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304 



T. Carnegy — The Bhars of Audh and Bmdras. 



[No. 3, 



Brahmans to meet the momentary and temporal necessities of a man of 

 influence. So also he can name families who are now Rajputs (if not 

 Chhatris), because it had been their good fortune to render service as 

 menials to a man who had the power to reward it. These are comparatively 

 modern instances of the movement upwards. Moreover, the Mahants of the 

 far-famed Monkey- temple of Ayodhya, revered of all good Hindus, are 

 recruited from all classes of Hindus, even to the lowest, and having gone 

 through their discipleship, they receive reverence and homage from the 

 highest in the land. It can scarcely, therefore, with truth be contended that 

 Hinduism is not a missionary religion, or that social advancement is fettered 

 by caste prejudice. 



It must always be kept in mind that the change from Brahmanism to 

 Buddhism did not involve an absolute change of religion, it was a universal 

 protest against priestly intolerance — just as Protestants rose against Eoman 

 Catholics, or the Free Kirk of Scotland rebelled against State interference, 

 and in process of time, when the cause that brought the schism about, had 

 been forgotten, the heretics again quietly lapsed into the old faith, apparent- 

 ly as a matter of course, just as we hear it said that the tendency of the day 

 is for the Free Kirk to return to the Establishmenb. Had there been an 

 absolute change of religion, it might have been very different. At the same 

 time we have before our eyes an instance to show how difficult it is for 

 natives to change, and it strongly supports our position that throughout the 

 Buddhist and Atheist periods the traditions of caste were not altogether lost. 

 We know that 400 years ago the Muhammadan dynasty of Jaunpur made 

 converts to their faith in no measured degree, the practical result being 

 that nearly every one of our older Rajput clans has its Muhammadan or Khan- 

 zada branch ; but such is the tenacity of consanguinity and custom, that 

 while on the one hand, the perverts retain all their old Hindu ordinances 

 and rituals, and are allowed to join in all the domestic ceremonials of the 

 Hindu portion of their clans, by the names of which, moreover, they still 

 continue to be known, the old Muhammadans on the other hand, who profess 

 to disregard caste, will not readily marry with the perverts, and hesitate not 

 to show them the cold shoulder on every possible occasion. Here we have 

 an absolute change of religion, notwithstanding which all caste forms and 

 distinctions have been scrupulously maintained for more than 400 years. 

 Does this not support the position that in the other instance, in which there 

 was first a mere modification and afterwards a temporary neglect, but no 

 absolute relinquishment of creed, the old traditions were burnished up and 

 the old rituals and forms once more revived with the return of god-fearing, 

 caste-respecting days. To shew that the breach between a Brahman and a 

 Buddhist is not so very wide as we are taught to suppose, it may be men- 

 tioned that at this moment all the Jain-Buddhist temples at Ayodhya are in 

 charge of a G-or Brahman !. 



wmmmmm* 



