INCEPTION OF ‘PADABI’ AND THEIR SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE IN THE PRE-COLONIAL SOCIETY OF BENGAL

Back to Page Authors: Nandini Roy Choudhury

Keywords: pre-colonial, Bengal, padabi, jati, varna, sreni

Abstract: Discussions about history and culture of Indian civilization usually involves the idea of ‘caste’. After the emergence of Europeans in India, their understanding of the culture and society was centred around this notion. The nature of complex, hierarchical Indian society was unfamiliar from the Western societies. However, the idea of caste in the Rig Vedic society hugely differed from that of the concept perceived by the Europeans. For them, the understanding of hierarchical society and culture of India was essential for commercial transactions. ‘Caste’ was a Portuguese word that cannot be considered synonymous to the Rig Vedic concepts of ‘jati’, ‘varna’ and ‘padabi’. In Bengali language ‘padabis’ or surnames are prefixes that indicate the occupational status and its equivalent rank in the social order. In my paper I will try to trace the inception of Bengali ‘padabis’ or surnames, their derivations, occupational status and their rank in the social hierarchy in the pre-colonial period. Importance of ‘padabis’ led to the Brahmanical dominance in the social structure and their oppression towards the non-Brahmins. Furthermore, I will also attempt to trace how ‘jati’(community), ‘varna’ (skin colour) and ‘sreni’ (occupational guilds) result to the formation of surnames or ‘padabis’ in pre-colonial Bengal.