1 16 Wilber Theodore Elmore 



In another place where the shepherds have a goddess called 

 Yerra Gadipati Ganga, they asked the Brahmans to assist them in 

 the worship. This they consented to do, and raised money from 

 the other castes for the purpose. They took for their fee one- 

 fifth of what they collected. As time went on the offerings grew 

 and the shepherds became dissatisfied with the arrangement. 

 They tried to get the Brahmans to withdraw, but a great quarrel 

 arose in which the Brahmans claimed that the real Ganga was in 

 their homes in the form of a girl ten years old. Soon the shep- 

 herds suffered much from thefts, and the Brahmans told them 

 that Ganga was protecting the thieves, and not protecting them.^^ 

 Seeing that their case was hopeless, the shepherds submitted and 

 a Brahman was made pujari. 



Such are some of the ways in which Brahmanism has been 

 affected. Yet it is remarkable that with all these centuries of 

 association so little mutual influence has resulted. While in- 

 stances of the making of new local deities, and the stories con- 

 nected with them, are almost unlimited, these instances of any 

 marked connection between the two religions are rather excep- 

 tional. The Brahmans have succeeded in making nominal Hindus 

 of a whole race many times their own in number. They have 

 allowed these people to retain their own religion, and have given 

 the sanctions of Hinduism to their gods and ceremonies ; and 

 yet to a great extent they have preserved their own ritual and 

 ceremonies. ^^ 



12 The meaning of this explanation was that the Brahmans were sending 

 thieves to harass the shepherds, and that by their superior abiHty and 

 influence in the village, they were protecting the thieves from punishment. 

 I am told by those who know the customs of the people well that this is 

 not at all uncommon. 



13 The influence of Hinduism on Mohammedanism is an interesting sub- 

 ject for study in this connection. That there has been such influence is 

 very evident. Moreover it is the Dravidian form of worship which has 

 appealed to the Mohammedans rather than the Brahmanic form. One 

 reason for this is that many of the Mohammedans of South India are con- 

 verts from Dravidian beliefs. Another reason is the exclusiveness of 

 Brahmanism, which would debar all Mohammedans as outcastes from its 

 ceremonies. The Census of India, 191 1, Vol. XII, pt. i, para. 40, says, 

 " Whether from design or from the insensible influence of environment, 



116 



