288
[SEPT. 6, 1872.
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
Eurasian half caste; and in his face the red blush is seen
to come and go as in that of the Englishman. The remarks of Mr. Campbell would go to prove an almost tribal distinc
cuous by their liberality and public spirit, in laying out vast sums of money, on colleges, schools, hospitals, asylums, and the like.
Yet their secret personal ambition
tion between the Mahratta and all other Brahmans, con
is mostly directed to very inferior objects. To secure a
sisting in a far greater purity of Brahmanical blood. I, suspect that these tribal distinctions among the Brahmans are in the main of a provincial character, and to be account: ed for on geographical grounds rather than ethnological."
higher place in the Governor-General's Durbar, or more fre
A very interesting question, this—and one which merits fuller investigation than it has yet received. For ourselves, we see no difficulty in believing, that the Brähmans in, and near, the Panjāb may have descended the Indus, or, for that matter, the Saras vatſ, which in Vaidik times was a copious river flowing either into the Indus or the ocean. We also doubt whether climatic differences will sufficiently explain the striking diversities of colour among Brähmans. Still we express no decided conviction ; we are happy to hear Mr. Sherring's pleading, and in the meantime, we take the matter, as the Scotch judges say, ad arizandum. We cannot follow Mr. Sherring into the endless rannifications of Brahmanism, which he sets down with wonderful minuteness. For example, he enu merates all the eighty-four divisions of Gujaráti Brähmans; and fourteen of Marāthā Brähmans, with gotras in numbers without number In Part II he speaks of the Rajputs in Benares. In cluding the district and province of that name, he finds ninety-nine Rājput tribes; and of all these in succession he gives a longer or shorter account. All this we are compelled to pass over. As, how ever, Mr. Sherring is no dry-as-dust collector of cu riosities, but a man who steadily views the past in its bearing on the present and the future, we must in justice quote some of his opinions on the condition-of-India question as affected
by caste changes that have come already or are fast coming. First, however, let us hear what he thinks of the Rājputs' physique and morale. “In ancient times the two functions of this race were rul
ing and lighting. Only one of these, the latter, still re mains. A large proportion of the sepoys of the Indian army have ever been, and still are, Rajpoots. The number, I imagine, has somewhat diminished since the mutiny. Yet
this occupation is regarded by all classes as a legitimate and natural one for the members of this caste. The physique of the Rajpoots, in the opinion of military men, péculiarly adapts him for the life of a soldier. He is generally tail
quent salutes, or a greater number of guns at each salute, some
will devote years of time, and lacs of rupees, and will engage in a course of intrigues of the most intricate character.
This is pitiful, but by no means surprising. The truth is, that want of employment is the great bane of the aristocracy of India in the present day. It is not a healthy condition nor a safe and satisfactory one.”
True and weighty words; although we think the shading is, just by a shade, too deep. All Rajputs did not rule ; only princes and chiefs did so. Now, although “the pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war” have happily to a great extent passed away in India, and so one half of the Rájput chief tain's occupation is gone, what hinders him from continuing the other half, and with double dili
gence
He may find a noble sphere in governing
his subjects ; and if he govern them well, he will not be molested by the British authorities. Even
were his powers reduced, which they are never likely to be, to the dimensions of those of an English nobleman, why could not the Rājput chief find, like the nobleman, honourable employment in managing his estates ? It is true all this requires that he be educated and so fitted to bear his part in the renowned victories of peace. Let the Bri tish Government look to that prime requisite. So much for the chiefs.
As for the mass of the
Rājputs, they can beat their swords to plough shares. They make bad traders, and would be
driven out of the market by cunning Vaisyas ; but they take kindly to agriculture. Let them go in for farming ; it is no hardship, and no disgrace. “He who cultivates barley, cultivates purity,” was said— or, at least, is said to have been said—by Zoroaster, the great and wise: and over India, so far as our ex perience goes, with the exception of Lower Bengal, the occupation of tillage is deemed perfectly honourable. A question, however, of an interesting kind
emerges here. If, in these halcyon days of peace the races in India that are by descent and profes sion fighting men, can find few fields in which to
exercise and augment their hereditary valour, will they not gradually sink into a timorous herd quite
and well made, with a good development of muscle, but
unequal to stand, in the shock of arms, before the
He is of somewhat
warlike races of the extra-Indian North 2 If aught
with a smaller proportion of bone.
large build than the Brahman, yet does not display in his countenance the Brahman's high intelligence and command ing dignity, nor has the Brahman's thinness of skin and delicacy of complexion.” Now as to their condition— “Formerly, they could command armies, or divisions and sub-divisions of armies, and were employed as rulers over
should once more precipitate these on the fertile
provinces and districts, or else governed in their own right.
at the corner of a street, say a shoemaker, or the
Such occupations gave scope to their ambition, and an ob
ject on which their intelligence and energy might expend themselves. But all, this has been changed. "Not being emplºyed now in such offices, or in any other of great na: tional or social interest, life is to many of them without a purpose. The majority of the higher classes of course are
satisfied with an existence of luxurious indolence; yet not all. They feel, however, that it is useless to be ambi
tious, for that there is nothing for them to do, and very little for them to gain. A few make themselves conspi
plains of Hindustan, where is our security ? Can we hold India with British bayonets alone, that is, can we supply them in sufficient numbers ?
The other point. In Britain you pick up any lad ninth part of a man, a tailor; and in a few weeks
or months you manufacture that very raw material into an erect, martial looking man, who meets the hurtling shot and shell as steadily as if he had been trained to it all his days. We apprehend you can not do this with an Indian tailor or shoemaker.
The question then is a very serious one—where are
