Page:Growth of Asamiya Language.pdf/19

 ANCIENT ASAM AS AN EAST-INDIA CULTURAL CENTRE 9 of the first half of the seventh century A.D., is also described as "Sri Bhagadatta Vama-satinbhütz" in an inscription in Sanskrit prose found on a rock within the territory of Gilgit, now in West Pakistan (Neog's N.L.H.AL, Antecedents, pp. 28-29) The Pragiyotişa fame and Naraka- Bhagadatta ancestry claimed both by Eastern and Western India is also a pointer to the fact that probably onc common stock of certain people migrated to and lived in the two ends of India "Tadastare Sivarathah Deijah pracuracakrikahi Kayasthapisa pásena galam baddhud bypadate". "In the meanwhile there died by strangulation that rogue (pin) of a Kayastha, the Brahman Slvaratha who had been a mighty Intriguer" (Rendered by Dr. Bhindarkar, Indian Antiquary, 1932, p. 30). Both Bhandarlar, and Raghubar Sastri quotes the above couplet from Raja-Tarangint to prove that many of the so-called Klyasthat of this compilation, namely Kolhana, Komendra, Somadeva and Prajyabhatta, whose number was quite considerable, were really Brahmans. Mentioning a passage Kemendra's Narma- mala (I. 108-13), Raghubor further asserts that be must have been a Brahman by caste though appearing as a Kayastha. Nor are these instances solitary. Works like Nagar Puspidalt and Nagarotpatti provide sufficient instances if Nagar Brahmans becom- in Nagar Baniis by taking to trading. In his Brahmantatti Martenda Harika Bistri shows how as many as 7450 Nagar Brahmans living in Gartatirtha became Nagar Banias by taking to trading and renounc- ing their threads and castes, whence came the interesting practice of putting the mark "71" (hundreds) on the back of letter covers to warn that none but the addressees should open them. (S.H.K., III, 136-38). Thus on the social side we see how in Eastern and Western India Nagar Brahmans underwent a process of uniform disintegration accord- ing to the profession indertaken. So in regard to the Nidhanpur cop per plates, D. R: Bhandarkor remarks about "the Brahmen donees who bear Kayastha surname": "It thus seems natural to hold that Bengal Kayasthan were originally none but the Nagar Brahmans". (Indien Antiquari, March, 1982). What has been said of the Kayasthas of present Bengal is true also of the Kalitis of Asam.Rajoambivali by Raja Upendra Simha records some important ancient traditions one of which snys that it was Bhagadatta who first got Vedie Brahmans of Sandilya. Upamanya, Bharadvaja, Kalpa and Upamanyu gotras at a cost of Sepida lalean (one and quarter Inkhs of rupees). The prestige of the dynasty of Bhagadatta himself suffered horoby and come to be designated us D.2