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as it were, personal pretensions, as Hindús, are and must be but lowly rated at Benares.

The proud Khas, the soi-disant Kshatriyas of Népál, and the Parbattia Brahmans, with all their pharasaical assertions of ceremonial purity, take water from the hands of the Kachár Bhótias-men who, though they dare not kill the cow under their present Hindú rulers, greedily devour the carrion carcase left by disease-men, whose whole lives are as much opposed to practical, as their whole tenets are to speculative, Hindúism.

In very truth, the genius of Polytheism, everywhere accommodating, is peculiarly so to its professors and their like in Népál. Here, religious opinions are utterly disregarded; and even practice is suffered among the privileged to deviate in a thousand ways from the prescribed standard. The Newárs, or aborigines of the valley of Népál, are, for the most part, Buddhists; but they are deemed very good Hindús nevertheless, pretty much in the same way as R'AM MOHUN RAYA passes for a good Hindú at Calcutta. A variety of practices, too, which would not be tolerated even in a Hindú below, are here notoriously and avowedly followed. They are omissions, not commissions, for the most part. But there are daily acts of the positive kind done in the hills which could not be done openly in the plains.*

Still these are matters which the Darbár would not brook the discussion of with us; and I am afraid that their known deviations, in many respects, would only make them more punctilious and obstinate in regard to those few which it is so much our interest and duty to get compromised, if we can, with reference to our followers. Unfortunately, these few topics are the salient points of Hinduism; are precisely those points which it is the pride and glory of this state to maintain from the throne and judgment-seat, as the chief features of the public law; because, nowhere else throughout India can they be maintained in the same public and authentic manner, or any otherwise than by the domestic tribunals of the people. The

The gallant soldiers of these hills cannot endure the tedious ceremonial of Hinduism. When preparing to cook, they satisfy the law by washing their hands and face, instead of their whole bodies; by taking off their turbans, instead of their whole dress. Nor are they at all afraid of being degraded to kúlis if they should carry ten days' provisions, in time of war, on their backs. Et sic de cæteris.

distinction between Hindús on the one hand, and, on the other, outcasts of their own race, as well as all strangers indiscriminately, it is the special duty of the judges of the land to ponder upon day and night, to pursue it through all its practical consequences, as infinitely diversified by the ceremonial observances created to guard and perpetuate it; and to visit, with the utmost vengeance of the Penal Code, every act by which this cardinal distinction is knowingly and essentially violated.

Of all these acts, the most severely regarded is intercourse between the sexes of such parties; because of its leading directly to the confusion of all castes, of the greatness of the temptation, and of the strong inducement to concealment; and the concealment is deemed almost as bad as the crime itself; for the Hindú agent or subject will, of course, proceed, till detected, to communicate as usual with his or her relations, who again will communicate with theirs, until the foul contamination has reached the ends of the city and kingdom, and imposed upon all (besides the sin) the necessity of submitting themselves to a variety of tedious and expensive purificatory processes, pending the fulfilment of which all their pursuits of business or pleasure are necessarily suspended, and themselves rendered, for the time, outcasts. This, to be sure, is a great and real evil, deserving of severe repressive measures. But is not the evil self-created? True: but so we may not argue at Káthmándú. The law of caste is the corner-stone of Hindúism. Hence the innumerable ceremonial observances, penetrating into every act of life, which have been erected to perpetuate this law; and hence the dreadful inflictions with which the breach of it is visited. Of all breaches of it, intercourse between a Hindú and an outcast of different sexes is the most enormous; but it is not, by many, the only one deemed worthy of punishment by mutilation or death. The Codes of MENU and other Hindú sages are full of these strange enormities; but it is in Népal alone (for reasons already stated) that the sword of public justice is now wielded to realise them. It is in Népál alone, of all Hindú states, that two-thirds of the time of the judges is employed in the discussion of cases better fitted for the confessional, or the tribunal of public opinion, or some domestic

court, such as the Pancháyet of brethren or fellow-craftsmen, than for a King's Court of justice. Not such, however, is the opinion of the Népálese, who, while they are forcing confessions from young men and young women, by dint of scolding and whipping, in order to visit them afterwards with ridiculous penances or savage punishments, instead of discharging such functions with a sigh or a smile, glorify themselves in that they are thus maintaining the holy will of BRAHMA, enforcing from the judgment-seat those sacred institutes, which elsewhere the magistrate (shame upon him!) neglects through fear, or despises as an infidel.

