670 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [November, 1911. 
this absorption of the casteless tribes of India into Hinduism 
of the fourth degree (Sudra) presents many pitfalls. 
The original gang system as we know enforced a rigid 
recognition of the custom of ‘‘ marrying out,’ or, as it is now 
called, Exogamy ; and these Exogamous divisions might well 
all have been of totemic origin—of a totemism born of rever- 
been a totemism induced by some function, or object related 
to an occupation. A totemic sept is not always an Exogamous 
sept, the one can be entirely independent of, or it may overlap, 
the other. 
The Exogamous sept can also have a local or communal 
origin, and th:re is another claxs of Exogmous division, namely, 
the Eponymous—‘tThe ancestor,’? to quote Sir Herbert 
Risley, ‘‘ who gives his name to the group, being either a Vedic 
saint (as with the Brahmans and the castes who imitate them) 
or a ch’ - of Somparatively modern date as with the Rajputs 
and other 
This fo rm of divisional ti the Epon 
has hitherto been the close preserve of the no Higher Hindu cata 
To the aspirant to Hinduism there is an obvious attraction to 
be able to point to an Eponymous founder rather than to an 
inanimate totem ; 
Finally, we have the Titular or nickname group, which is 
common and nowadays perhans the most popular, because 
with a little ingenuity and the help of the subsidized Brahman 
it is always possible to convert the most obvious and outrage- 
ous nickname into some one of the divine names from the 
Hindu Pantheon. 
One is tempted to speculate here whether the Exogamous 
septs which we find poe among these Gypsy-like tribes— 
not to be too sweeping I w say - whether the social organl- 
n 
Exogamous base in imitation of the social customs prevailing 
in Hinduism, or is it not more likely that the laws of Exogamy 
originating with the primeval hordes and ‘‘camps’’ have 
been adopted of necessity—collaterally with the igs of 
Hinduism and the development of the caste syste 
The whole question of Totemism and "peer a is dealt 
with exhaustively by Professor J. G. Frazer in his monumental 
work ‘* Totemism and Exogamy,’’ and the subject in its rela- 
tion to Indian tribes and castes has been thoroughly studied 
and explained by both Mr. W. Crooke* and Sir Herbert 
Risle ey.5 
1-H. H. Risley, Peoples of India, p. 15 . ae 
2 Crookes Tribes and (Castes of the N. W. Provinces of India. 
3 Sir ir Herbert Risley, ‘The Peoples of India. 
