1
THE PEOPLE OE INDIA”
This series consists of 132 Photographs selected from the work entitled “The People
of India, prepared at the India Museum, and of which six volumes have now heen
issued * The whole series has been divided into two groups. The first group (Nos. 1 to
95) is arranged as far as possible so as to represent all the leading types characteristic
of native society in India as a whole, although drawn chiefly from Northern India,
or Hindustan Proper. The arrangement of this group follows in some measure the
natural stratification of Indian society, beginning with the ruling and proprietary classes,
and ending with the gipsies and wandering tribes.
_ The second group (Nos. 96 to 132) illustrates locally interesting tribes, reputed aborigines
of the country, and some of the more interesting frontier tribes. The arrangement
of this group is entirely geographical.
A.—THE PRINCIPAL RACES, CLASSES, AND TRIBES OF INDIA.
a.—Brahmins.
The Brahmins are divided into two main classes—one, “ Loukik,” or “ secular the
other, “ Vaidik,” who follow sacred callings. To these a third dass may be added—
“ Bheekuk,” or those whose sole support is begging and the alms of the charitable. These
classes are subdivided in every part of India into an infinity of sects, some of which do,
and others do not, intermarry with each other. Brahmins may be considered to be
divided into ten great nations, five of which belong to Northern, and five to Southern
India, but there is little or no connexion between them. The Brahmins of Northern
India are held in small repute by those of the South, and vice versa. In regard to sacred
professions, some are literally priests, who perform ceremonies and make offerings for
other Brahmins, assisting at household offices, daily prayers, purifications, marriages, and
funeral ceremonies. Others are purohits, orfamily priests or chaplains, not only 5 to' rieh
Brahmin families, but to princes of lower caste—Rajpoots or Sudras. Such offices are for
the most part hereditary. Brahmins who have attained a high degree of sanctity and
learning are frequently chosen as gurus, or spiritual directors by other Brahmins, and also
by lower castes. A very large proportion of Brahmins support themselves and their
families by begging, visiting wealthy persons, reading to them from Sanscrit books or
more populär treatises, or from dramas, the recitation of which, with episodes from the
Mahabharat and Ramayana, are fertile sources of profit. Nor do the lower classes escape.
At marriages, at funerals, at naming of children, Brahmins must be consulted, paid, and
fed. Nor is any action of social life complete without them. As astroloo-ers, they are
in full occupation. Brahmins, except those connected with them as ministering priests,
rarely resort to temples for their devotions, and except in fulfilment of a vo & \v, or on
public occasions, are seldom seen there. The home Service is considered sufficient for
all purposes of purification, and if a temple is visited, it is after the ordinary home
Service has been concluded.
* “The People of India,” a series of photographic illustrations of the raoes and tribes of Hindustan
originally prepared linder the authority of the Government of India, and reproduced by Order of the Secretary
of State for India in Council, with descriptive letterpress by Col. Meadows Taylor, C.S.I M RAS
Edited by J. Forbes Watson, M.A,, M.D., and Sir John William Kaye, K.C.S.I., F.R.S., London-W.
H. Allen & Co.
(8834.) *
