548 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, [N.S., XIX, 
APPENDIX E. 
In the second half of the fourteenth century, Jayasthiti 
Malla, the King of Nepal invited pandits from the plains of 
India and had a treatise on the caste system of Nepal drawn up. 
This list is quoted by Lévi in his work on Nepal! and also 
by Hodgson in his manuscript. For the sake of comparison, 
the two lists have been put side by side. Hodgson’s list 
started, according to his introductory sentence, “from the 
vilest castes, ascending to the highest. The order has been 
reversed for convenience, but no displacements have been made 
except in the case of one caste, the Kasa or bell-metal workers, 
who were described by him immediately after the j 
Acharya, and before the Pithacharj. The order of Lévi’s 
arrangement has been changed to make comparison possible 
but the numberings show the order in which the castes came 
in the table. The numbers do not generally agree with those 
given in Lévi’s book, as I have left out the twenty-one castes, 
of which no description of occupation is given. It is evident 
that they cannot be of any use in such a table. It should be 
remembered that Lévi gives she Sanskrit terms for the castes, 
while Hodgson’s terms are mostly Newari and sometimes 
Parbatiya. 
In addition to the castes given in the list proper, Lévi 
furnishes information about other castes. According to him 
the Brahmans from the plains who drew up the rules, adcaitiee 
that the Bandyas of Nepal were the true descendants of 
Brahmans and Ksatriyas, converted by Buddha Krakuc- 
chanda in the Treta Yuga. Evils of the times and Sankara- 
charya’s compulsion had led to their abandoning the celibate 
life and taking to family life and secular pursuits. But 
they were honoured none the less by the four Varnas. Hence 
they were recognised as Brahmans and Ksatriyas according to 
their descent, but as they were held to be all of one class 
like Sannyasis, they were not formed into subdivisions. 
The opulation was divided into sixty-four castes, of 
which forty-three have been given and twenty-one omitted for 
reasons stated. 
In addition, there was a large group of illegitimate pro- 
geny of the Brahmans of the plains who had fallen willing 

1 Lévi: a Breet aes et seq. 
Ho tTmy, , institutions.’”’ He gives another similar 
list of castes sides ae title * ** Rules of caste by Raja Vishnu Mull.” 
