________________
340
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[Nov 1, 1872.
pats it in front of a tulsi tree, which she salutes, after that five or six women take the child to a well, and draw water five times in a lota, in which a mango branch has been placed, the water is poured ont as a libation, and the god to whom it is offered is invoked by name. This is called (691) chuyáchhuyá; no purohit is reqnired for these ceremonies. The Palis are not acquainted with the usual Hindu ceremonies of shaving the head, boring the ear, and naming a child. Both the Palis and Koch worship the usual Hindu gods, but they have also deities of their own to whom they seem to pay greater respect. The tutelary goddess of the Tista river is almost universally worshipped by them under the name of "barni Thakurani" in the month of Chait. Some of the ceremonies they practise are very curious and appear to be quite unknown to the common Hindus ; amongst them is an annual festival held in honour of Durga, who is worshipped under the name of Gambhira. The head of a dead man is taken, or if that cannot be procured, a skull which is painted to resemble life and offered before the goddess with singing and dancing.
When the land is suffering from want of rain, the women assemble at night, and covering their bodies with red ponder go naked through the village with swords in their hands dancing and
singing indecent songs; notice is given beforeband, and no man is allowed to leave his house that night. This ceremony is called hudmdyao (F ort) an expression of which I have not been able to find the exact meaning but it may possibly be the Sanskrit root or the heaven and I am told that means "open" but it resembles no Bengali word with which I am acquainted. I should be glad of suggestions on this subject. This interpretation would afford a good meaning, as the women might well be supposed to call on the heavens to open in time of dearth.
The Palis are subdivided into three classes-- the Shadu, Baba, and Desi Palis. The Bâbú Palis, or Byabahari, as they are also called, eat pigs and fowls and drink spirits, and the Desi Palis will eat shellfish. Both the Shadu and Babu Palis use cows in ploughing. The Shadu Palis for the most part follow the tenets of Chaitanya, the founder of the Bairaghi sect. The Koch are the palki bearers of the district; they seem to bo about on an equality with the Palis in respect of caste; no Brahman will take water froin either Koch or Palis. I am informed that a few Koch are to be found in Dakha and one or two other districts, but the Palis I believe are peculiar to the districts mentioned above.
ON SOME EMINENT CHARACTERS IN SANSKRIT LITERATURE. BY M. SASHAGIRI S'ASTRI, B.A., ACTING SANSKRIT PROFESSOR, MADRAS.
(Continued from page 315.) KÁLIDÁSA.
the contemporaries of that prince. Kalidasa is Of this great poet nothing is known except said to have been the author of Raghuvansa, his works; nor does he say anything of him- Kumara Sambhava, Meghasandesa, Ritusanhära, self. Some place him at the court of Bhoja, Nalodaya, Setuprabandha, Sakuntala, Vikramwhile others say that he was a contemporary of orvasi, Malavikûgnimitra, Jyotirvidábharana Vikramarka of whose court he is said to have Śruta-bodhini, Vritatârâ vali, Sringaratilaka, been one of the nine sages. An inscription Prasnottaramâlâ, and Hasyârnava. We cannut found by Mr. Wilkins at Buddha Gaya, of which believe that the author of Sakuntalê was the he published a translation, alludes to "the nine same as the author of Nalodaya. But there is gems" (Wilson's preface to the Sanskrit Dictional a tradition that there was a poet at the court of 19.) According to Bhoja charitra he was a con- Bhoja, inferior to Kálidasa, who, grudging the temporary of Bhoja; but this book forfeits all its great poet the reputation he had acquired by his claim to an authority since it enumerates Bâna excellent works, observed that he could not proMayûra Bhavabhäti, Magha and Mallinâtha as duce a poem with yamakas and prdsas or puns of • The author of commentary on the Setuprabandha
Ariete aefty: è "VI FCreats. named Ramadáns wys in the beginning of the work, that Kalidasa wus induced by Vikram Aditya to write the poem. वार्थ परिषदि करते रामदासस्स एवनजमालदींद्रधितिपपौराणा काव्यपर्चाचतुरिमविषये विक्रमादित्यवाचार्यचके | तिवचसा रामसेनुप्रदीपं.
