Talk:Kulinism

Source

How this source is unreliable? Loudsheer (talk) 15:22, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

I have clearly asked for the exact page number & quotation! Please read the messages before responding! Ekdalian (talk) 15:28, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

Kulin groups could be found among the three twice born castes of Brahmin, Vaidya and Kayastha.

P.29

I hope this helped, thanks. Loudsheer (talk) 15:32, 14 May 2023 (UTC)

@Loudsheer and Ekdalian: Here is a longer quote from Karlekar's review of an early 20th century autobiobraphy of a "Kulin widow". The extract is from footnote 2 in the article, explaining that term:

Kulinism is a complicated system of hypergamous polygamy which was peculiar only to Bengal. Very briefly, a literal translation of the term Kulin: it is the highest among castes and Kulin groups could be found among the three twice born castes of Brahmin, Vaidya and Kayastha; however the form of hypergamy described in Sekeley Katha was most common among the Brahmins. According to the principles of the system, a Kulin male could only marry a Kulin girl or those from a few other recognized categories of Brahmins. The system resulted in a surfeit of unmarried girls who were then married serially to the same Kulin man

She goes on describe the ills for women in this system citing:

Chaudhari, Ray (1975). "Norms of Family life and Personal Morality among the Belgali Hindu Elite 1600-1850". In Baumer, Rachel Van M (ed.). Aspects of Bengali History and Society. University of Hawaii Press.

Does anyone have access to this work so that we can look up what it has to say Kulinism directly?

More broadly, perhaps we can cooperatively compile the relevant sources here to see what weight to give to Baidya's inclusion. On a cursory search it does appear that most sources talk about Kulinas among Brahmins and Kayasthas, and many articles cite

Inden, Ronald B. (1 January 1976). Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle Period Bengal. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02569-1.

as a foundational work on the topic. What other works discuss the topic in depth? Abecedare (talk) 15:14, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks Abecedare for this initiative! As you have rightly pointed out, most of the articles rely on Inden's 'Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle Period Bengal' as the detailed reliable source; you will find some additional sources in the articles on Kulin Kayastha and/or Kulin Brahmin. But the key point here is the Kulinism or awarding the Kulin title to selective Brahmin and Kayastha clans of Bengal revolves around different versions of the quasi historical story that a king named Adisura brought five Vedic Brahmins accompanied by five Kayasthas from the ancient city of Kannauj as per all reliable sources, and these immigrants were granted Kulina (superior) status except Dutta who refused the same. Now, different versions of this narrative exist; some historians say Adisura and Ballal Sena are the same king, while others disagree!

Now, the question is, irrespective of the version, since the origin theory talks about immigrant Brahmins & Kayasthas only, Baidyas (in spite of being one of the three upper castes) have not been discussed in any version of the same! This explains why we do not have any article on Kulin Baidya! Some fringe sources mention Baidyas as part of Kulinism, but the majority of sources don't for obvious reasons! In case you need any further clarification, please let me know. Thanks, again for your efforts! Ekdalian (talk) 17:31, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Ekdalian some historians claimed some Brahmins and Kayasthas created this migration story to permanent the kulin status. For your information kulinism only exist in kulajis(Abecedare also corrected that and wrote is said to be introduced). Historians got the knowledge of kulinism from the kulajis of Brahmins, Baidyas and Kayasthas. But some unknown reason you removed Kumkum Chatterjee's source claiming this. Loudsheer (talk) 17:44, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

I am still reading up on the topic and so will desist from opining further on if and how Baidyas should mentioned in this article for now. But a question I have is whether this article should focus on "who the kulinas are" or "what the practice of kulinism is"? Given the article title and in order to prevent redundancy wrt content covered in Kulin Kayastha and Kulin Brahmin, my preference would be the latter. If we all can agree on the subject of the article and the best sources, then it's just a relatively simple matter of summarizing those sources, which may involve expanding, rewording, re-ordering the current content. Abecedare (talk) 17:48, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

I completely agree with you, Abecedare. Thanks. Ekdalian (talk) 18:27, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Sources and quotes

Hey Ekdalian you could have simply asked me for the quote instead of reverting me, anyway, this is the quote:

Kulin: Good family from the three upper castes of Brahmin, Vaidya and Kayastha.

