Art. VII.—BENGALI LITERATURE
Lives of the Bengali Poets. By Hari Mohan Mukurjya, Calcutta: New Sanskrit Press. 1869.
Mitra Prakas. No. 1. Dacca: 1870.
THE intellectual position of the Bengali among the races of India may be a prominent one at the present day, but in earlier times it was one of the lowest. It is a Bengali writer, Bábu Rajendralála Mitra, who has said that in ancient times Bengal was the Bœotia of India. And the observation is correct. The contributions of Bengal to that ancient Indian literature which still commands the respect and attention of European scholars, were few and insignificant. The only Bengali Sanskrit poet of any eminence was Jayadeva, and he does not stand in the first rank. There is not one Bengali name which can compare with those of Kálidása, Mágha, Bháravi and Sríharsa. In other departments the only distinguished Bengali name in the older Sanskrit literature is that of Kullúka Bhatta, the commentator on Manu. The great Bengali triumphs in the Nyáya philosophy and in law cannot be reckoned as falling within this period. The names of Raghunandana and Jagannátha belong to very recent days.
It is difficult to determine the date of the oldest Bengáli writers, but probably few of their books are more than three hundred years old. Vidyápati, whose lyrics are perhaps the finest in the language, is certainly one of the first. Mukundarám Chakravarttí, commonly known as Kabi Kankan, and the author of the Chandi poems, lived during the reign of Akbar. The Chaitanya Charitámrita is also one of the oldest Bengali books. But, however uncertain their exact date may be, the literary productions of Bengal naturally group themselves into five separate classes, different in spirit and to some extent successive in order of time; and if this be borne in mind, the want of exact dates need cause no difficulty in understanding the brief criticisms which follow.
The first in order are the lyric poets, at the head of whom must be placed Vidyápati. They are exclusively Vaisnavite, and their songs either celebrate the amours of Krishna or the holiness of Chaitanya. They are still sung by bands of Bairágis and are popularly known under the name of kírttan. Their number is immense. The present writer has in his possession a collection which contains more than three thousand of these songs, and he believes that there are other collections equally voluminous. The music to which they are set is peculiar, and is not ordinarily understood even by the professional musicians of Bengal. These, in fact, profess to hold kírttan music in utter contempt, but it nevertheless possesses
