D£ ENUMERATION OF 



clafTes are alfo permitted to fubfifr. by any of the duties 

 of a Sudra ; that is, by menial fervice, by handicrafts, 

 by commerce, or by agriculture. 



Hence it appears that almofl every occupation, 

 though regularly it be the profeflion of a particular 

 clafs, is open to moft other clafTes ; and that the li- 

 mitations, far from being rigorous, do, in facl, re- 

 fer ve only one peculiar profeflion, that of the Brah- 

 mana, which confifls in teaching the Veda y and offi- 

 ciating at religious ceremonies. 



The clafTes are fufficiently numerous ; but the fub- 

 divifions of clafTes have further multiplied distinctions 

 to an endlefs variety. The fubordinate diftinctions 

 may be befl exemplified from the Brdhmana and Cd- 

 yaft'hay becaufe fome of the appellations, by which the 

 different races are diftinguifhed, will be familiar to 

 many readers. 



The Brdhmana* of Bengal are defcended from five 

 priefts, invited from Cdnyacubja> by. A'disura, King 

 of Gaura, who is faid to have reigned about three 

 hundred years before Chriif. Thefc were Bhai'ta 

 Nerdyaa, of the family of Sahdila, a fon of Casyapa; 

 Dac]ha> alfo a defcendant of Casyapa; V'edagarva> of 

 the family of Vatja Chandra* of the family of Savema, 

 a fon of Casyapa j and Sri Herjhu, a defcendant of 

 Bhavadwdja. 



From thefe anceftors have branched no- fewer than a 

 hundred and fifty-fix families, of which the precedence 

 was fixed by Balla'la Se'na, who reigned in the twelfth 

 century of the Chriftian sera. One hundred of thefe 

 families fettled in Varendra> and fifty-fix in Kara, 

 They are now difperfed throughout Bengal, but retain 

 the family diftindlions fixed by Balla'la Se'na. They 

 are denominated from the families to which their five 

 progenitors belonged, and are frill confidered as Cdnya- 

 cubja Brdhmanas* At 



