They were regarded both for their ritualistic experience and their reputed sanctity, as the superiors of the priestly classes, and even the servile adventurers who had followed their fortunes were honoured, as the leaders of the Sudra caste. But the new comers did not enjoy these favours with the modesty and magnanimity which became their distinguished rank and dignity. They affected to treat the Aboriginal or old Bengalee Brahmins with scorn and contumely. Instead of labouring to raise the indigenous priests by amalgamating with them, and of thus forming an united and compact body of native hierarchy, they continued as a separate and isolated order, and sowed the seeds of much heart-burning and jealousy.
The descendants of the five priestly emigrants from Kanouj had multiplied rapidly and overrun the whole country, when Bullal Sen, one of the successors of Adisur, ascended the Bengal throne. This prince was held in such high estimation all over Bengal, that the most extravagant fancies have been indulged, and the wildest tales invented, in order to connect his memory with the marvellous and the sublime. Poets have invested him with the dignity of a divine original, and described his infantile precocity in the most glowing colours. He has been represented as the son of the fluvial god Brahmaputra, who had deceived his mother by assuming the form of her own husband. His nativity is said to have taken place in the solitude of a thick forest, where his mother had been banished a few months before her parturition through the jealousy and treachery of his father’s two other wives. In these sylvan shades, and under the especial protection of Heaven, he passed his infantile days, undisturbed by the noise and distractions of towns and cities, and uncontaminated by the pleasures and irregularities of riotous society. His divine parent, “uxorius amnis,” as Horace would perhaps call him, instructed him in the different branches of a Hindu’s education, and in the tactics of war and diplomatic policy. While yet a boy, he is said to have exhibited extraordinary proofs of heroism and strength. He had discomfited, unassisted and alone, a whole host of disciplined troops, commanded by princes and veteran captains, and armed with all the weapons of native warfare.
As a king, Bullal appears to have been the friend and father of his people. The tranquillity which prevailed in his reign, enabled him to cultivate the arts of peace, and to reform the social institutions of his country. His affability and condescension were unexampled. But too much familiarity in such characters, unless balanced by more than ordinary wis-
