Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/612

Rh Kulins), the Committee gave a sketch of the origin of this denomination of Brahmins and of the various classes of Kulins existing at the time. They also enumerated the customs prevalent, from which the alleged abuses (which they believed to be exaggerated and on the decline) took their rise. They further proved very clearly that these customs had for the most part no warrant among the approved authorities of Hindu Theology. Thus far, in the opinion of the Committee, the path for the legislation was smooth enough, as a declaratory Act might be passed setting forth the law on the subject of polygamy and making infraction of it penal. But the report further showed that although the chief abuses of polygamy would be condemned by a reference to the authorized Hindu law, this law at the same time warranted the suppression of one wife and the contraction of subsequent marriages on many grounds which in the eye of English law were frivolous or untenable. They therefore printed out that, owing to the restriction imposed upon them that legal sanction to polygamy was not to be conveyed, they were unable to recommend even the passing of a declaratory Act of the kind stated above.

"One member of the Committee, the Pandit Ishwar Chandra Surma (Vidyasagar) maintained his opinion that the evils were not greatly exaggerated, and that the decrease of these evils was