BRACIIMANS, BRAMINS, or BR Aumms, called Beaxgavar, by the Greeks, constitute the first of the Hincloo casts. The Hindoos have, from all antiquity, been divided into four great tribes, or casts, which do not intermarry, cat, drink, or associate with each other, except when they worship at the great temple of Jug gernaut, in Orissa, where they reckon it a crime to make any distinction. The lowest of these casts is that of the Soodra, who, in allusion to their degra ded situation and menial occupations, are said to have been produced from the feet of Brimha, when he created the world. The next cast in the ascending scale is that of the Byse, consisting of merchants, bankers, and shopkeepers. They are called Banians, from their occupation, and being those with whom Europeans are chiefly conversant. This latter appel lation was, by the early writers on Indian affairs, sometimes understood as applying to all who profes sed the Hindoo religion. The Bysc were said to have been produced from the belly of Brimha, in al lusion to the nourishment and provision which com merce diffuses through the state. The next in or der of precedence is the Ketri tribe, or military east. This may also be called the royal cast, for all their kings and rulers should belong to it. It was pro duced from the heart of Brimha, as indicative of the prudence and courage which should distinguish states men and soldiers. The highest of all the casts is that of the Bramins, who were said to have been produc ed from the head of Brimha, to vindicate their supe riority over all the other tribes.
Like the Levites amongst the Jews, the Bramins alone can officiate in the priesthood ; and the judg ments denounced by the Mosaical law, against in truders into the sacred office, are not more terrible than those which the Bramins fulminate against any one, who may seem to invade the privileges of their order. They alone have permission to read the Ve das, or sacred books, containing the mysteries of their philosophy and religion. The Ketri, alone,
have the distinguished honour of hearing (for they dare not read) these supposed oracles of wisdom : and if a Soodra were convicted of so much as hear ing a passage from the Vedas or the Shasters, lie would have boiling lead poured into his ears as a pu nishment fiir his presumption. It is curious thus to mark the congenial policy of priestcraft in every age, and to observe the analogy between oriental and western superstition. No object in nature is so sa cred, in the estimation of a pious Hindoo, as the per son of a Bramin: it is regarded as the greatest im piety to fail in the prescribed rules of respect and reverence ; and to cause his death is an inexpiable crime. This inviolability of the Bramins has given rise to gross abuses, and has latterly called for the interference oldie British legislature. When a Bra min supposes himself aggrieved, he has been known to take his mother, or his child, and, going into the presence of the pel son who has injured him, to stab them to the heart, unless he received immediate re paration. The person who has driven him to this extremity is henceforth considered as profane, and viewed by the superstitious multitude with horror and detestation. Sometimes the Bramin chooses to sit in Dhurna, as it is called ; that is, he takes his station before the house of his enemy, and threatens to take away his own life if he offers to come out of his house before he has given him the satisfaction which he demands : and as the Bramin never takes such a step without a determination to persist in his resolu tion, and carry his threats into effect, the unfortu nate prisoner is either obliged to submit to perhaps a lawless exaction, or to incur the insupportable odi um of having occasioned a Bramin's death. The British government has had the courage to check this absurd practice ; and wherever a Bramin is dis covered sitting in Dburna, he is seized,notwithstand ing the inviolability of his person, and thrown into prison.