Dress and Clothing.—The dress of Hindu men is of white muslin or cotton cloth, and their upper coat is now generally sewed. The under garment for the lower part of the body, the dowati or dhoti, is a loose, unsewed wrapper. Women of all classes wear unsewed wrappers of green, red, or yellow coloured cotton, edged with silk or gold embroidery, and a bodice of cotton or silk.
Scalp - lock. — All Hindu men retain only the tuft of hair on the crown of their heads, which is familiar to Europeans from the pic tures and descriptions of the Indians of North America as the scalp - tuft, the most glorious trophy, if not the sole reward, of their victor. The Hindu practice of wearing this scalping tuft (Shik'ha, SANSK. ; d'Zutu, TEL. ; Kudimai, TAM.) was doubtless brought with them from Central High Asia ; for, like the Indians of N. America, the Scythian cleaned the scalps they took, and hung them to their horses' bridles. The Decalvare of the ancient Germans was nothing other than the scalping mentioned in the laws of the Visigoths, capillos et cuter detrahere. According to the annals of Flude, the Franks still scalped about the year 879, and also the Anglo-Saxons ; and head-hunting is only now being suppressed among the Khassya and Garo races of the N.E. frontier, and amongst the Dyaks of Borneo.
Titles. — One amongst the honorific social distinctions of the Hindus is that of Acharya, a religious teacher, properly a Brahman who instructs religious students of the Vedas, of the Brahman, Kshatriya, and Vaisya castes, but is in use as relating to any religious instructor. In the south of India the term is applied to the head of a religious society, equivalent to the Mahant of Hindustan, and the Panda or head priest of a temple. But it is assumed also by Brahmans en gaged in secular pursuits, by carpenters and other artisans, and amongst the Mahrattas by cooks.
Caste.—A great object with Hindus in general is to preserve their social position in caste. The divisions and subdivisions of their different castes are very numerous,—the Sudra are said to have nearly fifty ; but with all Hindus purity of caste is held of the highest consequence, and its loss may occur from various causes.
The division into castes or sects of the Aryan races whom we style Hindus, was known to the Greeks, and seems to have been early known to the Arabs. The Grecian authors, on the authority
of Megasthenes, divided the tribes into seven, and Ibn Khurdadba (obiit A.D. 912), an officer of the khalifs, also arranges them into seven classes, but the occupations differ which these authors attributed to them :— Ibn Khurdadba's first name is unknown. By the others he seems to indicate the Brahman, Kshatriya, Sudra, Vaisya, the Chandala, and jugglers.
Dr. Caldwell tells us that in all ordinary cases where illegitimate children are born, if there be no great disparity in rank or caste betwe( the parents, the child takes that of the two paren which is the lower. Where considerable dispari exists, and particularly when the woman is of tl higher rank,—as, for instance, when a high case woman, or even a woman belonging to tl middling castes, has formed an intimacy with Pariah man,—the mother either procures abortic or commits suicide. The child never sees the ligh Caste has its chief relations with race descen There are historical instances of sovereigns crea ing Brahmans in great numbers from among other races ; the Mahratta Brahmans are sa to have been so made from amongst fishermer and a great body of Rajputs were consecrated the Kshatriya caste.
To escape possible defilement, the servile racy —Pariah, Mbar, Mhang, Chamar—are compell( to dwell outside the village walls, and in tl larger towns Christians have their own quarters and the higher Aryan castes require the predi races not even to approach their dwellings, but stand at a distance and call aloud what they wish I communicate. A Hindu may lose or be expellc from his caste for many social acts, but no mer torious deed can raise a Hindu from one caste another, nor does immorality or crime degrac him from his caste. Many castes eat and drin together, but intermarriages of persons of differei castes are almost prohibited in the higher caste and are rare even in the very lowest. It is hedge over which many persons desire to lea] Chaitanya and other reformers have founded sec which have abandoned caste distinctions ; and tl lower tribes, as the Chamar or shoemaker, ti Dhobi or washerman, have largely joined ant Brahmanical sects, as the Kabir panthi, Satnam etc. The aboriginal races, of Turanian descen as a rule, by origin and nature are averse to cast distinctions and Brahmanism.