108 The Ethnology of India. 



It must, however, be understood that a good deal of cultivation, in 

 most parts of the country, is carried on by miscellaneous cultivators 

 of a great variety of classes, who by caste properly belong to otner 

 professions. Cultivation is the one profession which is open to all 

 alike, and is occasionally followed by almost all. In a great part of 

 Hindustan in particular, wherever Rajpoots and Bramins are compara- 

 tively few, and Koerees and Kachees are not numerous, there is in the 

 present state of cultivation a large space not occupied by the classes 

 which I have enumerated, and lists of tenant cultivators of these tracts 

 present a very great variety. It is the same in Bengal. The caste 

 of ' Telees' are supposed to be properly oil -manufacturers, but whether 

 (seeing the large growth of oilseeds) they were also in their origin 

 oil-growers, or whether their multiplication is accidental, they certainly 

 in many parts of the country form an important and respectable 

 section of the agricultural community. Many of them are found both 

 in Hindustan and in the Bombay Presidency, and in Bengal and 

 Orissa they are particularly numerous and well-to-do. In Bengal the 

 Tantees or weavers are also a prosperous class, and own a good deal 

 of land. 



The Chumars or leather workers form a large proportion of the 

 population of Hindustan, and are both labourers and cultivators, but 

 they may perhaps better be put among the inferior labouring classes. 



For the rest the list of cultivating artisans and others would be 

 endless. They must be classed under their own professions. 



The Mercantille Classes. 



First under this head, I will put — 



The Khatrees. 



Trade is their main occupation, but in fact they have broad- 

 er and more distinguished functions. Besides monopolising the 

 trade of the Punjab and the greater part of Affghanistan, and 

 doing a good deal beyond those limits, they are in the Punjab the 

 chief civil administrators, and have almost all literate work in their 

 hands. So far as the Sikhs have a priesthood, they are moreover the 

 priests or gooroos of the Sikhs ; both Nanuk and Govind were, and 

 the Sodees and Bedees of the present day are, Khatrees. Thus then 





