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MAY, 1896.)
OORRESPONDENCE.
143
the deceased Thaukkya will come in time to be regarded as a godling or nat.
III. A superstition of the Burmane, which may not be generally known, is that it is very unlucky
for a warm of bees to alight on a house; in fact, this will occasionally entail the desertion of the latter altogether. Evil spirits and influences may be, however, kept out of a house by stretching round it a thread charmed by the priests.
BERNARD HOUGHTON.
CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the Indian Antiquary. (Rudraydmala Tantra) called the Jatimáld, treatDEAR SIR, - Muir, in his Original Sanskrit
ing of castes, has been printed at Calcutta." Texts, Vol. I., has collected, translated and illus- I have long been on the look out for this Jati. trated" the principal passages in the different muld as well as the Rudraydmala Tantra, but have Indian books of the greatest antiquity as well as not been fortunate enough to get hold of either. in others of comparatively modern composition,
I shall feel much obliged'if you, or any of your which describe the creation of mankind, and the
learned readers, will be good enough to let me origin of classes or which tend to throw light upon
know where and how can get hold of a copy of the manner in which the caste system may have
either the Tantra itself, or the chapter called arisen." He has thus afforded ample information
Jatimdid, which, Monier Williams says, has been on the bibliography of the subject; but his atten.
printed at Calcutta, where I have left no stone tion, it appears, was confined to the consideration
unturned to come by it, but in vain. of only the four principal castes - the Brah. mans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Sadras. Not
The only Jatimáld, available here in print, a single sentence is to be found about the other
contains two excerpts from the sacred books: one
is from the Brahmavaivarta Purana and the other castes-the mixed classes which are more numerous than the original ones and have overgrown
is said to be taken from the Parasurama Samhita. them.
But I have not seen any Samhita of that name.
The Sanskrit Texts are given with a Bengali Thus, after reading the Orignal Sanskrit Tents,
translation in verse. The Publishers do not say my desire for knowledge about caste was not
from what book they have taken the first extract, satisfied, but the information I gathered from this
and it is only after my researches in the several book has served rather to excite than allay my
Puranas, etc., that I have been able to trace it to curiosity. I, therefore, set about collecting from
the Brahmavaivarta Purdņa. the various Puranas, Upapuranas, Smritis, Tantras, etc., extracts regarding the mixed
Here I must again ask your learned readers to castes, in the same way as Muir has done about favour me with any information they may know the original ones.
regarding this Parasurama Samhita. Of the Tantras, I am sorry, I could not lay my
Touching the Rudrayamala Tantra, which is, hands on a copy of the Rudrayamala Tantra,
as Monier Williams says, “one of the most regarding which Colebrooke, in his paper headed
deservedly esteemed and most encyclopaedic in its " Enumeration of Indian Classes" in Vol. V. of
teaching," and is said to consist of 100,000 verses, the Asiatic Researches, says :
all that I know is that it has not as yet been “One of the authorities I shall use is the
printed, and that a complete MS. copy is nowhere
to be found, so far as I have been able to hunt for JAtimale or Garland of Clas808, an extract from
it. I myself have got a MS. copy of the Uttara the Rudraydmala Tantra, which, in some
Tantra, or last portion of the above, containing instances, corresponds better with the usage
sixty-four patalas or chapters. In his Notices and received opinions than the ordinances of
of Sanskrit MSS., Dr. R. L. Mitra has noticed Manu and the great Dharma (Vrihaldharma)
one, but it contains only a few patalas: nor is Purána."
the copy in the Library of the Asiatic Society Monier Williams, in a note in page 131 of his here a complete one. Hinduism, & volume in the Non-Christian
NILCAMAL BASAK. Religious Systems series, says:-"A section of it! 8/1, Dewan's Lane, Calcutta.
• This oocurrengo is, however, in some parts held to portond good fortune.
