahman children basking in the sunshine of royal artificial canals, so as to induce a deposit of silt on the bed of the marshes day by day and year by year ; lor they collect a kind of weed growing in the marshes, and lay thém stratum upon stratum, until the lowest stratum reaches the bottom. ~The present writer has seen houses and trees on lands thus manufactured. CHAP. IX.] SOCIAL MANNERS, &Cc. 157 favour and priestly privileges? We have only to state’ such suppositions to shew their utter absurdity ; and with these suppositions, Manu’s theory of mixed castes is brushed aside to the region of myths and nursery-! talcs ! Common-sense will tell every reader who knows: anything of the Chand4las of Bengal that they were the primeval dwellers of South-Eastern Bengal, and lived by fishing in its numerous creeks and channels, and they naturally adopted the religion, the language, and the civi' ization of the Hindus when the Aryans came and colonized Bengal. We have shewn that the Kaivartas wad the Chan- dalas were distinct primeval races, and that they form- ed Hindu castes when they.were Hinduized by the conquering Aryans. There are other similar race- castes in Bengal. The reader will find in the list given above the names of the Koch, the Bagdi, the Pod, the Bauri, and the Teor, which are all race-castes. They formed distinct aboriginal races before the Hindus came to Bengal; and from century to century in the long-forgotten ages, they submitted to the conquering Hindus, adopted their language and religion and mode of tillage, and formed low castes in the Hindu con- federation of castes. The names of many of these Bengal races were unknown to Manu ; those which he! knew, he tried to account for by his own theory in the) absence of all historical and statistical facts. Let us now turn from race-castes to profession- castes,| 158 BUDDHIST PERIOD. [Book Iv. 'In the list given above the reader will find mention of the Kayastha or scribe, the Goala or cowherd, the Napit or barber, the Teli or oil-manufacturer, the Jeleya or fishermen, the Tanti or weaver, the Baniya or . trader, the Kamar or blacksmith, the Kumar or potter, ‘tthe Dhobi or washerman, &c. It is remarkable that while some of the race-castes find mention in Manu's “list oF mixed castes, wot one of the profession-castes jinds. mention in that list. Were the professions un- known.in Manu’s time? Weré there no scribes and traders; no blacksmiths and potters, no barbers and washermen in Manu’s. time? - The supposition is " absurd, for Manu lived at a+ time of high civilization in India, and speaks of those professions in his Code. But he does. not mention them in his list. of mixed wastes, and does not speak of them as castes. And ’ this demonstrates with mathematical certainty that the - different professions in Manu’s time were yet profes- . sions only, and had not yet been formed into distinct ‘and inviolable castes. .The Vaisyas were still a united body, and so were the Sfdras, although they followed different professions and trades. - ‘We -now know the true otigin of the profession- “ castes which were unknown to Manu, and have been ” formed since. We know also the origin of the race- _ castes which were formed before Manu’s time, and were known to Manu. And lastly, we know now what to -. think of Manu’s theory of mixed castes, Manu’s mis- BOOK IV. BUDDHIST PERIOD—B. C. 242 TO A. D, 500, . CHAPTER IL ASOKA THE GREAT AND HIS EDICTS. THE Buddhist Period begins with the brilliant reign of Asoka the Great. No greater prince had ever reigned in India since the Aryans first colonized this country,, and no succeeding monarch equalled his glory, if we only except Vikramaditya of the sixth century . and the great Akbar of the sixteenth century. But the claims of Asoka to greatness rest less on the extent of his empire and of his prowess than on the liberal and catholic spirit. which inspited his internal administration and his foreign policy, and the fervent love ‘of ‘truth, and the desire to spread the truth, which have made his name a household word from Siberia to Ceylon. .No-monarch of India, not even Vikramaditya or Akbar, has such a world-wide reputation, and none has exerted such influence on _ the history of the word by his zeal for righteousness and virtue. R. C. Dy Ay LHL i BUDDHIST PERIOD. [BOOK 1V¥. ot .