1T)02.] Haraprasad Sbastri — Caste system hy Ballala Sen. 5 



These are the charges on which Vallala degraded a whole caste and 

 excommunicated them from the community of four castes and they are of 

 a grave nature. The charges show that the banias were Buddhists. 

 It is the Sets and Banias who figure prominently in the Buddhist re- 

 cords. They took to Buddhism in numbers. And in Bengal, where Hin- 

 duism, or, to say more strictly Brahmanism had to be re-introduced under 

 the Brahmanas and their faithful adherents, the Kayasthas, the Bud- 

 dhists, formed the upper lay community, and they always looked with a 

 jealous eye on the preponderence of a rival faith, of the priesthood of 

 that faith, and of its lay followers. 



Vallala, as represented by Ananda Bbatta, early sympathized with 

 the Buddhists, I mean Tautrika Buddhists of a later date. Following 

 the obscene rites of these degraded Buddhists, he used the girl of an 

 actress, a nati, and a candali of twelve years of age. But a monk from 

 Vadarika prama converted him into paivism and he became an out- 

 and-out Brahminist and, I believe, a persecutor of his former faith, as 

 all apostates are. When Vallala was a sympathiser of Buddhism, Balla- 

 bha advanced him money for his warfare. But with the change of his 

 religion the attitude of Ballabha, his financier, changed. He joined the 

 Palas of Magadha, gave his daughter in marriage to a Pala king, and 

 incurred the displeasure of Vallala. The sacrifice turned the public 

 sympathy in favour of the Raja and he was not slow in taking advantage 

 of the public feeling. Alone he could not degrade them, he must 

 have Brahmanas with him, and on this occasion he found the 

 Brahmanas f ally prepared to co-operate with him, because the banias 

 slighted them, abused them, aud wanted to be their rivals. 



That at Vallala's time the caste system in Bengal required re-orga- 

 nization is plain from history. I have elsewhere shown that inHiounth 

 Sang's time Buddhism was the dominant religion in Bengal, though the 

 heretics were not unknown. Our own tradition shows the Adi9ura 

 about Hiounth Sang's time saw that the few Brahmins, in Bengal knew 

 nothing of Hinduism. They were perhaps traders as they were in 

 Buddhist countries. He brought Brahmanas and Kayasthas to Bengal. 

 They increased and multiplied for centuries and included old Brahminists 

 and some converts, for in a mixed community such conversions are fre- 

 quent and the Hindu society looked tolerably big. The Brahmanas and 

 Kayasthas formed the backbone of the society, as the monks and their 

 followers formed the backbone of the Buddhist community. Bat 

 there was a vast population on whom faith sat rather loose. The 

 Brahmanas could not go beyond the pudras. The aborigines were out- 

 side their operation, but the Buddhist had no such scruples. They 

 took in their fold all who came, so a re-organization was necessary in 



