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 PAR 117 his interests, and is in general a good cultivator and solvent tenant. While however the latter will never drive or carry the plough, he may be fro- quently seen mounted on and driving the "hinga or harrow, and using other agricultural implements, Gradual change in their mode of life. The shástars forbid all active employment and labour of every description. The Brahman is expected to pass his life in contemplation, and to support himself by the gleanings of the field and grain market, and by alms-begging. In the second period of his existence, as Elphinstone writes," when the regular sources fail, a Brah- man may, for a mere subsistence, glean or beg, or cultivate, or even (in case of extreme necessity) he may trade." Cases of “extreme necessity must, however, have become very frequent of late, judging from the number of Brahman money-lenders and traders one meets with. A highly respect- able and intelligent pandit recently informed me, that since 1857 far more laxity in the observance of tenets has prevailed amongst Brahmans than formerly; and be dared not say how it would end. In Oudh, he observed, prior to British rule the Brahman youth of the country devoted them- to the reading and study of the sacred writings, and nearly every qualified student might reasonably look forward to a post of greater or less honour and emolument, as spiritual adviser, or private chaplain, in a taluqdar's or other wealthy family. Latterly, however, the demand for the article having declined, the supply has almost stopped, and it is now the exception (my informant told me) to find any respectable young Brahman conversant with the Vedas.* It must have become palpable to all but the most careless observer, how great has been the progress of late in the quiet and gradual though sure undermining of the vast edifice of caste prejudice and superstition owing to the nearer advance of civi- lizing influences and extended education. Spurious Brahmans. In the Mánikpur and Bihár parganas there are a great many families of the spurious Brahmans, whose ancestors belonged to the lower castes of Hindus, and who were to the extent of 125,000, it is said, invested with the sacred thread by order of Rája Mánik Chand, of Mánikpur celebrity. 28,370 acres of the soil of this district are in the proprietorship of Brahmans, for which they pay a yearly revenue of Rs. 30,631 to the State. There is no Brahman Taluqdar in the Partab- garh district, but this class hold fifty-one villages and hamlets in sub- settlement. Chhattris.-The number of Chhattris in the district, according to the last census, is almost exactly half that of the Brahmans. The four princi- pal classes of landed proprietors are Bachgotis, Sombansis, Bisens, and Kanhpurias, and the possessions of these are very approximately co- extensive with the boundaries of the four tabasil subdivisions. It is much to be regretted, with reference to the Chhattri population also, that so large a proportion as 307 per cent. of the whole should have been returned in the census papers without a detail of the clans they records that on questioning one of the Gaur Braho ans in charge of the Jain temples at Ajodbya about his lax religious view, the latter told him he would not take charge of a church even if he were paid for it,
 * Mr. P. Carpegy, in his admirablc "Notes on the Races, Tribes, and Casies of Oudh,"