Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/71

Rh That a large number of Aryanised people was necessary for the new Rājās in a backward country, full of aboriginal tribes, cannot be much doubted.

I shall show what indelible marks our language put upon the Oria speech, as prevails in the Sambalpur tract, when in a subsequent lecture, I shall take notice of the old forms of our language. The epigraphic records of Bengal proper, of the Kośala Guptas and of the Chola kings, have amply proved that even during the time of the later Pālas, the different parts of Bengal bore different country-names of Varendra, Uttara Rāḍha, Daksina Rāḍha and Vaṅga, though the general name Vaṅga prevailed as the country-name over all the tracts. It is only to be noted that, Suhma which lost its name long ago, became then a province of Vaṅga, and the tract covered by the Kantāi subdivision, got the name Daṇḍabhukti and became a Bhukti or subdivision of Vaṅga.

Some facts which reveal the plasticity of the society of Bengal, during the time of the Pālas and Senas, may be noted, to examine the old formative elements of our population. I have just spoken of the Bengali Kāyasthas, as were in the service of the Kośala Guptas; these Kāyasthas with their surnames Ghosa, Dutta, and Nāga, have described themselves as Rāṇakas, that is to say, as descendants of the Anabhiṣikta families of the Rājās of Kośala, who must be regarded as Kṣatriyas. The Kośala Guptas were Kṣatriyas, even though their remote ancestor comes of a clan of the Śabaras, since from Tibaradeva downwards, the Rājās of this line formed their marriage alliance with the recognised Kṣatriya families of Northern India; the Rājās of Kośala and their descendants, assumed the title Gupta from the time of their connection with the Magadha Guptas. I may mention here that the rule or custom still continues in the Rāj families of Orissa, Rh