502 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. {N.S., XIX, 
Earle.'! In the table attached to this appendix, | have ar- 
ranged the different accounts side by side, as far as possible. 
Hodgson and Oldfield both mention the division of the Hindu 
Newars into Brahmans, Ksatrivas and Vaisyas—the list of Old- 
field showing also a fourth, the Sidras. Earle merely gives 
tables of high castes, intermediate castes and low castes. 1 
have included for comparison all his high castes; the interme- 
diate castes find their parallel elsewhere. 
The Brahmans of the highest class, the Upadhyayas are 
mentioned by all of them except Hamilton. who states some- 
thing contradicting the version of the others. As however 
the caste of high class Brahmans occurs also in older historical 
lists (see App. E), the high position of the Brahmans cannot be 
considered as of very recent origin, i.e. after the Gurkha con- 
quest. As we shall see, the Achars seem to be the priests 
of all the minor local deities and the Brahmans restricted to 
the greater ceremonies. Hamilton’s statement would seem to 
indicate that for all practical purposes the Newar Achars are 
the high priests. His account of the castes of Nepal, as a whole. 
is not very correct and shows that he could not have derived 
his knowledge from a fairly good acquaintance with the peo- 
ple. As his source of information was not at all good, it is 
quite likely he overlooked the part: plaved by high class 
Brahmans in the life of the Newar Hindu. 
e two other Brahmanic castes mentioned by Oldfield 
are not found in any other lists, unless indeed the Karmacharya 
and Lawarju are held to be the same. As has been said, Earle 
does not class the castes under headings of Ksatriya. Vaisya, 
etc. Itis therefore difficult to say if the Karmacharya is a 
Brahman priest or not. In Nepal among Newars the mere fact 
of being a priest evidently does not constitute any claim 
to being a Brahman. The word Karmacharj, which is the 
same as the more Sanskritic form of Earle, however, occurs in 
the list given by Hodgson, said to be derived from the old 
rules ot Jayasthiti Malla (see App. E) ; the functions performed 
by them are similar to those of Achars and they seem to be 
the same people. Jam therefore inclined to consider Earle’s 

‘ire gurus to lower classes enjoy a lesser degree of sanctity, a5 18 
paralleled in the plains of India. The point is not however 
important 
The caste Bhaju also does not occur anywhere else ; a caste 
of Baidya or Dhanwantar is however mentioned by Hodgson 
: ! Census of India 1901, Bengal, Part 1, p. 464, ete. Mr. Gait the 
bes ga of the report explains that he expunged Buddhist castes from the 
Ist. : ~ 
ee 
