eral wives, and indulge in polygamy, while
the girls of the higher subcastes and the boys of the lower ones
find it difficult and sometimes even impossible to obtain husbands
and wives. The custom attained its most absurd development among the
Kulin Brahmans of eastern Bengal, as described by Sir H. Risley. [408]
Here the Brahmans were divided by a Hindu king, Ballal Sen, into
two classes, the Kulin (of good family), who had observed the entire
nine counsels of perfection; and the Srotriya, who, though regular
students of the Vedas, had lost sanctity by intermarrying with families
of inferior birth. The latter were further subdivided into three
classes according to their degree of social purity, and each higher
class could take daughters from the next one or two lower ones. The
doctrine known as Kula-gotra was developed, whereby the reputation of
a family depended on the character of the marriages made by its female
members. In describing the results of the system Sir H. Risley states:
"The rush of competition for Kulin husbands on the part of the inferior
classes became acute. In order to dispose of the surplus of women in
the higher groups polygamy was resorted to on a very large scale:
it was popular with the Kulins because it enabled them to make a
handsome income by the accident of their birth; and it was accepted
by the parents of the girls concerned as offering the only means of
complying with the requirements of the Hindu religion. Tempted by a
_pan_ or premium, which often reached the sum of two thousand rupees,
Swabhava Kulins made light of their _kul_ and its obligations, and
married girls, whom they left after the ceremony to be taken care of by
their parents. Matrimony became a sort of profession, and the honour
of marrying a girl to a Kulin is said to have been so highly valued
in eastern Bengal that as soon as a boy was ten years old his friends
began to discuss his matrimonial prospects, and before he was twenty
he had become the husband of many wives of ages varying from five to
fifty." The wives were commonly left at home to be supported by their
parents, and it is said that when a Kulin Brahman had a journey to
make he usually tried to put up for the night at the house of one of
his fathers-in-law. All the marriages were recorded in the registers
of the professional Ghataks or marriage-brokers, and each party was
supplied with an extract. On arrival at his father-in-law's house the
Kulin would produce