2. From reports from the District Superintendents of Police at Sahâranpur, Meerut, and Aligarh, it appears that these people wander all over the Upper Duâb and the Panjab and Native States. They disclaim any direct connection with Nats, Kanjars, and similar vagrants; but they are obviously closely related. Among the Hindu branch there appear to be at least three exogamous sections, Negiwâla, Teli, and Jogeli. The Census returns show 54 sections of the Hindu and four of the Muhammadan branch, but it is impossible to say how many of these belong to the vagrant Bengâlis. The Hindu branch call themselves the descendants of one Siwâi Râm, Râjput, who was a Bengâli and elephant driver, and in the time of Aurangzeb learnt the art of bleeding and cupping from a native physician or Hakîm, and taught it to his descendants. The Muhammadan branch usually call themselves Lodi Pathâns from Bengal. They do not admit outsiders to their caste; marry in the usual form, if Muhammadans, through the Qâzi, but as might have been expected their religious practices are vague. The Muhammadans are said never to be circumcised, and they as well as the Hindus worship Devi and Zâhir Pîr.
3. From Meerut it is reported the Hindu branch will eat meat of all kinds, the flesh of cloven or uncloven footed animals, fowls, all kinds of fish and crocodiles, and the leavings of other people. Though this is not quite certain, it would appear that the Muhammadan branch generally abstain from pork.
4. The Bengâli is a loafer and vagabond, prone to commit petty theft, a beggar, and a rustic surgeon as far as bleeding and cupping go. In their manner of life they much resemble the Mâl and Bediya of Bengal, and, if there is anything in the name, they are possibly akin to their tribes.
Distribution of Bengâlis according to the Census of 1891.
| District. | Hindus. | Musalmâns. | Total. |
| Dehra Dûn | … | 16 | 16 |
| Sahâranpur | 65 | 160 | 225 |
| Bulandshahr | 235 | 1 | 236 |
| Aligarh | 1 | … | 1[[145]] |
| Mathura | 64 | … | 64 |
| Agra | 40 | … | 40 |
| Farrukhâbâd | 5 | … | 5 |
| Mainpuri | 2 | … | 2 |
| Bareilly | 25 | … | 25 |
| Budâun | … | 25 | 25 |
| Cawnpur | 31 | 4 | 35 |
| Fatehpur | 16 | … | 16 |
| Bânda | 4 | … | 4 |
| Allahâbâd | 65 | 4 | 69 |
| Jhânsi | 8 | … | 8 |
| Benares | 219 | … | 219 |
| Mirzapur | 12 | … | 12 |
| Ghâzipur | 28 | … | 28 |
| Gorakhpur | 41 | … | 41 |
| Kumâun | 15 | … | 15 |
| Lucknow | 61 | 30 | 91 |
| Râê Bareli | 75 | 17 | 92 |
| Faizâbâd | 5 | … | 5 |
| Gonda | … | 16 | 16 |
| Sultânpur | 2 | … | 2 |
| Partâbgarh | 51 | 7 | 58 |
| Total | 1,070 | 280 | 1,350 |
Bangâli, Bengâli.—One of the great divisions of Brâhmans recorded as such at the last census. According to Mr. Risley, who has given an elaborate account of them,[53] the Bengal Brâhmans [[146]]belong to one or other of the Gaur groups, and are divided into five main sub-castes,—Rârhi, Barendra, Vaidik, Saptasati and Madhyasrani. As already stated, it is impossible to say how many of the 58 sections recorded in the census refer to the Brâhman branch, and how many to the tribe of vagrants of the same name.
The Rârhi Brâhmans. 2. “The Rârhi Brâhmans derive their name from the Rârh, or the high-lying alluvial tract on the west bank of the river Bhagîrathi. Their claim to be of comparatively pure Aryan descent is to some extent borne out by the results of anthropometric enquiries. The current tradition is that early in the eleventh century A.D. Adisura or Adisvara, King of Bengal, finding the Brâhmans, then settled in Bengal, too ignorant to perform for him certain Vedic ceremonies, applied to the Râja of Kanauj for priests thoroughly conversant with the sacred ritual of the Aryans. In answer to this request five Brâhmans of Kanauj were sent to him, Bhatta Nârâyana, of the Sândilya section, or gotra; Daksha, of the Kasyapa gotra; Vedagarbha or Vidagarbha, of the Vatsa gotra, or, as others say, from the family of Bhrigu; Chandra or Chhandara, of the Savarna gotra; and Sri Harsa of the Bhâradvâja gotra. They brought with them their wives, their sacred fire and their sacrificial implements. It is said that Adisura was at first disposed to treat them with scanty respect, but he was soon compelled to acknowledge his mistake, and to beg the Brâhmans to forgive him. He then made over to them five populous villages, where they lived for a year. Meanwhile the king was so impressed with the superhuman virtue of Bhatta Nârâyana, who was a son of Kshitisa, King of Kanauj, that he offered him several more villages. The Brâhman, however, declined to take these as a gift, but bought them, as the story goes, at a low price.
3. “Although the immigrant Brâhmans brought their wives with them, tradition says that they contracted second marriages with the women of Bengal, and that their children by the latter were the ancestors of the Barendra Brâhmans. The Barendra, on the other hand, claim to represent the offspring from the original Hindustâni wives, and allege that the Rârhi Brâhmans are themselves sprung from the mésalliance contracted in Bengal.
4. “By the middle of the eleventh century, when Ballâl Sen, the second of the Sen Kings of Bengal, instituted his famous enquiry into the personal endowments of the Rârhi Brâhmans, their numbers [[147]]seem to have increased greatly. They are represented as divided into fifty-six headships of villages (gâin), which were reserved for them, and might not be encroached on by Brâhmans of other orders.
5. “It is interesting to trace in Ballâl Sen’s enquiry the survival or reassertion of the principle that the Brâhmanhood of the Brâhmans depends not merely on birth but upon personal endowments. It is a question of virtue, not a question of descent. Ballâl Sen, of course, could not go as far as this. The time had long passed when a Kshatriya could transform himself into a Brâhman by penance and self-denial. But the Sen Monarch sought to reaffirm the ancient principle, so far as was then possible, by testing the qualifications of each Rârhi family for the priestly office, and classifying them, in the order of their virtue, according to the results of this examination. Thus two grades of sacerdotal virtue were formed, the Kulin being those who had observed the entire nine counsels of perfection, and the Srotiya, who, though regular students of the Vedas, had lost status by intermarrying with families of inferior birth. The Srotiya were again divided into Siddha or ‘perfect,’ Sâdhya or ‘capable of attaining purity,’ and Kashta or ‘difficult.’ The last-named group was also called Ari or ‘enemy,’ because a Kulin marrying a daughter of that group was disgraced.”