________________
288
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[SEPT. 6, 1872.
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 distinction between the Mahratta and all other Brahmans. consisting in a far greater punty of Brahmanical blood. I. suspect that these tribal distinctions among the Brahmans are in the main of a provincial character, and to be accounted for on geographical grounds rather than ethnological."
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 Brahmans in, and near, the Panjáb may have descended the Indos, or, for that matter, the Sarasvatí, 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 Br&hmans. 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 avizandum.
We cannot follow Mr. Sherring into the endless ramifications of Brahmanism, which he sets down with wonderful minuteness. For example, he enumerates all the eighty-four divisions of Gujarati Brahmans; and fourteen of Marath& Brahmans, with gotras in numbers without number
In Part II he speaks of the Rajputs in Benares. Including the district and province of that name, he finds ninety-nine Rajput tribes; and of all these in succession he gives a longer or shorter account. All this we are compelled to pass over. As, however, Mr. Sherring is no dry-48-dust collector of curiosities, 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 cate changes that have come already or are fast coming. First; however, let us hear what he thinks of the Rajputs' physique and morale,
* In ancient times the two functions of this race were ruling and fighting. Only one of these, the latter, still remains. 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 M . legitimate and natural one for the members of this caste. The physique of the Rajpoota, in the opinion of military men, peculiarly adapts him for the life of soldier. He is generally tall and well made, with good development of muscle, but with smaller proportion of bone. He is of somewhat large build than the Brahman, yet does not display in his countenance the Brahman's high intelligence and commanding 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 provinces and districts, or else governed in their own right. Sach occupations gate 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 netional or social interest, life is to many of them without Dorpose. The majority of the higher classes of course are Antisfied with an existence of luxurious indolence; yet not all. They feel, however, that it is useless to be ambitious, for that there is nothing for them to do, and very little for them to gain. A to make themselves conspí-
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 is mostly directed to very inferior objecta. To secure & higher place in the Governor-General's Durbar, or more frequent salutes, or a greater number of guns at each salute, some will devote years of time, and lace 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 Rájputs did not rule ; only princes and chiefs did 80. 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 Rajput chieftain's occupation is gone, what hinders hiin from continuing the other half, and with double diligence ? 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 Rajput chief find, like the nobleman, honourable employment in managing his estates ? I. is true all this requires that he be educated and so fitted to bear his part in the renowned victories of peace. Let the British Government look to that prime requisite.
So much for the chiefs. As for the mass of the Rajputa, they can beat their swords to ploughshares. They make bad traders, and would be driven out of the market by cunning Vais' yas ; 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 experience 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 profession 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 unequal to stand, in the shock of arms, before the warlike races of the extra Indian North? If aught should once more precipitate these on the fertile 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 at the corner of a street, say a shoemaker, or the 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 cannot do this with an Indian tailor or shoemaker. The question then is a very serious one-where are
