HARI CHARAN AGRADANI Vs. SASTI CHARAN AGRADANI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question of law which calls for decision in this Rule is one of some novelty and relates to the right of a Brahmin of the Agradani class to the offerings to the dead at a sradh ceremony. The circumstances, under which the question arises for decision, are fairlylclear upon the evidence on the record. One Chandra Kumar Chakravarty, on the occasion of the sradh of his mother, invited the plaintiffs who are Brahmins of the Agradani class as priests. The food intended for disembodied spirits was taken by the plaintiffs, but when the time came for the distribution of the valuable offerings, the zemindar of the village, Jugut Prasanna Roy, who was present, interfered and by his direction, Chandra Kumar made over the articles to the defendants who also were Brahmins of the Agradani class and who had been invited not as priests but as men of the same village. The plaintiffs thereupon commenced this action against the defendants for recovery of the price of the articles in question. They did not join as parties defendants either Chandra Kumar, who had invited them on the occasion of the ceremonies, or Jugut Prasanna, who had persuaded Chandra Kumar to give away the articles to the defendants. The learned Small Cause Court Judge decreed the suit on the ground that the plaintiffs had a vested Interest in the articles in question and the defendants, in accepting them as a gift from Chandra Kumar, acquired no valid title thereto. We have been invited by the defendants to set aside this decree on the ground that the plaintiffs never acquired any title to the articles, that the defendants acquired a good title under the gift made in their favour by Chandra Kumar and that even if it be assumed that the plaintiffs can successfully claim damages against the person who invited them or the person who interfered in the matter to their injury, they have no cause of action as against the defendants. In our opinion, this contention is well-founded and must prevail.

(2.) The term Agradani literally signifies an acceptor of first gifts and is applied to a class of degraded Brahmins in Bengal who accept funeral gifts. As pointed out by Dr. Jogendra Nath Bhattacharyya in his Treatise on Hindu Castes and Sects (p. 123), by the religious. Codes of the Hindus, the acceptance of certain kinds of movables, such as elephants and horses, is strictly forbidden. In actual practice, no doubt the degradation which results from the acceptance of prohibited things, is sometimes condoned; but there are certain kinds of gifts, which good Brahmins never accept and which only certain classes of degraded Brahmins are allowed to accept. Amongst these, are funeral offerings which are accepted only by the degraded class known in Bengal as Agradanis and in different parts of India by other similar names. They generally take a part in the ceremonies which have to be performed within the first ten days after a man's death, and a great many of them claim also the wearing apparel of the deceased and his bedding as their perquisites. The true position of Brahmins of the Agradnni class is made clear in various passages in Sanskrit works by writers of great authority to some of which we shall now refer.

(3.) The following is a fairly accurate version of the texts quoted above. 1. A covetous Brahmin accepted first gifts of the Sudars; by accepting the gifts to the dead, he became an Agradani or an acceptor of first gifts. (Brahma Baibarta Parana) 2. A covetous among the Brahmins accepted first gifts of the Sudras; in consequence of acceptance of gifts of sesamum, he became an "Agradani." (Vachaspatya) 3. Accepting the bed, ornament, and clothing of the dead and also a cow made of sesanaum, they never return from hell. (Bhabisyotora quoted in Suddhitatwa of Raghunandan.)