writing was unknown,
the man who could remember many verses was held in high honour by
the tribal chief, who depended upon the memory of the bard for his
personal amusement, for the record of his own and his ancestors'
prowess, and for the maintenance of the genealogy which established
the purity of his descent. The bard, like the herald, was not lightly
to be slain, and even Odysseus in the heat of his vengeance spares
the aoidos Phemius, 'who sang among the wooers of necessity.'" [282]

2. Bhats and Charans.

There is no reason to doubt that the Birm or Baram Bhats are an
offshoot of Brahmans, their name being merely a corruption of the term
Brahman. But the caste is a very mixed one, and another large section,
the Charans, are almost certainly derived from Rajputs. Malcolm states
that according to the fable of their origin, Mahadeo first created
Bhats to attend his lion and bull; but these could not prevent the
former from killing the latter, which was a source of infinite vexation
and trouble, as it compelled Mahadeo to create new ones. He therefore
formed the Charan, equally devout with the Bhat, but of bolder spirit,
and gave him in charge these favourite animals. From that time no bull
was ever destroyed by the lion. [283] This fable perhaps indicates
that while the peaceful Bhats were Brahmans, the more warlike
Charans were Rajputs. It is also said that some Rajputs disguised
themselves as bards to escape the vengeance of Parasurama. [284] The
Maru Charans intermarry with Rajputs, and their name appears to be
derived from Maru, the term for the Rajputana desert, which is also
found in Marwar. Malcolm states [285] that when the Rajputs migrated
from the banks of the Ganges to Rajputana, their Brahman priests did
not accompany them in any numbers, and hence the Charans arose and
supplied their place. They had to understand the rites of worship,
particularly of Siva and Parvati, the favourite deities of the Rajputs,
and were taught to read and write. One class became merchants and
travelled with large convoys of goods, and the others were the bards
and genealogists of the Rajputs. Their songs were in the rudest metre,
and their language was the local dialect, understood by all. All this
evidence shows that the Charans were a class of Rajput bards.

3. Lower-class Bhats.

But besides the Birm or Brahman Bhats and the Rajput Charans there is
another large body of the caste of mixed origin, who serve a