When the banner of Hindúism dropped from the hands of the Mahrattas in 1817, they solemnly conjured the Népálese to take it up, and wave it proudly, till it could be again unfurled in the plains by the expulsion of the vile Feringis, and the subjection of the insolent followers of Islám. But surely the British Government, so justly famous for its liberality, cannot be fairly subjected to insinuations such as this? So it may seem; but let any one turn over the pages of MENU, observe the conspicuous station assigned to the public magistrate as a censor morum under the immensely extensive and complicate system of morals there laid down, and remember, that whilst it is the Hindú magistrate's first duty to enforce them, to the British magistrate they are and have been a dead letter: let him look to the variety of dreadful inflictions assigned to violations of the law of caste, and remember, that whilst their literal fulfilment is the Hindú magistrate's most sacred obligation, British magistrates shrink with horror and disgust at the very thought of them; and he will be better prepared to appreciate and make allowance for the sentiments of Hindú sovereigns and Hindú magistrates. The Hindú sovereigns dare not, and we will not, obey the sacred mandate. But in Népál, it is the pride and glory of the magistrate to obey it, literally, blindly, unbiassed by foreign example, unawed by foreign power.

An eminent old bichári or judge of the chief court of Káthmándú, to whom I am indebted for an excellent sketch of the judicial system of Népál, after answering all my questions on the subject, concluded with some voluntary observations of his own from which I extract the following passage:

"Below, let man and woman commit what sin they will, there is no punishment provided, no expiatory right enjoined.* Hence Hinduism is destroyed; the customs are Mohammedan; the distinctions of caste are obliterated. Here, on the contrary, all those distinctions are religiously preserved by the public courts of justice, which punish according to caste, and never destroy the life of a Brahman. If a female of the sacred order go astray, and her paramour be not a Brahman, he is capitally punished; but if he be a Brahman he is degraded from his rank, and banished. If a female of the soldier tribes be seduced, the husband, with his own hand, kills the seducer, and cuts off the nose of the female, and expels her from his house. Then the Brahman or soldier-husband must perform the purificatory rites enjoined, after which he is restored to his caste. Below, the Shástras are things to talk of: here, they are acted up to."

I have, by the above remarks, endeavoured to convey an idea of the sort of feeling relative to them which prevails in Népál. It will serve, I hope, as a sort of apology for the Népálese; but will, I fear, also serve to demonstrate the small probability there exists of our inducing the Darbár to waive in our favour so cherished a point of religion, and, I may add, of policy; for they are well aware of the effect of this rigour, intending to facilitate the restricted intercourse between the Népálese and our followers, a restriction which they seek to maintain with Chinese pertinacity. Besides, the Shástras are holy things, and frail as holy; and no Hindú of tolerable shrewdness will submit a single text of them, if he can avoid it, to the calm, free glance of European intellect.

Having already given the most abundant materials for judging of the general tenor of the judicial proceedings and of the laws of Népál, it will not be necessary (or possible), in this paper, to do more than briefly apply them, as regards that intercourse between a Hindú, and a non-Hindú, at present under discussion.

The customary law or license which permits the injured

It is the exclusive duty of one of the highest functionaries of this Government (the Dharmadhikári) to prescribe the fitting penance and purificatory rites for each violation of the ceremonial law of purity.

In allusion to other papers by Mr Hodgson.-ED. VOL. II.

husband in Népál to be his own avenger, is confined to the Parbattias, the principal divisions of whom are the Brahmans, the Khas, the Magars, and the Gúrungs. The Néwárs, Múrmis,* Kachár-Bhotias, Kirántis,† and other inhabitants of Népál, possess no such privilege. They must seek redress from the courts. of justice, which, guiding themselves by the custom of these tribes prior to the conquest, award to the injured husband a small pecuniary compensation, which the injurer is compelled to pay.

Nothing further, therefore, need at present be said of them. In regard to the Parbattias, every injured husband has the option, if he please, of appealing to the courts, instead of using his own sword; but any one save a learned Brahman or a helpless boy, who should do so, would be covered with eternal disgrace. A Brahman who follows his holy calling cannot, consistently with usage, play the avenger; but a Brahman carrying arms must act like his brethren in arms. A boy, whose wife has been seduced, may employ the arm of his grown-up brother or cousin to avenge him. But if he have none such, he, as well as the learned Brahman, may appeal to the prince, who, through his courts of justice, comes forward to avenge the wrong (such is the sentiment here), and to wipe out the stain with blood; death, whether by law or extra-judicially, being the doom of all adulterers with the wives of Parbattias. Brahmans, indeed, by a law superior to all laws, may not be done to death by sentence of a court of justice. But no one will care to question the Parbattia, who, with his own hand, destroys an adulterer, Brahman though that adulterer be. If the law be required to judge a Brahman for this crime, the sentence is, to be degraded from his caste, and banished for ever, with every mark of infamy. If a Parbattia marry into a tribe such as the Néwár, which claims no privilege of licensed revenge, he may not, in regard to such wife, exercise the privilege.

But must not a Parbattia, before he proceed to avenge himself, prove the fact and the identity of the offender, in a court of justice? No! To appeal to a court would afford a warning to the delinquents to escape, and so foil him. He may pursue

* Kachár cis-Nivean.

+ See above, Vol. I., pp. 176 ff. 397 ff.

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