SOCIETY AND MANNERS VOL. 2

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by  N.A.

Uetarpara Joykiishas Public Libragy
Govt. of West Beogad

SOCIETY AND MANNERS.

THE CULINA BRAHMINS.

A controversy of an interesting character has
sprung up, in the principal presidency of India,
amongst the natives chiefly, regarding the Culina
Brahmins, the’fruits of which may possibly check,
or entirely stop, an abuse which must materially
influence the morals of the native population of
Bengal.

The Culinas, or Koolins, are a class of brahmins
said to have been distinguished from the rest by
Balala Séna, raja of Ghour, some five or six centu-
ries ago, who, to encourage learning and an ad-
herence to the Shastras, ‘amongst the brahmins,
divided them into three orders, the first and most
honourable of which were denominated Culinas,
from Cula, ‘a race,’ and who were required to pos-
sess nine qualifications : Ist. to observe the peculiar
duties of brahmins; 2d. to be meek; 8d. to be

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4 ‘ SOCKETY AND MANNERS.

ats. to he of good character; 5th. to be
Gisposeil toxvieit holy places; 6th. to be devout;
"theta begyerse to receiving gifts from the impure;
8th. to be fond of an ascetic life; 9th. to be liberal.
These Culinas and their descendants, in conse-
quence, enjoy vast consideration, even amongst the
other brahmins, who invariably yield them the seat
of honour, and their alliance in marriage is coveted
as a great distinction.

From this last circumstance, an evil of great
magnitude appears to have arisen. A Culina brah-
min may marry, or ge hiy son in marriage to, a
woman of an inferior order; but his daughters must
marry persons of his own order, or remain unmar-
ried. When Culinas marry a woman of an inferior
order, they receive large presents of moncy; and as
they are not limited in the number of wives, some of
them convert this privilege into a source of pecu-
uiary profit; and it is said that many of the disre-
putable Culinas marry from twenty to a hundred
wives each. In the mean time, the sons of Culinas
emg generally pre-engaged in these venal matches,
their daughters can find no hushands; and conse-
quently too frequently form irregular connections.

The vicious effects of this practice are detailed
by Mr. Ward, in his account of the castes of the
Hindus :*

® View of the Hindoos, vol 1 p 8.
THE CULINA BRAHMINS. 5

* Each koolecnu marries at least two Wives; one
the daughter of a bramhun of his own order, and
the other of a shrotriyu; the former he. generally
leaves at her father’s, the other he takes to his own
house. It is essential to the honour of a kooleenu
that he have one daughter, but by the birth of
many daughters he sinks in respect: hence he
dreads, more than other Hindoos, the birth of
daughters. Some inferior kooleenus marry many
wives. I have heard of perrons having 120. Thus
the creation of this order of merit has ended in a
state of monstrous polygamy, which has no parallel
in the history of human depravity. Amongst the
Turks, seraglios are confined to men of wealth;
but here, a Hindoo ‘brahmun, possessing only a
shred of cloth and a poita, keeps more than a hun-
dred mistresses. Many have fifteen or twenty, and
others forty or fifty each. Numbers procure a sub-
sistence by this excessive polygamy: at their mar-
riages, they obtain large presents, and as often as
they visit these wives, they receive presents from
the father; and thus, having married into forty or
fifty families, a koolcenu goes from house to house,
and is fed, clothed, &c. Some old men, after the
wedding, never see the female; others visit? her once
in three or four years. A respectable kooleenu
never lives with the wife who remains in the house