Bullal, and they were designated either after one or other of the four mels already named, or from the family to which they were respectively attached. The Ghosauls and the Gangoolies comprehended three other distinctive appellations after three of their sons of fame, viz. Putitandi, Kanjilaul and Kunda.
Lukhman Sen, the son and successor of Bullal, followed up and improved the heraldry instituted by his father, and enlarged the names and orders of the Kuls to an enormous length. The primary orders were left untouched. The inferior or secondary mels were spun out into nearly thirty subdivisions. By these intricate multiplications of high-sounding titles, the king may have rendered himself pope among his Brahmins, but he benefited neither his family, his country, nor any body else, except perhaps the Kulins themselves and the Ghataks.[1] His posterity were deserted by these very dignitaries on the approach of Mehomed Bukhtyar at the head of his victorious army flushed with the conquest of Behar. In his old age, the last prince of the Sen dynasty was obliged to surrender his crown into the hands of the Javans, and betake himself to an ignominious flight. His sceptre was wrenched from his hand by the followers of the impostor, and the land of the Kulins and Shrotriyas was deprived of its independence and shorn of its glory. The very reigns which had mustered such a dignified array of newly-created titles[2] numbered the days of freedom and liberty in Bengal, and introduced all the miseries of the iron age, which the old sages are said to have predicted with such piteous forebodings, and under which the country smarted for many a tedious century.
Besides these Kulins, another order of Brahmins was honoured in Bullal’s time, who were called the Shrotriyas. The descendants of the five Kanouj Brahmins, though at first they had avoided all intercourse with the Saptasati or aboriginal Brahmins of Bengal, were subsequently induced to accept their daughters as wives. The offspring of these marriages were considered inferior to their fathers, but superior to their
- ↑ The Ghataks are the keepers of genealogical tables and judges of the relative dignity of families. When proposals of marriage are stipulated, their books and opinions are sought as a security against unequal or illegal contracts. Their verdicts are generally considered as final and decisive.
- ↑ The principal orders of Kulins we have already mentioned. We may as well name some of the inferior mels in this place:—Panditratny, Bangal, Surayee, Acharya Sekhary, Chatta Raghaby, Parihall, Dehata, Dasharath Ghataky, Shabharajkhany, Maladarkhany, Achambeta, Chandrabaty, Baly, Kakutsthy, Raghab Ghosaly, Bijoypandity, Sadanandakhany, Naria, Udharany, Chharyee. Whether these appellations be musical or not, they give in their Roman dress sufficient trial to our own guttural and palatial organs, and we are sure they will afford still better pastime to our readers.
