IBN KHURDA′DBA.
ing themselves, and the men are fond of amusements and games of skill.[1] In Hind there are forty-two religious sects;[2] part of them believe in a Creator and Prophet (the blessing of God be upon them!); part deny the mission of a Prophet, and part are atheists.
- ↑ None of the early Arabian Geographers notice this division into tribes or classes, [but they appear to have known it, see pp. 6, 10, 19; and Idrísí reproduces this passage, see post.] The Grecian Authors, on the authority of Megasthenes, divide the tribes into seven, and attribute the following offices to them, which are very different from those assigned by Ibn Khurdádba.
Strabo.Diodorus.Arrian.
1st Class.PhilosophersPhilosophersSophists
2nd,,HusbandmenHusbandmenHusbandmen
3rd,,Shepherds andCowherds andCowherds and shepherds
huntersshepherds
4th,,ArtificersandArtificersArtificers, merchants, and
merchantsboatmen
5th,,WarriorsWarriorsWarriors
6th,,InspectorsInspectorsInspectors
7th,,Counsellors andCounsellors andAssessors
assessors assessorsVid. Strab. Geogr: lib: xv. 703-707.Arrian: Indica 11. 12.Diodor Sic: lib : II. 40, 41. and Megasthenis Fragmenta. E. A. Schwanbeck, pp. 42, 121, 127. It is not easy to identify the names given by Ibn Khurdádba. The first is unintelligible—the 2nd is evident—the 3rd seems to indicate the Kshatriyas—the 4th the Súdras—the 5th the Vaisya—the 6th the Chandálas—the 7th the Bázígars and itinerant jugglers.
- ↑ This is the number ascribed by the indignant Frenchman to England—“Forty-two religions! and only one sauce!!” The Jámi’u-l Hikáyát increases the number of religions in India to forty-eight, and the Bahjatu-l Tawárikh, in the Paris Library, sets them down as 948. See Kasimirski, 214, and Mem. sur I'lnde, 49.
