The Newars

The Newars of Nepal are a people with a high degree of material culture and a distinctive social organisation. Though stray references on them are available from the pioneering accounts of Levi, Hodgson, Oaldfield, K.P. Chattopadhyaya and others, there has been no systematic ethnosociological study on the subject. Dr. Nepali's monograph, which earned him the Ph.D. degree of the Bombay University, makes an attempt to fill in this gap. Written in the best traditions of sociological studies, the author, who has had the benefit of being trained under Dr. G.S. Ghurye, the doyen of Indian sociology, uses the functional approach and the descriptive method to advantage, as is particularly evident in his religion and kinship. The monograph derives additional dimensions of interest on two points: while on the one hand it seeks to study the Newars and their interaction with various other ethnic groups of the politically significant cis?Himalayan region, the work, on the other hand, stimulates scholarly curiosity by its discussion on the similarity of certain culture traits between the Newars and the distantly placed Nayars of Malabar.