Shashanka, a king of Ráŕh, was an orthodox Shaivite. In fact, everyone in Ráŕh were adherents of Shaivism at that time. King Shashanka could not tolerate the Buddhists at all. He obliterated a number of Buddha idols in Magadh [on the west of Ráŕh]. In food matters, the people of Ráŕh, being influenced by Shaivism, were sentient. They adopted the Shaivite ideology in all spheres of their life. So we see for example that in the vratakathá [verses recited during the domestic worship of a deity] of Ráŕh only the glory of Shiva is preached again and again. The Carak, Gájan and Bolán festivals of Ráŕh are all completely Shiva-centric. Even Rabindranath, a poet of the modern age, has referred to the worship of omnipresent Shiva in his poems:

Chili ámár putul kheláy prabháte shivapújár beláy
Tore ámi bheḿgechi ár gaŕechi,
Tui ámár t́hákurer sane chili pújár siḿhásane
Tár-i pújáy tomár pújá karechi.

[You were there in the play of my childhood dolls,
You were there in my morning worship of Shiva.
I have broken and rebuilt your image again and again.
You are seated on the altar with my deity;
When I do His worship, I worship You as well.]

Even innumerable rural folk-rhymes prevalent in Ráŕh are paeans to Shiva. A liberal Shaeva [Shaivite] ideology permeated every existential vibration, every cell of the bone and marrow of Ráŕh. For this reason the women of Ráŕh always enjoyed more liberty than those of other countries. They had absolute freedom to move anywhere – in the markets and fairs, in the villages and towns. They still enjoy the same amount of liberty today.

In the past, men and women shared equally in the hard work of the fields and farms. They continue to do so today. Even on the battlefield women stood beside their men and actively fought in wars. There were no artificial social restrictions. Even Bagri [Samatat] and Barendrabhumi⁽¹⁾ did not allow women as much freedom as Ráŕh, what to speak of Vauṋga-D́abák. Moreover, there were numerous restrictions based on caste.

Shankaracharya came to Ráŕh only [not the rest of Bengal]. Hence many Buddhists and Jains of Ráŕh embraced Paoráńika Dharma. D́abák being marshy land, neither Shankaracharya nor any of his disciples with leadership qualities visited there much. So the inhabitants of that land remained Buddhists and later embraced Islam on a large scale. It can be said that Muslims are scarce in modern-day Ráŕh, except for some in eastern Ráŕh. Hindus and Muslims are almost equally numerous in Bagri. But in D́abák Muslims are in great number. The reason is this.

The history of Ráŕh is not the history of Ráŕh alone, it is the history of Bagri, D́abák, Barendra and Orissa also. Wherever the people of Ráŕh have settled down, they have mingled and become one with the local people. So it can be observed that there exists a close link between the people of Ráŕh and the people of Orissa.

It has been said before that severe caste discrimination arose in Ráŕh due to the influence of the Paoráńika Dharma propounded by Shankaracharya – an evil which created fatal rents in the otherwise well-knit social fabric of Ráŕh. A man who showed outstanding wisdom while rescuing Ráŕh from the sway of that horribly destructive system was Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (Vishwambhar Mishra). He formed a new group, the Vaishnavite group, with those people who were not socially recognized by the high-caste Hindus. The people of this Vaishnavite group are still spread in many places throughout Ráŕh. Mahaprabhu’s historic contribution still permeates every atom of the soil of Ráŕh. So no one can lose caste so easily today.⁽²⁾

Footnotes

(1) Barendra. See footnote on “Gaoŕiiya” in “Outstanding Personalities of Ráŕh”. –Trans.

(2) If someone becomes de-recognized by the higher castes, that person now has another group to go to, and this in turn discourages the higher castes from de-recognizing in the first place. –Trans.