Loudsheer (talk) 14:26, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Isn't it too vague to be cited? Simply a glossary like definition without any context! Ekdalian (talk) 14:40, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Emm, I don't think so where according to Jyotirmoyee Sarma

A system of institutionalised hypergamy prevailed among the three higher castes of Brahman, Kayastha and Vaidya until the beginning of the twentieth century. It became disrupted gradu- ally, not being suitable to the trends of the modern Bengali society. A short description of this system known as kulin hyper- gamy is presented here from the works of Risley to show how marriages distinguishing hypergamous classes were formed within an endogamous structure.

Loudsheer (talk) 17:56, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

@Abecedare please take a look at this quote. Also there is one another source, which Ekdalian removed clearly said

A view that was generally articulated in the kulaji literature was that the strengthening and formalization of kulinism by the kings Ballal Sen and Lakshman Sen of the Sen dynasty in the twelfth century ushered in the practice of compiling and maintaining genealogies of the kulin lineages associated primarily with the Brahman, Kayastha, and Baidya jatis.

As I said before and also written here historians got the information of Kulinism from Brahmin, Baidya and Kayastha kulaji/genealogy, but I think Ekdalian is unaware of it. Loudsheer (talk) 18:06, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

@Loudsheer: I am wary of basing article content on short quotes removed from their context. For example, in review of the Jyotirmoyee Sarma's book that you cite, Anjan Ghosh says But while Sarma includes only the Brahmins as Kulins, Ronald Inden has included some of the Kavastha jatis in its ranks., which is contrary to your contention that the book supports the inclusion of Baidyas among the Kulins. If you have access to the full-text of the Sarma book, could you email me copy/link?

I have seen the Kumkum Chatterjee article, and also this related one, but have not read them yet. So can't comment on their relevance to this article. Abecedare (talk) 18:34, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

I have physical copy of sarma, please go through Kumkum which is more detailed and new. Also Annapurna Chattopadhyaya covered Kulinism of Baidyas from their kulajis. Loudsheer (talk) 19:04, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Would also request you to go through this book which is also by Kumkum Chatterjee where she seperated different kulinism and migration theory. In that note some historians dismissed the migration of Kayasthas and Brahmins (also present in Kulin Brahmin and Kulin Kayastha articles), but I didn't find any source that says same like Baidyas. Loudsheer (talk) 19:20, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Adding this source also

In West Bengal, the Baidya are concentrated in the plains. They have two hierarchic divisions, Kulin and Bhanga, and two territorial divisions, namely Rarhi and Barendra.

P-185. I also have this book as a hard copy, which I can provide, Thanks. Loudsheer (talk) 20:07, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks. I'll take a look though the Chattopadhyaya book, as the one by Sarma, are pretty dated and The people of India has its own problems. That said, I don't want you to expend too much effort on finding other sources for inclusion of Baidya's among the Kulinas either since if (as I proposed above) the article is to focus on Kulinism as a practice, the identification of the communities that practice it, is going to merit just a sentence or so, and I expect that sentence to be inevitable of the "some say X, some say Y" form.

My aim here is not to simply focus on the Baidya question but rather to use the renewed attention to improve the article overall. I'll take a few days to go through the source list that we have compiled and will then try to come up with a concrete proposal. Cheers. Abecedare (talk) 20:40, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your efforts. Just a suggestion, to understand in details about Kulinism I think Kumkum and Annapurna's books are the best. Loudsheer (talk) 20:54, 15 May 2023 (UTC)

Kulinism

Hey, Ekdalian and Abecedare I have read some sources about Kulinism. I think the article needs some improvements. Kulinism was a custom regulated and controlled by Kulanjis. I think a shortened description of Kulanjis is needed. Further, in the case of Vaidyas, the custom was different. It was probably not a Surname based like Brahmins or Kayasthas, it was of quality or conduct based which was later standardized by Samajpatis(Custom makers). Thanks, Satnam2408 (talk) 05:00, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

I agree with you, Satnam2408. Thanks. Ekdalian (talk) 07:01, 1 June 2023 (UTC)

Hey, Ekdalian I have almost rewritten the content. May I request you check it and make reasonable improvements(if needed)? I am pinging @Abecedare: as well. Thanks,Satnam2408 (talk) 05:00, 4 June 2023 (UTC)