Acajus

There are in Bhaktapur two thar s with the that name Karmacarya, one among the Pa(n)cthar^[16] and the other among the Jyapu. The traditional profession of the men of these thar s is as a kind of priest called "Acaju" in Newari (from the Sanskrit Acarya , "spiritual guide or teacher," plus the Newari honorific particle ju ). D. R. Regmi, in a discussion of the Josis and Acajus in Malla Nepal, gives a useful orienting account of their still persisting functions (1965-1966, part II, p. 715):

The Acaju functioned as an inferior priest in all Brahman led households. They accepted daksina^[*] (gifts m money) as well as food m their host's house. . . . But they could not chant the Vedic mantras and also could not conduct the [Vedic] rituals. These were done by the Brahmans alone. The Acajus and Josi, however, were indispensable for any ritual. The Josi was concerned with the task of finding out an auspicious time for any kind of rites to be performed. The Acaju helped to arrange methodically the requirements of the ritual performance. He prepared the ground work for the actual rite. It was left for the Brahman priest to use them.

As the Josis, in addition to being assistants to the Brahmans, have their independent function as astrologers, the Acajus also have an independent function. The Acaju are Tantric priests in public settings. This

has lead to an impression in certain accounts of the Newars that only the Acajus work as Tantric priests and that the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans never do. Like many of the auxiliary priestly performers, they undertake tasks that would be improper for the Brahmans, at some cost in status for themselves. However, in this case it is not the function itself from which the Brahmans are protected, but, as we have discussed in chapter 9 in the Tantric context, its public performance. The Acajus also serve as surrogates for members of upper-status households in Tantric rituals in those cases where household members do not have the proper initiation or, sometimes in recent years, the available time to perform them. They also conduct ordinary Tantric puja s for their clients. In elaborate rituals with Tantric and sacrificial components (for example, the major rites of passage and rituals for the establishment of a new house), the Acaju is required, for well-to-do upper-status and middle-status families, at least, as one of the priests in the ceremony. Here he is not only an assistant to the Brahman priest but also (in keeping with the public nature of the sacrifice) the performer of the sacrificial part of the ritual.

Among the Pa(n)cthariya Karmacaryas there are approximately eight groups, who are differentiated in part according to where in the city they live and according to the particular kind of traditional work that they do. The Jyapu Karmacaryas are unique in the Jyapu group in that they, alone, have the right both to wear the sacred thread and to have Tantric initiations and practices. In spite of this they are not ranked in the upper levels of the Jyapus, and the thar s that are in those levels (and cannot wear the sacred thread) will not marry them. When people in the lower levels of the status system were asked to rank Bhaktapur's thar s, they usually placed Brahmans, Josi, and Karmacarya, in that order, at the top, because of their priestly status. In fact, among their peers the Pa(n)cthariya and Jyapu Karmacarya both have what would seem to be a more depressed status than their priestly status accords them in the point of view of those well below them.

Like many other kinds of priests, including the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans, members of the Karmacarya families also work as temple priests at many of the city's temples and shrines.