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MAY, 1909.)
CASTE AND SECTARIAL MARKS IN THE PANJAB.
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There was a difference also, according to caste, in the forms of the words used by the Brahmabâryas in asking alms :Brahmaņas.
Kshatriya.
Vaisya. Bharti bhikhyan.
bhikhyan bharti. bhithyan dehi. Dehi.
dehe.
bhavts. In connection with the above distributions of clothing and accoutrements, each of the four chief castes wore, on the forehead between the eye-brows, a distinctive caste mark of coloured sandal-wood paste (vide Plate figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4). The colour, as well as the form, of the caste-mark was distinctive for each caste, as under Brahmana.
Vaisya.
Súdra. White. red.
pale yellow, black. According to a kloka in the Padma Purdņa, the colours abovementioned correspond with the complexion of each caste, which was assumed to convey ita general mental qualities :Brahmaņa. Kshatriya.
Vaibya.
Súdrs. Venerable.
merciless. . merciful.
Vain, The sloka above referred to runs as follows :
ब्राह्मणानां सितो वर्णः भत्रिवाणाच लोहितः e dirett: IMETEYTI.
07 84 IREIRO. The Meru Tantra, however, prescribes quite a different set of marks (vide Plate figs. 5, 6 and 6a, 7 and 8): Brahmaņa. Kshatriya. Vaisya.
Sudra. Vardha pundra. tripunda.10 ardhachandraka. chaukd. Other authorities again permit Brâhmaņas to wear the tripundra in its straight form, though Shaktakas might wear both, while the bardhapındra is prescribed for Kshatriyas.
The materials for the vardhapundra wear also varied to saffron, clay, turmeric and earth from sacred places. In modern practice the colour is rarely pure white.
Historically the discrepancies to be observed in the authorities more than probably represent local feeling at various epochs and show that at no time was there any hard and fast general rule. Nowadays, in practice, the distinctions noted in the books do not exist, and customs that are not to be found in them are observed. E. g., the sacred thread is usually of cotton, and caste distinction is sbown by the knots used; the castes assumed to represent the old Brahmana and Kshatriya divisions employing the brahm-ganth, and those representing the old Vaibyas, the vishn-ganth.
II.-Sectarial Marks.
1. Vaishnava. Sectorial marks as now used are probably of comparatively modern form. That of the Vaishnavas is the urdhpund, representing the bishnpad, or footprint of Vishņu: (Plate fig. 9).
It is also described 38 consisting of two upright lines with a point between them (see Plate fig. 5), and as a simple vertical line. This last statement is, however, expressly contradicted by another account, which says that Vaishộavas are forbidden to use the single vertical line, and proceeds to prescribe marks for each of the great Vaishnava sects and their offshoots as understood in the Panjab.
This account leads us into an extremely instructive presentation of sect development among Vaishnavas in the Northern parts of India. These sects are given as follows, employing the terms for them used by the modern Panjabfa.
• See Paraskara, Grinyantra, ed. Kakiji Med. Hall, under the authority of the Maharaja of Hathwa, St. 1952 Ihanda II, pp. 800 fl. dtraa 16 to 28. Mann, Dhagd 2. fl. 41, 45, 46, eto.
Brahmaņus also used bhabhder, ashes, for this purpose. 1. In two forms: three straight lines or three lines ourved upwards,
