322

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.

[Oct. 4, 1872.

the second century B.C.; and Professor R. G.

Pompeii. Rangan-iyagar once a year leaves his

Bhandarkar has, I understand, been able to find a

angry Juno, Rangam-iyargari in the temple and is dragged in his giant car, by a thousand Brahmans and their deluded ones, with songs and shouting, to spend three nights in the pretty little temple of Nachh-eramma, the dancing goddess.-Rev. C. H.

further confirmation of Dr. Goldstücker's conclusion. It would seem therefore that the cow must have

been revered at as early a period at least as the second century B.C. KASHINATH TRIMBAK TELANG.

Dall in the “ Indian Mirror.’

I’UBLICATION ON CHAND.

HILL OR ABORIGINAL TRIBES IN THE DEKHAN.

WE learn that Mr. J. Beames is preparing for the Bibliotheca Indica, published for the Bengal

I am indebted to the learned Dr. Carter, the Civil Sur geon of Sattara, for the short account that I propose to give

Asiatic Society, the text of Chand's Prithirāja Rāsau,

on the above points. According to his opinion, the abori

with the words divided, from a collation of several MSS., and that Dr. Hoerule, Professor of Sanskrit at

Jaynarayan's College, Benares, will prepare the second part, beginning with book XXIII. The two parts will be carried on simultaneously, and the first fasciculus containing about 2,000 lines will appear immediately. JAGANNATH.

THOUGH there is nothing positively indecent in the festival of Jagannāth itself, the Pundas or priests, who have the management of it, are notoriously immoral men, and many females who go on pil grimage to Puri return no more to lead chaste lives.

Nor is that all. The sculptures on the temple from top to bottom and the paintings on the car are the foulest and the umost abominable possible. Even those who have every faith in Jagannāth cannot

help being shocked by them.—Indian Mirror.

ginal tribes in the District are either settled or wandering.

In the first class he places (1) the Ramusis, who inhabit the eastern parts of the District ; (2) the Mangs and Be ruds, who occupy the parts which lie adjacent to the Kolha pur State ; (3) the Kolis, who live in small numbers in the hilly tracts near the Bhor State; and (4) the Dhangars, who live either on the top of the hills which form the off

shoots of the Sahyadri, or on the plains of the eastern part of the District, where they find sufficient room to pasture their flocks. In the other classes he places the Wadars, Wanjars, Katkadis, and Dombaris. The last, however, do not wander only in this Collectorate, but pass and repass through it in the course of their migrations to other Zillas. They have no dis tinct grammar or vocabulary of their own ; but the settled tribes speak the Marathi language with a mixture of a few words peculiar to each tribe, and the wandering tribes those of the districts from whence they come. The Wanjaras, the Doctor thinks, come from Khandesh, but I am humbly of opinion that they are Wanacharas, that is, wanderers in the forests on the sides or in the tracts which lie at the foot

of the Satpura range of hills. They are also found in large numbers in the Eastern and Western Berars. The Katkadis and Dombaris, the Doctor believes, come from Telanga,

as the dialects which they speak resemble the Telugu. I have had no time to make inquiries of them, and can therefore CAR AT SRIRANGAM, offer no opinion of my own.

FROM actual observation I am compelled to en dorse what you say of the frightful immorality and obscenity of some of the religious rites of actual, living, and popular Hinduism. Banāras is bad enough, with its myriad Lingas continually wor shipped. But I have seen nothing in Banāras so beastly and corrupting as the band of copulatives that encircle the new car of the great god of Sri rangam. You may be aware that this granite god Ranganiyargar, with his twelve or fifteen hundred thousand rupees' worth of trumpery in gold, silver, pearls, emeralds, and diamonds, sits and lies in the most splendid temple of Southern India ; seven walled, and with the outer wall measuring half a mile on the side, or two miles in circuit.

On three

sides of each of these seven walls are richly ornate pyramidal gateways, called Goprams, which show

finely in photographs, and are so captivating to the eye of an artist. Let the visitor of Seringam, insist as I did, on seeing the latest edition of old Brahmanism, in the newly constructed and freshly painted rath (carriage) of the presiding deity. He will see no

thing so vile as this in the Naples Museum, among objects which the fearless student of history and life sees there, just as they were taken from the darkest Roman times and the brothels of unburied

The Dhangars (Shepherds) are the quietest and most in nocent race of people. They wander in the district in search of pasture for their herds and flocks, but often return to their settled homes on the plains or mountains. Their re

ligion, language, and manners, are to a great extent like those of the Kunbis. But the temples in which they worship their deities are mere piles of large unhewn stones, which Captain M. Taylor in one of his works remarks resemble the places of worship of the old Druids. These people render great service to the cultivators, who invite them with an

offer of a reward to pen their flocks in their fields, so that they may leave behind them valuable manure. The founder of the Holkar family in Malwa sprang from this race. The Wadars, a rude and hardy race of people, wander

over all parts of the Dekhan. They speak a dialect which I think neither resembles the Maharashtra nor the Telugu.

They are principally engaged in cutting large stones and rocks, and working stone quarries; they work very hard and spend money as fast as they get it in drinking and other vices. They have a distinct system of religion of their own, and their manners and customs differ widely from those of the general mass of the Hindus. There is another race of people in this District which can

not properly be called a hill tribe. They inhabit the Murhas, or low valleys at the foot of the Sahyadri, and are known under the appellation of the Konkanis of the Marhas.

They are a very peaceful race of men, extremely ignorant, simple, and superstitious. For six months in the year they subsist on coarse corn, which they grow on the sides of their mountains, and pass the remaining half of the year either in hunting or obtaining roots and bark of trees which serve

them as food.—Bombay Educational Record.