Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/120

90 Kṣatriya without considering other points. Similar instances are to be found in the cases of out-castes like the Kambojias in Gauḍa. Bhupāl, Anaṇgapāl and Mohīpāl were not Kṣatriyas, they were out-castes. But they were great Kings, hence they could marry girls from the three highest classes. Look at the Sāt-Çati priests, they discharge priestly functions in all houses, hence they have lost all knowledge of the Vedas. They eat the rice offered to the dead in the Çrādh ceremony. When Vallāla Sen tried to pass into society a low-caste woman named Padmini, his son Lakṣmaṅa Sen informed the Brāhmins of his action and cried it down. Vallāla in great rage dismissed Lakṣmaṅa Sen from his court, and Lakṣmaṅa in order to protect the Vaidyas from his father's ire, made them give up the sacred thread. Thus the Vaidyas who belonged to the party of Vallāla Sen and those that belonged to that of his son, became Vrātyas (fallen).

Rājā Ādiçūra belonged to the Vaidya caste, but he adopted the ways of a Kṣatriya. Whoever becomes a king wants to be called a Kṣatriya, and, for his own glorification, declares himself as a Kṣatriya everywhere. Every one aspires to a higher position than he enjoys. The Devas want the position of Brahmā the Great God. According to the Çāstras, Ādiçūra is a Brāhmin (since the Vaidyas are traceable to an original Brāhmin father), but by custom he was a Vaiçya."

The last lines account for the Sena Kings calling themselves Brāhma-Kṣatriyas in the copper-plate inscriptions.