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INDIA

culture. No towns or cities in India so amply repay a
visit as those of Rajputana. There is nothing in India to
exceed the beauty of the city of Udaipur, seat of the most
ancient of Rajput races, with the white brightness of its
towers and terraces reflected in the waters of its still clear
lake, and its noble surroundings of hill and plain ; nothing
in the art of marble carving to beat the records of that
race of sculptors which decorated Ambér, the ancient site
of Jaipur ; nothing historically so fascinating as the bloodstained
 courtyards and walls and towers of Chitor. No
district in India can compare with Rajputana in historical
interest.
Rajput races are, however, scattered and mixed with
other classes of the Indian population all over India.
Under the name of Dogra they are settled in large numbers
in the Himalayas. The Himalayan state of Chamba is
a Rajput state, and the seat of one of the oldest dynasties
in existence. On the borders of Sind, in the districts of
Las Bela, we again find Rajput clans, and there can be
little doubt that many of our frontier tribes-people possess
Rajput affinities, derived from some prehistoric reflex
wave which was swept back from the plains of India into
the bordering hills.
Distinct from Rajputs, the Brahmans have ever represented
 the priestly caste in India, and, like the priestly
clan all over the world, they have directed the destinies
of nations, and still exercise the most potent influence of
any caste in India.
Into the history of early Brahmanism, when the faith
was higher, nobler, purer than anything that at present
exists, ere it was eclipsed for a time by Buddhism, we
cannot enter. When Buddhism declined, Brahmanism
again resumed its ascendency, and although it is not
(or it claims not to be) a proselytising religion, Sir Alfred
Lyall thinks that it probably claims more converts in these
days than any other religion in the world. It is difficult
to understand the ascendency of the priest over the people
of India without a complete grasp also of their appalling
ignorance and superstition.