The Ethnology of India. 69 
were it not that they are hard-pushed by the clerkly caste of Kaits 
who also are numerous in Bengal. As it is, the Bramins have a 
large share of the landed property, the public offices, the educated 
professions, and some mercantile and banking business. They are 
very numerous. In the entire absence of statistics and detailed 
information in Bengal, the only source of ethnological information 
which I can find is in the jail statistics. These show that about 
9 per cent. of the total number of Hindu prisoners are Bramins. 
We may suppose that the Bramins of Bengal proper come to jail 
less frequently than the inferior classes, and this return certainly 
seems to prove that the Bramin population must be very large. 
I do not understand that anywhere in Bengal they form the mass of 
the population, or that they are often found in the lowest ranks of 
agriculturists and labourers. They are rather more or less an 
aristocratic class, and though following a variety of callings and to 
some extent cultivating the land, will not ordinarily put their hand to 
the plough, and affect as far as possible the position of superiors. They 
are altogether unwarlike and somewhat effeminate in their habits. 
In Hastern Bengal Mahommedans prevail, and some Bramins are 
supposed not to like to cross the Berhampooter, hence in that quarter 
they seem not to be very numerous. In Orissa I believe they are 
very many, and I see it stated in the Gazetteer of Southern India 
that in the Oorya portion of the Ganjam District many of the Oorya 
Bramins both obtain their livelihood as cultivators and traders, and 
follow the occupations of brickmakers, bricklayers, We. 
The result of education shows the Bramins of Bengal to be most 
acute and intellectually capable. But they do not appear to have 
the practical energy of the mercantile and some other classes, nor 
the political and administrative success of Maratta and Kashmeeree 
Bramins. In native times I do not remember to have heard of Bengalee 
Bramins in great places, unless we except Nandcomar who attained 
so unfortunate an eminence. In these days I believe that intellectual 
eminence is often combined with much high principle among the 
educated Bengalees, and I hope that both may bear practical fruit. 
Going to the other side of India, in Goozerat the Bramins appear 
to be numerous, but I have not yet visited that Province, and have 
not exactly ascertained their position and avocations. Forbes does 
