KULIN, a race of Brah ns in Bengal who are deemed by other Brahm ns to be of very nure descent. and in cones enee ninny are anxious to wed their daughters to them. As a result, the Kulin men are great polygamists, and in the middle of the 19th century a pamphlet gave the following amongst others :— Age. Wives.
Bhola Nath Bannerjee, . .55 80 Bhugwan Chatterjee, . . 64 72 Puma Chunder Mookerjee, . 55 62 Mordu Sudu Mookerjee, . . 40 Tituram Ganguly, . . . 70 55 Ram Moy Mookerjee, . . 50 52 Boido Nath Mookerjee, . . 60 50 Shama Churn Chatterjee, 60 50 Nobo Coomar Bannerjee, . 52 50 Ishan Chunder Bannerjee, . 52 44 Jodu Nath Bannerjee, . . 47 41 Shib Chunder Mookerjee, . 45 40 Pandit Iswara Chandra Vidyasagar wrote a pamphlet in Bengali, entitled 'Polygamy—Should it be abolished or not?' Most of these marriages are sought after by the relations of the girls, to keep up the honour of their families ; and the children of these marriages invariably remain with their mothers, and are maintained by the wives' relations : in many cases a Kulina father does not know his own children. Kulina women in Mr. Ward's time furnished a large number of the common women of Calcutta. The children of
Kulina women, born while in their own father's house, are never owned by these husbands. In the year 1815, some Hindus proposed to petition the British Government to prohibit Kuhn Brah mans marrying so many wives. The Kulin tribe take the suffix honorific names of Mookerjee, Chatterjee, Bannerjee, Ganguly. The Hindus of Calcutta, styled Ghose, Bose, Dutt, and Mitra, are Sudra tribes who accompanied the Kulin Brahmans into Bengal.
Shib Chunder Bose tells us (p. 232) that Oodhoy Chunder, a Brahman of Bagnapara, had 65 wives, of whom he had 41 sons and 25 daughters ; Ramkinkur, a Brahman of Kushda, had 72 wives, 32 sons, and 27 daughters ; Vishnu Rain, a Brahman of Gundalpara, had 60 wives, 25 sons, and 15 daughters ; Gouri Churn, a Brahman of Tribani, had 45 wives, 32 sons, and 16 daughters ; Rama Kant'h, a Brahman of Bhusdarani, had 82 wives, 18 sons, and 26 daughters. He died in 1810 at the age of 85, but married his last wife only three months before his death.— Ward, iii. pp. 181, 268.