1865.] On the Sena Rdjds of Bengal. 1338 
the descendants of the five Brahmins and Kadyasthas who had been 
_ brought to Bengal by Adis’ira. The particular qualities which were 
to characterise his nobles were ‘‘ good manners, learning, humility, 
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 of 
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 :— 
as = 
UY ATA AWS TET aiaifaat aart 
fa qa: wiai vata Wee: A GETIT | 
’ faa auafa a alge asaifaat aaa 
; aeaRaIaa Aais qa: weal frrg we: Il 
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 :— 
AAT ATITAGI TT HAT Var A Yel Tal 
F SQA HARI Hl aA A FUT It 
Strafarata ea afcu wer a@ at qfaal 
II<aSl BUG CHICUAST WMRITA SISA: I 
7 - ©The elephant has not yet soothed its skin nor allayed its thirst; the dust on 
its body 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 ery by their murmurs.” 
The authenticity of these s‘lokas is, however, not such as may be relied upon. 
* ANcharo vinayo vidya pratishtha tirtha darsana, nishtha vritti tapo danam 
nayadha kula-lakshanam, 

