The inhabitants of the Carnatic, particularly upon the sea coast, consist of an immense variety of different tribes of men. This has arisen, no doubt, from the mar ketable nature of the commodities which it has produced in every age, and the consequent opportunity that was afforded to adventurers to acquire wealth, one of the leading pursuits of the generality of mankind. The po pulation of the whole district has never been accurately ascertained. The city of Madras itself is extremely populous, and the strange medley of which it consists, is well calculated to convey a just idea, though upon a large scale, of the variety of inhabitants in the rest. None are permitted to reside in Fort St George but the English, and it is called the White town; but the outer district is inhabited by Europeans, Armenians, Benga lese, Chinese, Peguans, Arabians, Jews, and black and white Indians, of all classes and religious sects, &c.; it is called the Black town.
It would be improper to enter here into a long detail respecting the different races of men, their dress, cus toms, manners, peculiar institutions, or religion, as a full exposition of those different particulars will be given under the article INntA. It may be necessary to ob serve, however, that throughout the whole of India, a very great similarity exists in all these respects. They have very generally been arranged under Hindoos. Ma homedans, and Christians ; their religion conveying a pretty accurate idea of the tribes which compose those different orders. The complexions of the people on the coast of Coromandel are considerably darker than those to the nu. thward ; and the native Hindoos are generally darker than the Mussulman, who originally came from Tartary and Persia. They all wear white cotton dresses, and made almost in the same manner. To distinguish the Hindoos, therefore, you must look very closely at their forehead or breast, because they have certain marks which they consider as sacred, and by which it may be discovered to what sect they belong, and what Deity they worship.
It is well known, that the Hindoos are divided into casts. Four of these are esteemed pure that of the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas, and the Sudra. Every other member of the community, who is not con nected with one or other of these, is reckoned impure. The divisions of the first class, however, in the Carna tic, are different from what they are in Bengal. They are divided into three sects, and though they admit the divine authority of the same purans or religious books, they interpret them di fferently, and have each their fol lowers. They consider the second class as having been quite extinct for many centuries. Another very singu lar difference also exists in this country, no Brahman officiates in any of the temples of the inferior gods, whose altars are stained with blood.
The food of the natives of India is well known to be very similar throughout the whole continent. A vege table diet and milk constitute the whole of it. In so ex tensive a tract of country, it must naturally be expected that a difference of taste will exist. The tari, or for
ntented juice, and the jagnry, 11r inspissated juice of the palmi•a tree, (llorassus Flabal,formis,) are more esteem ed in the Carnatit (hum those of the wild date, to which the Ilengakse give the decided preference. They pre tend to be very moderate in the use of the tari, but con sume great quantities of the jagory. It sells in the coun try his about nine !shillings and live pence per hundred weight. The people who make jagory from palm trees, follow no other profession. The cast is called Shawn., but the individual in the Tamul language is •hanan. Ile ascends the pahnira tree morning and evening, in order to collect the exuded juice, and through the day he and his family boil it down into jagory. The tree produces at all seasons, and one man can take care of 200 trees, from Ntiticil he can extract about 482 pounds ofjagory.
A great variety of languages arc spoken in the Car natic. The Tamil!, the•IIindostannee, the Persic, and the Arabic, Scc. .Many of the names of remarkable places and (e. g. the word Ghaut,) arc of Arabic extraction, or at least are to be found in that language. Whether these words were borrowed in the same manlier, as we in modern times borrow the names of arts, sciences, &c. from the. Greek, or from what other cause it proceeded, it would be presumptuous to affirm positively. Similarity of sound, even when ac companied with identity of meanin, is an exceedingly uncertain foundation upon which to assert a priority of claim upon the one side or the other. The early litera ture of the natives of India, as well as their knowledge of the more abstruse sciences, have been frequently the subject of panegyric. The inhabitants of the Carnatic have laid claim to a considerable share of the fame which they conceive their ancestry to have acquired in the cul tivation of learning, and in the opinion of competent judges have made good their title. It NVOUld be idle to launch into the regions of uncertainty, upon a subject which the hand of time has now consigned to impenetra ble darkness. One thing, however, seems to be placed beyond the shadow of doubt, that, at a period how re mote soever, the sovereigns of the Carnatic must have been possessed of great wealth and power, and the coun try in general must have made extraordinary advances in population, industry, and in the arts, before they could have left so magnificent monuments of their architectu ral profusion and skill. The number, variety, extent, and elegance of their pagodas and other public buildings, cannot be exceeded, and scarcely equalled in nations that have attained to a very high degree of civilization. The duration of those remains of ancient grandeur has been accounted for, or at least attempted to be accounted lor, from the nature of the cement employed in building in India, (it is composed of a mixture of oil and viscous substances,) and from the nature of the climate.