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August, 1875.]
BOOK NOTICES.
253
readings, or are interesting for their great anti- He divided the Malayalis into 68 or 72 (P) sects. quity. In a minute recorded by the Honourable assembled the sixty-four village Brahmans, al. Mr. Gibbs on the 4th June last, it is proposed that lotted their particular duty to each class as well the work be divided into tro portions--(1) the as to other castes, laid down rules for the daily copying the inscription3; (2) their decipherment observance of each and every class of his division, and publication. As regards the first portion it is and fixed penalties on those who infringe the considered that the best plan is to have copies (Fr. caste privileges. estampages) taken by means of the stout unsized This great man was noted even during his day, paper used by those savants who have been en- There is a large and celebrated pagoda at Tiruvetgaged on similar duty, in Egypt. It is recom- thur, four miles to the north of Madras, built by mended that the second part of the duty should his followers, where worship is still offered to the be entrusted to Mr. Fleet."
gods by Malabar or Namburi Brahmans. W. F. SINCLAIR. Buchanan rotices the three appearances of San
karacharya in his Journey through Mysore and KERALACHARAN, or the Practice of Malabar.--Calicut,
Malabar, vol. III. 91 (edition of 1807). Collectorate Press (19 pp. 4to), 1866.
Being the offspring of a god, he is considered This small pamphlet contains the sixty-four an incarnation of the deity himself, and several Anacharams, also called the sixty-four Achârams; wonders are attributed to him. The following is for although they are Anachârams in the larger
ch they are Ancharams in the larger an abstract translation of each of the precepts, portion of the Presidency, they are considered embodied in twenty-six blokas :Achârims in the land of Kerale or Malabar-origin. 1. Do not clean your teeth with a stick. ally the country now comprised under the names 2. Do not bathe (in a tank) with the clothes of Kanari, Malabar, Cochin, and Travankor-the you wear. narrow strip between the Western Ghats and the 3. Do not wipe your body with the cloth you Arabian Sea, stretching from Gokarra in North have worn. Kanarå to Cape Kumari. They are precepts given 4. Do not bathe before sunrise. by Sri Sankaracharya of Sringeri-one of the most 5. Do not cook rice, &c. before bathing. celebrnted teachers of the Vedanta philosophy- 6. Do not use the previous day's water-literafter consulting the Dharmaédetra. They are em- ally, the water drawn and kept (in a vessel) the bodied in twenty-six Sanskrit blokas. . These every previous day. Malayali considers himself strictly bound to attend 7. Do not think of the attainment of any partito and revere.
cular object when bathing. In the pamphlet-printed, as the title-page and 1 8. Do not use the remainder of the water in preface tell us, for the edification of the public-are the vessel kept for one purpose for another. also given Malayalam equivalents for the Sansksit 9. Bathe if you touch certain low castes-50words in the slokas, with a rendering in Malayalam dras,-lit. He who desires holiness, or not to be in parallel columns. Before, however, giving an polluted, should bathe whenever he touches lowabstract translation of the Achdrams, something caste men, &c. regarding the author may be interesting.
10. Bathe if you approach certain lower castesSankaracharya was the son of Mahadeva or Siva ChandAns (pariahs). by a Brahmap widow. From his very boyhood he 11. Batbe if you touch wells and tanks touched was well instructed, so that in time he became the by the Chandaļas. most learned man of his day, to whom all looked 12. Do not tread with your foot on the ground up for instruction and advice. As he was born of cleaned with a broom before water is sprinkled a Brahman widow, the Bråhmans of the village on it. refused to join in the ceremonies attending his 13. This is the mode of putting holy ashes mother's death. On this occasion he therefore on the forehead :-A Bråbman should make a dug the pit (homakunda), cut the body of his i figure in the form of a long góp, as Via mother into pieces and burnt them. The cere. Kshatriya semi-circle, as U Vaisya & monies that ought to be performed by a junior circular figure, as ; and a Sadra three parallel member of the family were done by Sodras, so that
lines, as E. from this period began the custom of "no ceremony for Brabmans without the assistance of a
14. Repeat to yourself the mantrams when perSadra," and vice versd.
forming any ceremony of which a mantra is an ac. By order of the sage Govinda Sanyasi, Sanka- companiment. racharya wrote a history of Kerala in 24,000 15. Do not eat stale rice, i.e. do not eat in the granthams.
| morning what has been prepared the previous day.
