The
Patarah Prabhus Are The Only Caste Within Which Brahmans Have To
Perform Certain Purely Vedic Rites, Known Under The Name Of The
"Kshatriya Rites." But This Does Not Prevent Their Being Patans,
Instead Of Patars, Patan Meaning The Fallen One.
This is the fault
of King Ashvapati.
Once, when distributing gifts to holy anchorites,
he inadvertently forgot to give his due to the great Bhrigu. The
offended prophet and seer declared to him that his reign was drawing
near its end, and that all his posterity would perish. The king,
throwing himself on the ground, implored the prophet's pardon. But
his curse had worked its fulfilment already. All that he could do
to stop the mischief consisted in a solemn promise not to let the
king's descendants disappear completely from the earth. However,
the Patars soon lost their throne and their power. Since then they
have had to "live by their pens," in the employment of many successive
governments, to exchange their name of Patars for Patans, and to
lead a humbler life than many of their late subjects. Happily for
our talkative Amphitryon, his forefathers became Brahmans, that
is to say "went through the golden cow."
The expression "to live by their pens" alludes, as we learned later
on, to the fact of the Patans occupying all the small Government
posts in the Bombay Presidency, and so being dangerous rivals of
the Bengali Babus since the time of British rule. In Bombay the
Patan clerks reach the considerable figure of five thousand.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 163 of 357
Words from 44002 to 44255
of 96531
