Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/74

52 Vaidyas are known to have become the priests of the Dravidian Kings, and their occupying the situation of high class officers of the Coḷa as well as the Pāṇḍya Rājās, is also on record. It is also very significant to note, that the Vaidyas or the Vellālas who were not employed in the Rāj service as mentioned above, followed very generally the medical profession, though this profession did not give them the name Vaidya. In Southern India, the physicians were called Ambaṭṭans and not Vaidyas. The barbers once took largely to the medical profession, and now the barbers in general are called by the honorific name Ambaṭṭan, though the term does not really indicate the barber caste.

I strongly suggest that the Vaidyas of Bengal, owe their origin to the Vellāla Vaidyas, on reference to the above facts, which may be summarized as below:—


 * (a) The Vellālas were Vaidyas because of their Vedic studies, were recruited as high officers of the Rājās and were physicians very commonly.
 * (b) The Vellāla Vaidyas are known to have been in the service of the Coḷa Rājās.
 * (c) Those who came in Bengal at the time of the Coḷa invasion, described them as the people of Karṇāṭa.
 * (d) Those who claim to be the descendants of the Senas, are physicians by profession, wear Brāhmaṇical thread, call themselves Vaidya, and assert the right and privilege to read the Vedas.
 * (e) The term Vaidya as the name of a caste is unknown elsewhere in Northern India and is peculiar to Bengal alone.

Though the surname Sena can be easily explained without referring to any caste-name in the southern