The Lthnology of India. 117 
had a very ancient hold upon them. In the south, the Banijagas are, 
it appears, now chiefly Lingamites and, as such, scarcely Braminical 
Hindus. But at one time the Jain form quite prevailed among them. 
Tn fact, in all the west and southwest the Jain religion appears to 
have been at one time predominant. The Jains seem to assert that 
the Rajpoots were once of their faith, The Pali language and cha- 
racter would seem especially to belong them. 
What then is the origin of the Banees? That is a very puzzling 
question. I cannot account for them in any historical way, but the 
speculation which has occurred to my mind is, whether they may not 
originally have been immigrants by sea from the west who brought 
with them the Phallus or Lingam, and those ideas of a continually 
self-reproducing procreative power which took shape in the worship 
of Siva, and eventually gave birth to Buddhism and to Jainism, and 
which finally, meeting and amalgamating with the Braminical faith, 
produced modern Hinduism. If this be so, we might suppose that 
tle Banees had done much to civilise the Central and South of 
India, before the Bramins got so far. But, as I have said, this is 
mere speculation ; much farther inquiry is necessary. 
Among the mercantile classes of the north (as well as of the south) 
should be clissed the well-known Banjaras or wandering grain mer- 
chants, men of great energy and usefulness in their day. Though 
they carry on their trade all over the country, they have in some 
places fixed homes. On the borders of Rohileund, towards the Terai, 
they have in fact considerable settlements, are considerable landed 
proprietors and altogether important people. 
I now come to the Writer classes :— 
Toe Karts or Kayasts. 
Important as this caste now is, I am totally at a loss to imagine 
how or why it came into existence. In old Hindu times, with a great. 
Bramin class occupying something the position which Bramins now 
hold among the Marattas (by no means confined to sacerdotal duties, 
but performing all literate functions), one can see no room for a sepa- 
rate Writer class. If the Rajpoots, coming in as conquerors, wished to 
put aside the Bramins, they would probably have found Khatrees and 
Banees ready to assist them. The Mahommedans, we know, had: 
