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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JUNE, 1874.
A very aromatic unguent was said to have been much used by the ancient Yakshas, called Yaksha Kardama, or Cerate of the Yakshas, composed of camphor, agallocham, musk and kakkola (Myrica rapida ?). All these ingredients excepting agallocham are productions of the sub-Himalayan range.
*4. Bhillas, Bhills, or Bheels. " The following is a description of a Bhilli or Bheel woman from the Hyagriva-vadha Kduya :
" The Bhilla damsel, clad in leaves girt with a creeper, was reclining on the brow of a hill, whilst her husband was engaged in decorating her locks with hill-jessamines, called by herself.'
"This description puts one in mind of the Patus or Juanga women, so graphically described and illustrated by Col. Dalton. Very likely the Bhill women had not given up the verdant foliage for their dress when the Hyagriva-vadha was composed; but a hypothesis may be started as to the origin of the Bhillas of Rajputâna and the Juângâs of Koonjhar. It is a puzzle to ethnolo gists whether the Bhills and the Kols do not belong to the same aboriginal stock. Mr. Forbes Ashburner, the Rev. Mr. Dunlop Moore, Sir John Malcolm, Captain Probyn, and other authorities are of opinion that the Kols or Kolis and the Bhills are not distinct races, and we know that the Juângas or Janguks are a subdivision of the Kolarian race: the conjecture therefore follows that the Kolarian race, with all its branches, was known to the Puranic writers under the generic name of Bhillas, for we have hitherto failed to find in the Puråras and the poetic literature of the middle ages any description or details of the Kols distinct from those of the Bhills. The Bramha Vaivarta Purdna ascribes the origin of the Kols to a Tivara mother. Parisara and others say that the Bhillas were born of a Tivara father and a Brahmani mother.
"The elder Hindu writers classed the Bhills among the Antyajas or lowest castes of the Hindus.
It has been already noticed that the great Parasara, the father of the still greater Vyasa, ascribes their origin to a Brahmani mother and Tivara father; the Tivara is the modern Tiar of Northern India and Bengal, and the Tivaras, according to the same authority, were the offspring of a Charnaka woman by a Pandraka, both very low castes, --the Churnakars are the Chunaris or makers of chunam; and these facts show that the Bhillas were considered from a very early period to bo 1 cross between an Aryan and an aboriginal tribe. Later writers, particularly lexicographers, it is true, classed them among the Mlechchhas, but neither Manu nor the other lawgivers have done 80. Parásara appears to be a great tolerator of all the hated tribes, and this may be accounted for by the fact that he himself begot Vyasa by a Kaivarta woman called Matsyagandha, or she of fishy smell. Her son, Vyása, of course gives her a Kshatriya origin by a most unnatural myth, though he admits her to be the nursling of Dosa, the Kaivarta chief. Now these Kaivartas have been classed along with the Bhills in one of the law books of the Hindus. So we have not only the Kaivartas, but the Rajakas (washermen) and the Charmakârs (leather-dressers) in this category. The Charmakars are scarcely considered as Hindus. Sir George Campbell, speaking of them in his Ethnology of India, says: "They used to be sworn in a court by a peculiar guru of their own, not by the ordinary name of God.' But though the Châmars are hated as outcastes and helots to this day, their congeners, the Kaivartas and Rajakas, are not-at least in Bengal. The late millionaire lady Rasmani Dasi of J&nbazar was a Kaivarta; and the first man of Calcutta who interpreted the English merchants to the weavers of Sutaloti was & Rajaka, or washerman ; his name was Káli or Kalan Sarkar, and one of the streets in the native part of the town still bears his name: he is said to have been the foremost native of influence in Calcutta during his time.
CORRESPONDENCE. ŚRÅVAKA TEMPLE AT BAUTHLI. would have become an object of pilgrimage; but DEAR SIR, -The following facts may prove inter- unfortunately about two months since, I conclude esting to some of your readers.
from contact with the fresh air, it all fell in. During the past few years the Junagadh Darbar | I saw the temple myself last November : it has been engaged in pulling down the old fort at was then in an excellent state of preservation : Bauthli, a flourishing town about five miles south the carvings were similar to those in the Jaina of Junagadh, and building a new one on a larger temples on the Girnår: its diameter was about enceinte.
16 feet. The fort is said to be now a thousand years About a year ago in removing one of the large old : the temple, therefore, must have been of great towers, a Sravaka temple was discovered inside. antiquity. It had been built over, and no one had the
CHARLES WODEHOUSE, Capt., slightest idea of its existence. Every care was
Acting Judicial Assistant, Kathiavad, ordered to be taken of it, and in all probability it! Jaitprir, 12th April 1874.
