198 ON ORISSA PROPER 



The Odra or Utcala Brahmins, are one of the ten original races of Saca 

 Dwipa Brahmanas, taking their names from the countries which they in- 

 habit, viz. Gaiira, Saraswati, Canyacubja or Cannouj, Mait'hila, Utcala, 

 Tailanga, Carnata, Maharashtra, and Dravira. Their duties are said to be 

 Yajana, Adhyayan, and Dan, or sacrificing,, reading the Vedas, and giving 

 alms ; and their regular means of subsistence Yajan, Adhydpan and Pra- 

 tigraha, or officiating at sacrifices, teaching the Vedas, and receiving cha- 

 rity. If they cannot gain an adequate livelihood by the regular modes, they 

 may eat at a feast in the house of a Siidra, or receive charity from one of 

 that class ; also they may cut firewood from the hills and jungles, and sell 

 it. Should these resources fail, they may, after fasting for three days, steal 

 a little rice from the house of a Brahmin or any other, in order that the 

 king hearing of their distress by this means, may assign something for their 

 maintenance. Should all these expedients prove insufficient, they may en- 

 gage in the duties of the Cshatriya and Vaisya, but as soon as they have 

 collected a little property, they must repent and return to their original oc- 

 cupations. The Brahmins who confine themselves to the six duties and 

 employments above noticed, are of course the most honoured and es- 

 teemed. Inferior Brahmins are those called Devalaca, and Grama Ya- 

 jaka, who attend the village gods, and perform funeral obsequies for hire. 

 There is another class known commonly in Orissa by the name* of Mahas- 

 t'han or Mastan Brahmins, who form a very considerable and important 

 class of the rural population, Besides cultivating with their own hands, 

 gardens of the kachu (Arum Indicum), cocoanut, and Areca, and the pi- 

 per beetle or pan, they very frequently follow the plough, from which cir- 

 cumstance they are called Halia Brahmins, and they are found every where 

 in great numbers in the situation of Moqeddems and Serberakars, or 

 hereditary renters of villages. Those who handle the plough glory in their 

 occupation, and affect to despise the Bed or Veda Brahmins, who live upon 

 alms. Though held in no estimation whatever by the pious Hindu, and 

 although not free from some of the vices of the Brahmin character, viz. au- 

 dacity, stubbornness and mendacity, they are unquestionably the most en- 

 terprizing, intelligent, and industrious of all the Company's ryots or rent- 



