Ghatak
Ghatak
This section has been extracted from THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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A title of Brahmans who by profession are match-makers and genealogists. Each sub-caste of Brahmans in Bengal, as well as the Baidya and Kayasth castes, has its recognised staff of Ghataks, who are responsible for arranging suitable marriages and preserving the social and ceremonial purity of each family belonging to it. The organization of the society of Ghataks, the Herald's College of Ben¬gal, is referred to Ballal Sen, who settled the Rarbi Ghataks in J es¬sore, Bakarganj, and Bikrampur, where, with the exception of a few who have emigrated to Calcutta, they are domiciled at the present day. The Ghatak registers of the Rarhi Brahmans, like those of the Kulin Kayasths, are said to go back twenty-three generations, or five hundred years, and although any Brahman may become a Ghatak, the highest estimation, and the title PradMn, or ohief, is only be towed on the individual who can show a long and unbroken pedigree of G hatak ancestors.
There are three grades of Ghataks. The first can repeat off¬hand the names of all the members of the main as well as collateral branches of any family in his particular part of the country; of the families with which they have married, and of the issue of such marriages. The second grade embraces those Ghataks who oan only give the name of the Kul or family into which a Brahman or his relatives have married j while the third comprises such as can only name the BClns or lineage to which the Brahman belongs. It is not uncommon for one Ghatak to challenge another to display his powers of memory, and public contests are held somewhat after the manner of the logical disputations of the Middle Ages.
Ghataks seldom offioiate at religious ceremonies, and always employ pnrohits for their own requirements. According to Dr. Wise, every Kulin Brahman in Eastern Bengal is compelled to employ a Ghatak in negotiating the marriages of his family, otherwise the whole race of Ghataks revolt and ostracise him. The rioh Brahman zemin¬da.rs, who are willing and able to pay a large sum for an unexception¬able Kulin bride, often try to con vince the Ghataks that their families are of purer and more bonour~blo de ce?t than they actually are. Bribes are often offered to estabhsh the chum, but are rarely accepteu. Disputes, however, are common, and the Ghataks who favour a claim that is fallacious, and who attend at an unauthorised marriage, fall in the estimation of those who have questioned its soundness and declined to be present. The scruples of a single Pradhan Ghatak often mar the otherwise pedect satisfaction of a parent on the marriage of his son to a family of bigher rank than his own; and should all the leaders unite in forbidding the marriage, it is impos¬sible for him to win any permanent promotion beyond that laid down in their registers.
