The Ethnology of India. 119 



In Bengal the Kaits occupy a higher relative position and are very 

 numerous. It is related as a historical fact that they accompanied 

 the Bramins into Bengal from the North- West, and indeed it would 

 seem as if the Hindustanee colonists in Bengal had been almost ex- 

 clusively Bramins and Kaits ; there are scarcely any other castes of 

 well authenticated Arian descent, while a large proportion of the 

 inhabitants show some aboriginal traces. In Bengal then the Kaits 

 seem to rank next or nearly next to the Bramins, and form an aristo- 

 cratic class. According to the Jail Returns, they are 7 per cent, of 

 the Hindus incarcerated in Bengal, Behar and Orissa, and in the 

 general. population they are probably in still larger proportion. They 

 have extensive proprietary rights in the land, and also, I believe, cul- 

 tivate a good deal. Of the ministerial places in the public offices 

 they have the larger share. In the educational institutions and 

 higher professions of Calcutta, they are, I believe, quite equal to the 

 Bramins, all qualities taken together, though some detailed informa- 

 tion of the capacities of different classes, as shewn by the educational 

 tests, would be very interesting. Among the native pleaders of the 

 High Court, most of the ablest men are either Bramins or Kaits ; 

 perhaps the ablest of all, at this moment, is a Kait. 



Not knowing where else to put them, I shall here mention a caste 

 who are, so far as I know, peculiar to Bengal, the Boidyas or physicians. 

 They are not very numerous, are, I believe, often learned and respecta^ 

 ble men, and rank high among Hindus, but in truth I do not know 

 very much about them. It would be interesting to know more. 



The Kaits extend west all through Hindustan, are numerous in 

 Malwa and are found in Goozerat. But in this latter Province we 

 come upon either another caste of the same kind, or a branch of the 

 same bearing a different name, and called — 



PlJRBHOOS OR PlJRVOES 



who are very conspicuous in that part of India and in the town of 

 Bombay, where they do most of the work of clerks. I cannot make 

 out whether Kaits and Purbhoos are in the main the same or differ- 

 ent. Of two well informed native gentleman whose opinions have 

 been sent me, one seems to think that they are mere sub-divisions of 

 an original writer class, another, that they are different. Those whom 

 I saw in Bombay seemed to me different in appearance as well as 



