1. Nai, or barbers. A Brahman may drink their water.
2. Karmi, who build and thatch houses, and Chunra, or carpenters. These have degraded Brahmans as instructors.
3. Kami, miners and workers in iron and copper; Sarki, tanners and shoemakers; Damai, tailors and musicians. All these are vile, and have no priests but of their own cast. Any Musulman or Christian, however, who should cohabit with a Damai woman, would suffer death, and the woman would be severely punished; but, according to the Hindu law, a female, however low in rank, cannot for any crime be deprived of life. When any woman has been discovered with a Musulman, the whole kingdom is thrown into confusion. Even if she has been of the lowest cast, she may have given water to some person of the cast immediately above her own. He may again
have given it to a higher, and thus the whole inhabitants may have been involved in sin and disgrace. This can only be expiated by a ceremony called Prayaschitta, in which the prince washes in the river with great ceremony, and bestows large sums on the Brahmans, who read the expiatory prayers proper on the occasion. The expense of an expiation of this kind, which was performed during our stay in this country, was, by my Brahman, estimated at two thousand rupees; but the natives alleged that it amounted to ten times this sum.
Colonel Kirkpatrick [21a] mentions the Dhewars as husbandmen and fishers of the western district, from which circumstance we may conclude that they belong to the Hindu colony; but I did not hear of them, as my account of the Parbatiya tribes was chiefly derived from the central parts. From the condition of similar tribes on the plains, these Dhewars probably belong to the third of the ranks above enumerated, although the Majhis, (Mhanjhees,) whom Colonel Kirkpatrick joins with the Dhewars, were represented to me as a tribe of original Khas, which has been converted by the Hindus, and admitted into the military order.
Colonel Kirkpatrick then states, [21b] “That Nepaul, having been ruled for many centuries past by Rajput princes, and the various classes of Hindus appearing in all periods to have composed a great proportion of its population, we are naturally prepared to find a general resemblance in manners and customs between this part of its inhabitants, and kindred sects established in adjacent countries; accordingly, the differences are so faint as to be scarcely discernible in a single instance.” Now, I must here observe, that Nepal, in the proper sense of the word, when Colonel
Kirkpatrick wrote, had not been governed for half a century by chiefs, who even pretended to be descended of a Hindu colony, for the Rajas of Nepal were Newars, who deny this extraction. They indeed called themselves Rajputs, that is, the descendants of princes, but so does the king of Ava, although no one ever imagined that he is descended of the Rajputs in Hindustan. I shall afterwards have occasion to show, that the various classes of Hindus, that is, of the natives of India, who have adopted the Brahmans for spiritual guides, have not in all periods composed a great proportion of the population, nor have even entered any part of the country as residents. At present, indeed, in most parts of the kingdom, except in Nepal itself, they, or converts to their doctrine, form a large proportion of the inhabitants; and the more recent the importation, I should expect the greater resemblance between the colonists and the inhabitants of the plains of India; but, in fact, the resemblance, though strong, is not so complete as Colonel Kirkpatrick’s short stay amongst them induced him to suppose, as will appear from what I shall afterwards state.
These mountain Hindus appear to me a deceitful and treacherous people, cruel and arrogant towards those in their power, and abjectly mean towards those from whom they expect favour. Their men of rank, even of the sacred order, pass their nights in the company of male and female dancers and musicians, and, by an excessive indulgence in pleasure, are soon exhausted. Their mornings are passed in sleep, and the day is occupied by the performance of religious ceremonies, so that little time remains for business, or for storing their minds with useful knowledge. Except a few of the Brahmans, they are, in general, drunkards, which, joined to a temper uncommonly suspicious, and to a consciousness of having neglected the conjugal duties, works them up to a fury of
jealousy that frequently produces assassination. For this they are all prepared, by wearing a large knife in their girdle, and the point of honour requires them never to rest, until they have shed the blood of the man who has been suspected of a criminal intercourse with their wives. The jealous man watches his opportunity for months, and even for years, should his adversary be on his guard; and, having at length found a favourable time, with one stroke of his knife in the throat of his rival, he satisfies his revenge. This is considered as so commendable, that, at Kathmandu, the police, in other respects very strict, does not at all interfere, although the murderer is often actuated merely by suspicion.
The higher ranks, whenever not compelled by the most urgent necessity, conceal their women; and their widows ought to burn themselves with their husbands’ corpse. Many, however, refuse, nor did I learn that force is ever used. The custom seems, however, more prevalent than in any part of India where I have been, the vicinity of Calcutta excepted.