पान:आंग्ल प्रभा.djvu/31

29 As between caste and caste, the Peishwas held the balancé evenly, even when the interests of the Brahmin priests were affected. The right of the Sonars to employ priests of their own caste was upheld against the opposition of the Poona Joshis. The claim made by the Kumbhars (potters) for the bride and the bride-groom to ride on horse-back was upheld against the carpenters and blacksmiths who opposed it. The Kasars' right to go in processions along the streets, which was opposed by the Lingayats, was similarly upheld. The right of the Parbhus to use Vedic formulas in worship had indeed been questioned in Narayanrao Peishwa's time, and they were ordered to use only Puranic forms like the Shudras. This prohibition was, however, resented by the Parbhus, and in Bajirao II's time the old order appears to have been cancelled, and the Parbhus were allowed to have the Munja or thread ceremony performed as before. A Konkani Kalal or publican, who had been put out of his caste, because he had given his daughter in marriage to a Gujarathi Kalal, complained to the Peishwa, and order was given to admit him into caste. In the matter of inter-marriage, Balaji Bajirao set the example by himself marrying the daughter of a Deshastha Sowkar, named Wakhare, in 1760. The Peishwas in Shahu's time issued orders prohibiting alli. ances by way of marriages between second cousins, that is, the children of brothers and sisters, which practice seems then to have been in Vogue in Konkan, and is continued to this day in many castes. The point to be regarded in all these instances is not to be estimated by the actual success achieved, but by the fact that these native rulers interested them. selves in these matters, and showed considerable liberality in the orders issued by them to correct existing social evils. The right of the State to interfere in such matters was broadly claimed in one of these orders, when it was directed that when the Subha had ordered the exclusion of any person from his caste, the members of the caste had no right to take on themselves to set the order aside without reference to the Dewan, that is, to the State or the Central Authorities. In the case of those castes, where ordinary punishments could not be inflicted by reason of their being Brahmins or otherwise, the authorities under the Peishwa showed considerable skill, in supplementing the more lenient civil Penalty by the employment of religious penances and fines. And it Was in this connection that the order noted above was issued. These brief notices of the social regulations attempted under the Maratha rulers with a view to promote the admission of converts, the Practice of inter-marriage, the prohibition of the sale of girls, the enforcement of temperance, their policy in permitting a second gift of girls in. h