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GUNGA SAHAI.

numerous section they are, are purohits, or family priests or chaplains, not only to rich 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. These priests are supported in great measure by their disciples, are the keepers, as it were, of their consciences, and direct prayers, ceremonies, fasts, pilgrimages, and the like, being implicitly obeyed; nor is their influence over the women of families less than over the men. A very large proportion of Brahmins support themselves and their families by begging, not openly in the streets in all instances, but wandering from town to town, and village to village, visiting wealthy persons, reading to them from Sanscrit books or more popular treatises, or from dramas, the recitation of which, with episodes from the Mahabharat and Ramayana, are fertile sources of profit. Such persons form the higher class of beggars; but there are others, poor, noisy, and importunate, who do not scruple to carry the wallet, and receive the humblest doles of flour, meal, or pulse. The sacred books of the Hindoos are so lavish of rewards hereafter to donors to Brahmins, that, as they are implicitly believed, it is not wonderful that begging constitutes actually professions in many forms, and the science as it were has been perfected as nearly as possible. 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 astrologers, they are in full occupation; at least those who profess that science, as detailed under head "Pundit Ram Narain," ante No. 127. Comparatively few Brahmins, except some of the lower degrees, are actually temple priests; and though they attend temples, and perform ceremonies, read sacred books, and offer oblations on behalf of others, they are rarely Poojaris, or, as they may be termed, temple servants. These are hereditary offices, held by persons of much lower caste, not unfrequently by Soodras. On the other hand, the Loukik, or secular Brahmins, in some instances follow agricultural pursuits; and, except actually holding the plough, perform all other work. They are also frequently bankers, money lenders, and money changers, merchants, and the like; but they never descend to the rank of shopkeepers, nor engage in retail trade. They are never artizans or manufacturers. The very lowest orders among them are menial servants to the upper classes, cooks, attendants on temples, and on assemblies where Brahmins are to be feasted, for the purpose of preparing and decorating houses or courts with garlands of leaves and flowers, sweeping and watering the ground, and such like other offices. Many again, especially of the Northern Brahmins, are found in military service, both in the British and native armies; and it may be truly said that a preponderance of them formed one cause of the mutiny of the Bengal army in 1857. On that occasion