SOCIETY AND MANNERS. THE CULINA BRAHMINS. A CONTROVERSY of an interesting character has sprung up, in the principal presidency of India, amongst the natives chiefly, regarding the Culina Brahmins, the fruits of which may possibly check, or entirely stop, an abuse which must materially influence the morals of the native population of Bengal. The Culinas, or Koolins, are a class of brahmins said to have been distinguished from the rest by Balala Séna, raja of Ghour, some five or six centuries ago, who, to encourage learning and an adherence to the Shastras, amongst the brahmins, divided them into three orders, the first and most honourable of which were denominated Culinas, from Cula, a race,' and who were required to possess nine qualifications: 1st. to observe the peculiar duties of brahmins; 2d. to be meek; 3d. to be 6 learned; 4th. to be of good character; 5th. to be disposed to visit holy places; 6th. to be devout; 7th. to be averse to receiving gifts from the impure; 8th. to be fond of an ascetic life; 9th. to be liberal. These Culinas and their descendants, in consequence, enjoy vast consideration, even amongst the other brahmins, who invariably yield them the seat of honour, and their alliance in marriage is coveted as a great distinction. From this last circumstance, an evil of great magnitude appears to have arisen. A Culina brahmin may marry, or give his son in marriage to, a woman of an inferior order; but his daughters must marry persons of his own order, or remain unmarried. When Culinas marry a woman of an inferior order, they receive large presents of money; and as they are not limited in the number of wives, some of them convert this privilege into a source of pecuniary profit; and it is said that many of the disreputable Culinas marry from twenty to a hundred wives each. In the mean time, the sons of Culinas being generally pre-engaged in these venal matches, their daughters can find no husbands; and consequently too frequently form irregular connections. The vicious effects of this practice are detailed by Mr. Ward, in his account of the castes of the Hindus :* • View of the Hindoos, vol. i. p. 81. "Each kooleenu marries at least two wives; one the daughter of a bramhun of his own order, and the other of a shrotriyu; the former he generally leaves at her father's, the other he takes to his own house. It is essential to the honour of a kooleenu that he have one daughter, but by the birth of many daughters he sinks in respect: hence he dreads, more than other Hindoos, the birth of daughters. Some inferior kooleenus marry many wives. I have heard of persons having 120. Thus the creation of this order of merit has ended in a state of monstrous polygamy, which has no parallel in the history of human depravity. Amongst the Turks, seraglios are confined to men of wealth; but here, a Hindoo brahmun, possessing only a shred of cloth and a poita, keeps more than a hundred mistresses. Many have fifteen or twenty, and others forty or fifty each. Numbers procure a subsistence by this excessive polygamy: at their marriages, they obtain large presents, and as often as they visit these wives, they receive presents from the father; and thus, having married into forty or fifty families, a kooleenu goes from house to house, and is fed, clothed, &c. Some old men, after the wedding, never see the female; others visit her once in three or four years. A respectable kooleenu never lives with the wife who remains in the house |