1859.] Notes and Queries suggested by a Visit to Orissa. 191 



14. Peculiar Customs in Orissa. If a brother dies childless his 

 brother is to marry the widow in order to raise up seed to the deceased 

 — in satis women were burned in a pit — the Brahmans eat no fish — the 

 impurity of a Sudra after the death of a relative lasts only 10 days, 

 in Bengal 30 days. — Marriages take place at a riper age. — Barbers 

 and cultivators eat in the houses of the bearer caste — there are no 

 Brahmini bulls reverenced — at shrads only pinda or vegetables are 

 offered. — Raghu Nandan's smritis have no authority — women are 

 kept more secluded. — Brahmans eat onions, wear no shoes, — the 

 women tattoo their forehead and arms, — many Sudras know a little 

 Sanskrit, — the Brahmans study the Yajur Yeda, in Bengal the 

 Sama Veda. It would be interesting to enquire into the special 

 causes of the diversity of some of these customs. 



15. Was Hinduism introduced into Orissa in the days of Ram Chan- 

 dra ? 



The Ramayan mentions Ram's sojourn during part of his exile 

 in the Dandaka forest and near the Godavery, places to the South 

 West of Orissa ; while tradition connects the rocks of Khandigiri 

 with Hanuman and states that Kapila Muni resided in their neigh- 

 bourhood. The 4th section of the Raghu Vansa gives the march of one 

 of the Hindu armies of Ram's period to the borders of the Bay of Ben- 

 gal which must have been near the coast of Orissa. A king of Kashmir 

 Lalitadyea is stated in the R&jtaranyini to have marched an army 

 about Ram s'era to the South of India. The progress of the Arian 

 race having been a gradual one South, Kashmir, Hastiuapur, Oude, 

 Benares, Palibothra, Gaur, becoming successive centres, a place like 

 Orissa could hardly have been overlooked as affording facilities for 

 embarking by sea to the South. In Manu's time Brahmans were 

 sea-captains and traded with foreign countries, while the chief seats 

 of religious worship having been on promontories of the sea such 

 as Somnath and Dwarka in Scinde, Ramiseran and Mavalipur in 

 South India, Sagur Island in Bengal, Jagarmath and Kanarak in 

 Orissa, would show that the ocean was used in early times for pil- 

 grimage and religious propagandism. 



16. When was Buddhism introduced into Orissa ? Probably in the 

 days of king Asoka about 250 B. C. as appears from the Dhauli in- 

 scription — he sent Buddhist missionaries in all directions to the 



