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BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE.
[Chap.
The topics discussed above should not be considered as a digression; for upon a knowledge of some of the essential features of the revival of Hinduism, will depend a right appreciation of the ideals set up by the succeeding literature.
Vallāla Sen who ruled from 1119 to 1169 A.D. conferred Kulinism upon people of various castes in Bengal. The qualities required of a Kulin.The qualities required Lo entitle one to the status of a Kulīna were nine: viz., (1) āchāra, (2) humility, (3) learning, (4) good repute, (5) the visiting of sacred places, (6) devotion, (7) good conduct, (8) religious austerity and penance, and (9) charity. Āchāra, of which we have spoken already, heads the list of these qualities.
Kulinism made hereditary.Vallāla Sen, while bestowing Kaulīnya, or the status of a Kulīna, on a few select people of the higher castes, enacted, that after a fixed period, new men endowed with the above qualifications, would be admitted into the grade of Kulīnas, and that these were to be the recognised heads of the different sections of the Hindu community in all social matters. But his son Lakṣmaṅa Sen afterwards ruled, that the descendants of the Kulīnas were to enherit Kulīnism irrespective of their personal qualifications, and thus the Kulīna classes, as they are now found, became stereotyped in society. Genealogical records.Many books have been preserved in Sanskrit and Bengali, shewing the genealogy of the higher classes of the Hindu community; and some of these may be traced to Vallāla Sen's time. These give a glimpse at the inside of our social organisation, and indicate the changes which it has undergone during the last one thousand