SHROTRIYA. SANSIC. From Shroota, the Veda, a learned Brahman. A Kulin Brahman can marry as many wives as he likes; but there are certain Brahmans in Bengal who find the greatest difficulty in getting married to even one wife, and who generally spend their life in single wretchedness. These are Bangshaja Brahmans of the Shrotriya class. While a Kulin Brahman gets for every vrife that he marries a handsome bribe, a Bangshaja Shrotriya. Brahman has to pay down a large sum of money to the father of the girl whose hand he seeks to obtain. The conse quence is that, owing to their poverty, numbers of Bangshaja. Shrotriya Brahmans never get married alL To remedy this evil, in Eastern Bengal, when in any village the nuinber of unmarried Shrotriya becomes inconveniently large, one of tile ghatak of the place—those under-servants of Bidhata who take a prominent part in all rnarriages —goes to Shrihatta in Sylhet. There, with the assistance of his agents in the district, and by means whether fair or foul, he procures a number of girls, to whom he holds out the prospect of a pleasant settlement in life. The girls may not all
be Brahman girls,—some of them may be of tho Chandal caste, and others may be young widows ; but whatever may be their c,aste, cluu-acter, and antecedents, they aro huddled together in a boat, often 15 or 16 in number, and taken to the ghat of the Shrotriya village. The faces of the old Shrotriya bachelors become lighted up with joy when they hear of tho arrival of the hymeneal boat. The sensation which these highly-favoured boats create in Eastern Bengal is infinitely greater than that produced in Calcutta by the orange boats of Sylhet, or the mango boats of 3falda. The Bangshaja bachelors besiege the boat in numbers. Each one selects a girl according to his taste, a bargain is struck with the ghatak-, and the celebration of the rites of marriage, according to the forms prescribed in the Shastras, soon follows. The plain-looking girl, for whom no Shrotriya may have a fancy, is employed as a maid - servant either of the ghatak himself, or of any other who may stand in need of her service.