Status Ranking of and by Outsiders

People in Bhaktapur's core system rank all outsiders—both in and beyond Bhaktapur—into a hierarchical system of relative purity and impurity and, in turn, are ranked by at least some of those outsiders, most importantly by Nepal's dominant Indo-Nepalese. While the ranking of the internal components of the Bhaktapur core system is repeatedly represented and reinforced in symbols and concepts and in action and is very generally agreed upon, these external rankings are a different matter. The objects of Newar or Newar Hindu ranking may well be ranking the Newars in their turn by a different calculus, and do not accept (or sometimes care or know about) Newar decisions about their position. Some of the northern Mongoloid groups do not even accept the underlying assumptions which support the general notion of Hindu hierarchy.

We will list these external rankings in a summary fashion:

1. Groups within Bhaktapur: Buddhist Bare.

For Rajopadhyaya Brahmans, the Buddhist Bare (including both sections—priests and precious metal craftsmen) were considered water-unacceptable. The justifications given by Brahmans for their low rank are miscellaneous, but not necessarily more post hoc than other such justifications for status. These include their metalworking, their traditional performances on "contaminating" musical instruments, and their short seven-day period of contamination after death—such short periods being characteristic of low-level groups. Furthermore, the Bare do not, in con-

trast to Hindus, maintain a residual queue of hair in the course of the shaving of their heads at the time of (and in purification rituals subsequent to) boys' ritual initiation into their thar . This last, a reminder of their original status as monks (Buddhist monks' shaving of the entire head being a sign of renunciation of ordinary lineage and social ties), probably reflects one of the historical reasons for their ambiguous rank—recalling the ambiguous social ranking of all Hindu renouncers. For other members of upper-level thar s, Chathariya and Pa[n]cthariya, the Bare were considered on the levels of the Jyapus, and thus "water-acceptable."^[51]

2. Groups within Bhaktapur: non-Newar Brahmans and Matha^[*] priests.

Rajopadhyaya Brahmans traditionally considered the Jha and Bhatta^[*] Brahmans and the Matha^[*] priests to be water-acceptable. The Newar Chathariya, and Pa(n)cthariya treated them as they did the highest segments just below themselves; that is, they accepted all food except boiled rice and pulses from them. Middle-level and lower-level Newar groups accept rice from these priests. Conversely, the Jha and Bhatta^[*] Brahmans accepted rice from neither Rajopadhyaya Brahmans nor the levels below them.

3. Relations to other non-Newar Nepalis, both in and out of Bhaktapur.

Newars in general divide non-Newar Nepalis into two groups. Mongoloid peoples, thought generally to have Tibetan connections, are called "Sae(n)." This term is said to derive from an old Newari term for a Tibetan^[52] or, according to some, for Lhasa.

For the non-Mongoloid hill peoples, who are in large part the groups from western Nepal associated with the Gorkhali invaders, the term "partya ," or "hill-dweller" is used in polite reference.^[53] The ordinary term, considered pejorative, is "khae(n), " derived, apparently, from the tribal designation "khas ."^[54] This general term refers in some contexts to the upper-status divisions of the western Khas group, the Brahmans ("Khae[n] Brahmans") and the upper "Ksatriya^[*] " divisions (the latter also referred to distinctively as "Chetri") but in other contexts also may include the very low status (generally untouchable) occupational Khas groups such as blacksmiths, tailors, shoemakers, and leatherworkers.^[55] Furthermore, other non-Mongoloid hill groups who may be of dubious historical Khas connections, such as the Gaine, are included as Khae(n).

For Newar Brahmans, Partya Brahmans and Chetris are only water-acceptable. The Chathariya and Pa(n)cthariya, in general, accept all

foods and drink except boiled rice and pulses from the Partya Brahmans and Chetri. Those Khas groups untouchable to the Partya Brahmans and Chetri themselves are also untouchable for the Newars.

The Sae(n) were generally treated as water-unacceptable by Brahmans. The Chathariya and strict Pa(n)cthariya accepted water (but not boiled and salted foods) from them. Most, but not all, Jyapu accepted all food except boiled rice and pulses from them.

The residual group, neither Khae(n) nor Sae(n), are Muslims, and these are generally treated as untouchable by the highest levels, and water-unacceptable by those below them.

4. Partyas' conceptions of Newars.

As Lynn Bennett (1977, p. 30f.) puts it, for the Khas Brahmans and the Chetris,

The higher twice-born Newari castes . . . exist in a kind of "separate but parallel" status with respect to the high caste Parbatiya. The remaining castes. . .all fall under the rubric of matwat or "liquor-drinking." From the Brahman-Chetri point of view this large middle-ranking group includes most Newar and other Tibeto-Burman speaking peoples. . . . Members of this group . . . are touchable and water as well as . . . uncooked food or food cooked with ghee can be accepted by high caste individuals from them.

Newar untouchables and the clearly water-unacceptable groups (such as Nae and Jugi) are also untouchable or water-unacceptable to the upper-ranking Chetris and to Partya Brahmans. These rankings reflect the rankings and ambiguities of the Muluki Ain , the attempt to legislate a Nepalese national status system. Its attempts to integrate the entire Newar status system into a national system was very awkward for all parties, and "often deficient or ambiguous and at variance with the self-assessment of the Newar castes" (Höfer 1979, 140).