64 The Ethnology of India. 



they are separated by great tribes of Kanoujeas and others, and their 

 own traditions point to Harriana as their original country. I would 

 suggest the following explanation. The principal tributary of the 

 Saraswatee is the ' Guggur' or ' Ghargar' which now gives its name to 

 the main channel where it passes through the Harriana district. 

 May not the name of ' Gour,' borne by these Bramins of Harriana, be 

 a mere abbreviation of ' Guggur' or Ghargar ? May not the Gour 

 Bramins be simply Bramins of the Guggur or Lower Saraswatee ? 



Generally speaking I think it may be said that in the western 

 parts of the present N. W. Provinces, in the B,ohilcund, Meerut and 

 Agra Divisions and in Western Oude, the Bramin population is not 

 specially numerous. They are scattered about everywhere here and 

 there, both as cultivators and in other capacities, but I know no large 

 body of them. I don't know that they follow much any profession 

 involving manual labour, except cultivation and almost any kind of 

 service ; unskilled labour as Coolees or spade labourers, they may 

 undertake when pressed, but I do not think that they are artisans. 

 There are a few considerable Bramin bankers in Hindustan, or at 

 least one great house, but that trade is not generally in their hands. 



Farther east, in the Lower Doab, Eastern Oude, and the adjoining 

 districts, is the great country of the modern Hindnstanee Bramins. 

 Kanouj, the ancient head- quarters of the race, is on the old Ganges 

 50 or 60 miles above Cawnpore. It is now an insignificant place, 

 and the mass of the Bramin population lies to the east of it. In 

 the districts of Cawnpore and Futtehpore I believe that the Bramin 

 cultivators far exceed in number any other class ; in Cawnpore alone 

 there are some 250,000 of them. It is much the same immediately 

 on the other side of the Ganges, in the adjoining parts of Oude. 

 The country of which this is the centre may then more than any 

 other be considered especially that in which the Bramins are now 

 settled as a people. And in the far distant country in which also 

 they are very numerous, the Western Coast of Southern India, the 

 Bramins claim to be colonists from the same region, saying that 

 Paras Bam led them from Calpee (the great Ferry of the Jumna 

 opposite Cawnpore) and causing the sea to recede, settled them under 

 the Western Ghats. The Lower Doab is well-known all over Central 

 and Southern India as the " Unter-bed." 



