Viewing page 48 of 176

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

MAHRATTA PUNDITS.
(359)
THIS group represents a class which has not as yet bee illustrated.  The members of it are Mahratta Brahmins, who, as long as the Mahrattas governed the provinces of Saugors and Jubbulpoor, acted as local administrators, or held offices as clerks, agents, and ministerials officers, or exercised their profession as Brahmin priests in the performance of domestic ceremonies, giving, public or private recitations of the Vedas and Shastras.  As the powers of the Peshwahs extended on all sides, a large field was open for the employment of intelligent Brahmin youths, and they were, as a rule, not only well educated in their own language, but in Sanskrit at the public college in Poona, and in the schools which sprung up everywhere.  While the superior officers and chieftains were illiterate, most of them being unable even to sign their names, the Brahmins became clerks, secretaries, managers, and the like, and exclusive of religious profession had a monopoly of all the learning, necessary for public life.  They were excellent accountants and secretaries, and most faithful to their employers.  Some of them even became soldiers on emergents occasions and brave and judicious commanders of large armies.  The History of the Mahrattas by the late Colonel Grant Duff, Malcolm's Central India and many other standard works, give repeated illustrations of the real value of the Mahratta Brahmins, their intellectual capacity, perseverance, true faith, and even devotion, in various capacities; and to the present day they are employed under the British Government in all departments with distinguished usefulness and merit. Apt at public business, they serve as native judges, commissioners, collectors, surveyors, architects and civil engineers; they are also Physicians, lawyers, advocates, and pleaded, of great mental clearness and capacity, and they are professors on native colleges and schoolmasters all over the country.  The study of English is popular among them, and some attain great perfection both in speaking and writing it.  At foreign courts they master Persian, and in short, by their intellectual powers are sure of success wherever they are employed.  Every