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laws most strictly observed, they are separated from each other by 
insurmountable barriers. 
The Brahmins are in all respects the first caste among the 
Hindoos, and by the laws are entitled to very extraordinary privi- 
leges; especially in cases of delinquency: no other tribe is admit- 
ted to the priesthood; to them are all the mysteries of their reli- 
gion and sacred knowledge confined: they alone understand the 
language of the Shastah, or Shastras, those holy volumes which 
contain the religion and philosophy of the Hindoos; which are 
divided into four bedes, or vedas, a word signifying science. These 
books the Brahmins esteem so sacred, that they permit no other 
caste to read them; and they are written in the Sanscrita language, 
which is now understood by very few except the Brahmins, and 
not by all of them: for although there can be no Hindoo priest 
that is not a Brahmin, yet it by no means implies that all of the 
Brahmin tribe are priests: on the contrary, they are employed in 
the political and revenue departments, and appear in various 
public characters under the governments in India; the great and 
powerful Mharatta empire, is at this day ruled by a Brahmin 
sovereign, with the title of Pesliwa: others throughout the vast 
peninsula, pursue a variety of employments in the agricultural and 
commercial line, and some even cultivate their own lands. 
The Hindoo religion admits of no proselytes; and is therefore 
a principal means of preserving the castes pure and distinct: nei- 
ther have the Mahomedan conquests and oppressions, nor the in- 
tercourse of Europeans with the Hindoos, been able to subvert a 
system of theology and jurisprudence, founded on a firm basis, 
and interdicted from all change by the most rigid laws. 
