1865.} Vn the Sena Edjds of Bengal. 133 



the descendants of the five Brahmins and Kayasthas" who' had been 

 brought to Bengal by Adis'ura. The particular qualities 'which_were 

 to characterise his nobles were " good manners, learning,' Immility, 

 reputation, pilgrimage, faith, fixed profession, austerity, and charity"* 

 but as there was no standard measure for those qualities, and it 

 was difficult to secure them without attaching penalties to personal 

 delinquencies which could never be enforced, he had recourse to other 

 and more definite means for their perpetuation. He availed himself o{ 

 the popular notion that children invariably inherit the moral qualities 

 of their parents, and hoped that by maintaining the blood of his newly 

 created nobles pure and undefiled, he would attain his end. He forbad all 

 intermarriage between the original Brahmans and Kayasthas of the 

 country and the newcomers, and ordained various and complicated rules 

 for the gradual degradation of those families which should permit any 

 stain to fall on the gentility of their blood. Mis-alliances could not, how- 



(gemini)." The play on the names of the twelve signs of the zodiac in this 

 s'loka cannot be preserved in the English translation. 



On another occasion he was himself absent from home for a long time, having 

 been detained in a forest by the charms of a lowly born damsel. The scandal 

 was great, and his son, to stop it, requested his return with the following 

 verse : — 



faf sjW ^[f^rrr *^faf TSW* Wlfcf *J3JTTT I 



*PBiJNq*w 1^f% q*i: 3TW f%^ ^w II 



" Generally cool art thou, O river, and transparent by nature. Of thy purity 

 what can I say ? everything becomes pure by thy touch. What else need I tell in 

 thy praise ? thou art the life of all living things. And yet strange to relate, thou 

 flowest downwards and none can withhold thee." 



To it the king sent the following reply : — 



■sf ^r=s*p^n<*nfT: ^p^nr^r: ^n sttti ^^t ^^t ir 



STTT^il ^^T^TT^^T *5^T^GI^TTW: II 



"The elephant has not yet soothed its skin nor allayed its thirst; the dust on 

 its borly still remains unwashed, and the tuberous roots of the lotus have hi- 

 therto not yielded it a mouthful of food, much less an entertainment ; the lotus 

 remains untouched by his far projectile arm: verily the bees have raised an 

 unmeaning hue and cry by their murmurs." 



The authenticity of these s'lokas is, however, not such as may be relied upon, 

 * A'charo vinayo vidya prafcishtha fcirfcha darsana, nishtlia vritti fcap'o danam. 

 navadha kula-hikshanam. 



