68

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

The present chief of the caste is said to be a descendant of the persons appointed by the gods.

There is a belief among the people that if a death occurs in a house on a Tuesday or a Friday, another death will quickly follow, unless

[MARCH, 1873.

The word Kulwadi(“he who knows the ryots”) is derived from kula—the technical term by which a ryot cultivating government land is known. In the word kula we find crystallized a story of other days. One of the Bellala kings,

whose devotion to religion had gained him the

a fowl is tied to one corner of the bier which

favour of the gods, had been presented with a

carries the deceased to his long home.

phial containing “Sidda rasa,”—a liquid which converted iron into gold. On this the king deter

fowl is buried with the deceased.

This

Those castes

who do not eat fowl replace it with the bolt of

the door. This may account for why a fowl forms a portion of the burial-fee. The only caste, so far as I can learn, in which the custom of placing a coin in the mouth of

the deceased is still practised, is the Vokkaliga ; the coin must be a gold one. The body is always buried with the feet to the north.

mined to abolish the payment of the land-tax in coin, and ordered that each ryot should pay into the government treasury the “gula,” or plough-share, used during the year. All the iron thus collected the king turned into gold, In the course of time the initial g has become

k, and from the custom of paying the “Gula,' the ryot came to be called a “ Kula.”

ON THE SUB-DIVISIONS OF THE BRAHMAN CASTE IN NORTHERN ORISSA. BY JOHN BEAMES, B. C. S., M.R.A.S.

As a slight contribution to our knowledge of the divisions of caste in India, a subject still

and the divisions of the two classes are fairly represented in most parts of the district, though

involved in much obscurity, the following remarks

the southern class is less numerous than the

on the gotras, or families, of the great Brahman

northern. The former are held in greater esteem for learning and purity of race than the

caste in this part of Orissa may be found useful." Tradition relates that the original Brāhmans

of Orissa were all extinct at the time of the rise

latter.

of the Gangá Vaſsa line of kings, but that 10,000 Brahmans were induced to come from

The Srenis are divided, first, according to the Veda, whose ritual they profess to observe, and secondly, into gotras or families.

Kanauj and settle in Jājpür, the sacred city on

I.—SouTHERN LINE.

the Baitarani river.

The date of this immigra 1. Rig-Veda.

tion is not stated, but the fact is probably his torical, and may have been synchronous with the

Gotr A.

UPADH 1.

well-known introduction of Kanaujia Brähmans into the neighbouring province of Bengal by King Adisura in the tenth century.f When the worship of the idol Jagannāth began

Basishtha.

Sărangi.

to be revived at Puri, the kings of Orissa induced many of the Jājpür Brahmans to settle round the new temple and conduct the ceremonies.

Thus there sprang up a division among the Brahmans; those who settled in Puri being

called the Dakhindtya Sreni, or southern class, and those who remained at Jājpür, the Uttara Sreni, or northern class. This latter spread all over northern Orissa.

Many of the southern

Brahmans, however, are also found in Balasor;

Mahāpātra.

»

2. Sima-Veda.

Kāśyapa .................. Nanda. Dharagautama .........Tripathi. Gautama ............. ..... Udgātā, vulgo Utá. Parasara .................. Dibedi, vulgo Dube. Kaundinya ...............Tripäthi, vulgo Tihári. 3. Yajur-Veda.f Bhāradwaja—

a. Bhāradwajaš ......Sărangi. b. Sambhukar ......... Misra.

c. Ländi .............. Nanda.

• This brief article was put together from notes made at

different times; and something similar was supplied by me to Dr. W. W. Hunter and has been printed by him in the

it at about A.D. 964.—Journal Asiatic Society of Bengal,

appendix to his work on Orissa. The above article, however,

native informants stick to it that the Sāma-Vedis rank

exhibits the classification more fully and clearly than Dr. Hunter's note, and contains some additional facts which I have learnt since the appearance of that work.

above the Yajur-Vedis. standing the reason.

f The date is not certain.

Babu Rajendralal Mitra fixes

vol. XXXIV., p. 139. † This ought to come before the Sāma-Veda, but my I record the fact without under

§ The great Bhāradwaj gotra is divided into the three septs here given.

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