Pandito

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This article is an excerpt from Castes and Tribes of Southern India By Edgar Thurston, C.I.E., Superintendent, Madras Government Museum; Correspondant Étranger, Société d’Anthropologie de Paris; Socio Corrispondante, Societa,Romana di Anthropologia. Assisted by K. Rangachari, M.A., of the Madras Government Museum. Government Press, Madras 1909.

Pandito

—Pandit or Pundit (pandita, a learned man) has been defined as “properly a man learned in Sanskrit lore. The Pundit of the Supreme Court was a Hindu law-officer, whose duty it was to advise the English Judges when needful on questions of Hindu law. The office became extinct on the constitution of the High Court (in 1862). In the Mahratta and Telugu countries, the word Pandit is usually pronounced Pant (in English colloquial Punt).” In the countries noted, Pant occurs widely as a title of Brāhmans, who are also referred to as Pantulu vāru. The titles Sanskrit Pundit, Telugu Pundit, etc., are still officially recognised at several colleges in the Madras Presidency. Pandit sometimes occurs as an honorific prefix, e.g., Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri, and Panditan is a name given to Tamil barbers (Ambattan). In some parts of the Tamil country, Panditar is used as a name for Mādhva Brāhmans, because, it is said, many of them were formerly engaged as pandits at the Law Courts.

Pandito is further the name of “an Oriya caste of astrologers and physicians. They wear the sacred thread, and accept drinking water only from Brāhmans and Gaudos. Infant marriage is practiced, and widow marriage is prohibited.” I am informed that these Panditos engage Brāhmans for their ceremonials, do not drink liquor, and eat fish and mutton, but not fowls or beef. The females wear glass bangles. They are known by the name of Khodikāro, from khodi, a kind of stone, with which they write figures on the floor, when making astrological calculations. The stone is said to be something like soapstone.

Pandita occurs as an exogamous sept of Stānikas.