Indian Antiquary Vol 52

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 188

172
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
(JULY, 1923
strong Brahmanical influence of the South has succeeded in including the Nâyars themselves among the Sūdras, putting on that term a complexion very different from its original sense.
After" describing the Nayars, Barbosa goes through the whole gradation of castes with wonderful accuracy, drawing many valuable notes from his annotators, including a fine comparative table of caste nomenclature on p. 71.
Going further along in his accounts, we find Barbosa twice alluding to a variant of the old European custom which is the subject of Sir James Fraser's Golden Bough : once at "Quilicare " (Kilakkarai in the Madura District) and once at Pasay in Sumatra (pp. 121, 185). Hamilton (1727) transferred it to the Zamorins. It is worth while noting these two variants of a widely spread legend of the compulsory murder of the priest-king by his often unwilling successor..
Before parting with the engrossing subject of the Zamorins and their people, I would note that Barbosa's annotators have an appendix dealing with native accounts of them, con. taining information not to be found elsewhere. In the course of it there is mention (p. 254) of a world-wide folk-custom, giving it a rational explanation : "As they go they turn and throw rice and other things over their shoulder. This ceremony is intended to avert the evil eye, and with this the investiture of the Sthanis (the Five Rajas) is complete.”
After dealing at great length with the South-Western Hindus, Barbosa turns his atten. tion to the Moors, as he calls them in the fashion of his day, i.e., the Muhammadans of the Malabar Coast, both those that had become naturalised and those still strangers in the land, This leads him to speak with his accustomed acuteness of those jovial ruffians, the Moplahs (Mapillas), and in regard to them he is often informing and makes but few mistakes.
As regards Barbosa's observations on Further India, that on pp. 150-152 (one fancies by hearsay), of custom in Arakan of selecting brides by the smell of their perspiration in clothing, which reads as if it were apocryphal, may have an explanation in the custom of smelling for kissing prevalent in Burma and elsewhere in the Far East.
In annotating Barbosa's remarks on Pegu, Dames writes accurately regarding the White Elephant. Except in pictorial representations it was anything but white, and that captured during the Third Butmese War, at Mandalay, from the Burmese Court in 1885, of which the present writer had charge for a while officially, was, properly speaking, not even piebald. It had, however, on it certain marks in the arrangement of the hair, etc., which constituted it a holy object and a "white elephant" according to a set of carefully recorded and observed rules : just as has the child chosen to become the Dalai Lama in Tibet. Barbosa's statements also as to there being "many very proper nags, great walkers" in Pegu is accurate, if for "walkers" we translate " amblers." The Pegu pony (really from the Shan uplands) is still a remarkable ambler. I had one (13) hands) for some time in Mandalay, a good weightcarrier, on which I have successfully kept pace for a long distance with a horse at a smart canter. These ponies can keep up a quick amble almost indefinitely and are comfortable to ride at that pace.
Barbosa has a remark on Ambam or Amboyna in the Malay Archipelago, which is of unusual interest (p. 199), when he says that every man collects as many "Cambaya cloths" as he can to provide a ransom in case he is captured and enslaved. In parts of the Nicobars it is also the custom to collect white and red cotton cloths by the piece, but for a very different purpose, viz., for wrapping round the owner's corpse as part of the funeral ceremonies. One wonders if Barbosa understood rightly.