Direct Indian influence may be seen in another department not unimportant in an oriental country.  The court astrologers, soothsayers and professors of kindred sciences were even in recent times Brahmans, known as Ponna and mostly from Manipur.  An inscription found at Pagan and dated 1442 mentions the gift of 295 books[171] to the Sangha among which several have Sanskrit titles and about 1600 we hear of Pandits learned in the Vedasastras, meaning not Vedic learning in the strict sense but combinations of science and magic described as medicine, astronomy, Kamasastras, etc.  Hindu tradition was sufficiently strong at the Court to make the presence of experts in the Atharva Veda seem desirable and in the capital they were in request for such services as drawing up horoscopes[172] and invoking good luck at weddings whereas monks will not attend social gatherings.

More important as a non-Buddhist element in Burmese religion is the worship of Nats[173] or spirits of various kinds.  Of the prevalence of such worship there is no doubt, but I cannot agree with the authorities who say that it is the practical religion of the Burmese.  No passing tourist can fail to see that in the literal as well as figurative sense Burma takes its colour from Buddhism, from the gilded and vermilion pagodas and the yellow robed priests.  It is impossible that so much money should be given, so many lives dedicated to a religion which had not a real hold on the hearts of the people.  The worship of Nats, wide-spread though it be, is humble in its outward signs and is a superstition rather than a creed.  On several occasions the kings of Burma have suppressed its manifestations when they became too conspicuous.  Thus Anawrata destroyed the Nat houses of Pagan and recent kings forbade the practice of firing guns at funerals to scare the evil spirits.

Nats are of at least three classes, or rather have three origins.  Firstly they are nature spirits, similar to those revered in China and Tibet.  They inhabit noticeable natural features of every kind, particularly trees, rivers and mountains; they may be specially connected with villages, houses or individuals.  Though not essentially evil they are touchy and vindictive, punishing neglect or discourtesy with misfortune and ill-luck.  No explanation is offered as to the origin of many Nats, but others, who may be regarded as forming the second category, are ghosts or ancestral spirits.  In northern Burma Chinese influence encouraged ancestor worship, but apart from this there is a disposition (equally evident in India) to believe that violent and uncanny persons and those who meet with a tragic death become powerful ghosts requiring propitiation.  Thirdly, there are Nats who are at least in part identified with the Indian deities recognized by early Buddhism.  It would seem that the Thirty Seven Nats, described in a work called the Mahagita Medanigyan, correspond to the Thirty Three Gods of Buddhist mythology, but that the number