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).