MANA, a pass in Garhwal district, North-West Provinces, over the crest of the main Himalayan range, dividing British territory from the Chinese empire. Elevation of Mana village above sea level, 10,492 feet ; of the pass, 18,000 feet. In the Mana pass is the temple of Badarinath. The people who occupy the Mana district are Mots, dwelling in the passes and their neighbourhood at heights above 6000 feet. The pass-men state that ridges which within the memory of man were covered with forest and pasture lands, are now covered with snow, showing the extension of the snow zone. The Niti pass on the Duli, a feeder of the Ganges, is the best, and the Juwar the Gauri (Donn; pass, a feeder of the Sarda or Gogra, is the worst. Mana is on the Saraswati, and the Byans pass on the Kali.
The Bhot here, as elsewhere, is an agriculturist, and is assisted by slaves, who live under the roofs of their masters. The people in the Mana, Niti, Juwar, and Byans passes are supposed to be immigrants from Tibet who drove out an earlier body of occupants, and many of the chief families trace their origin to a Tibetan locality. The inhabitants of the Dharma pass are said to be a body of Mongols left in Kamaon by Timur. The Dharma inter their dead for a time, and in the month Kartik exhume and burn them, but the other pass-men burn their dead on their demise. The
Dharma practise divination, taking their omens from the warm livers of sheep sacrificed for the purpose. The women of the Dharma and Byans passes dress alike, and these two clans eat the yak, and would eat the cow, while those of liana, Niti, and Juwar abstain from beef of all kinds, and look down, as on an inferior caste, on the Dharma and Byans. The Juwar nearest India have the largest trade, and resort to an annual fair in September at Gartokh, the residence of the Lhassa viceroy. These passes are the roads from India to Nari or Gnari, Tibetan provinces of the Chinese empire. Immediately below the village of Nana is the Hindu shrine of Badarinath, dedicated to an incarnation of Vishnu, and one of the most sacred Hindu temples. The temple is built on the bank of the Bishen Ganga, imme diately over the site of a hot spring, the existence of which no doubt led to the original selection of this remote spot. The rawal, or chief priest, is invariably a Namburi Brahman from Malabar, no other class of Brahman being allowed to toucli the idol.—Cuaninghant's Ladakh ; Latham's Ethn.