Kulīnism has often been abused; but the sacrifices and martyrdoms undergone for its sake in our society cannot but evoke feelings of wonder and admiration.
The object of such sacrifices may be considered trivial but the qualities of self-denial, of utter disregard for earthly prosperity, and of devotion to a cause which distinguished these Kulīnas are not to be despised. Just think of a man preferring to wear rags, to depend on a single meal a day, and to live in a hut of reeds, while his brother was made the owner of sixty-four villages and a palace, the same offer coming to him but being refused with indignation. Yet by marriage with a fellow caste-man's daughter, of non Kulina rank, he would not be excommunicated from society; only a very slight stain would be left on his family honour. Social prestige has in the past occupied the same place in popular estimation in India as a sense of political right does in western countries; and unless this difference is taken into consideration, the ideals of the Indian people cannot be fully realised.
Specimesn of early composition in the records.I said, that some of the genealogical treatises may be traced to Vallāla Sen's time. The following Bengali lines which occur in a Sanskrit work by Chaturbhuja, a Vaidya, written three hundred seventy-five years ago, were evidently already very old:—
"দুহি বিনায়ক ত্রিপুর চাঊ।
শিয়াল পন্থ থোবে কাউ।
গৈ লৈয়া কুলের বাস।
রাঢ়ে বঙ্গে সাত আট।"
