The Ethnology of India. 65 



Whether from the example of the Rajpoots, or for other reasons, 

 these Bramins of the Unterbed and Oude have taken largely to the 

 profession of arms, not usually much followed by them in other parts 

 of the country ; and beyond their own boundaries in their Military 

 character they are reputed the most overbearing and disagreeable 

 of their race. Yet I fancy that it is rather their profession than their 

 natural character, which has attached to them this bad name. Numer- 

 ous as they were in the Sepoy Army and foully as that Army 

 behaved, I cannot find that the Bramins were really by any means 

 worse than others ; some of the most Bramin Regiments stood the 

 best. And at home they seem to be quiet and peaceable enough. 

 The Bramin district of Cawnpore pays, I think, a higher revenue rate 

 than any other in India, except the peculiar Delta of the Cauvery about 

 Tanjore. Numerous as the Bramins are in this part of the country 

 and apt as soldiers, they have not been the dominant race. I do not 

 know much of the history of the Cawnpore district, but I have never 

 heard of Bramin rule ; and certainly over the river, in Oude, the rule 

 is with the Rajpoots, not with the Bramins. All the really old 

 Talookdars are Rajpoots, as are the Rajas of Bundlecund and Baghel- 

 cund beyond the Jumna. 



I «am not sure what is the extent of the Bramin population in 

 Bundlecund. In the Banda District I think that they are common, 

 and certainly in ' Baghelcuncl,' or Re wall, they are very numerous ; but 

 whether the same martial race, I do not know, for there they conde- 

 scend to very menial services and groom most of the horses on the 

 Jubbulpore road. 



In the proper Bramin country, I think that some of them affect 

 the Rajpoot prejudice against actually holding the plough, but 

 even there they perform every other agricultural labour. Agri- 

 cultural and military as they are, they rejoice in the classic names of 

 Dobee, Tewaree, and Choubee, that is men of two Veds, of three Veds, 

 of four Veds, and are considered to be very high caste. Between the 

 Ganges and the Gogra, as we recede from the Granges, the population 

 becomes more Rajpoot than Bramin, but there are many Bramins 

 about ' Ajoodia,' the old ' Oaclh.' Beyond the Gogra again is a nu- 

 merous Bramin population of a different tribe from the martial 

 . Bramins of the Ganges, humbler, and not soldiers. Thence to the 



