988 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. which showed how deep was his love for his mother tongue.”’*. His works in Bengali struck the keynote of anew style, for though the Raja was full of admiration for the English, yet he would not accept any matter second-hand; with him began an attempt at free enquiry after truth. The works by the missionaries and those that wrote under their instructions consisted, as already said, mainly of compilations and translations: but in the Ben- gali works of the Raja begins a new epoch anda movement for the right understanding of the truths of ourown religion. ‘ama Mohana Roy began with the Vedanta; and taking the cue of rational explana- tion from him we have come downto the Puranas. From the time of Kama Mohana Roy, Bengali litera- ture in its poems, romances and theologial works, has striven to restate the truths contained in our classics in the light of western rationalism of thought ; it has tried to combine the realistic mode of think- ing peculiar to the west with oriental idealism ; sometimes the occidental element has been too pro- minent in Bengali writings almost alienating itself from our national ideal in the views propounded, at others verging on extreme conservativeness, and blind orthodoxy. The conflict is going on without intermission up to the present, and a har- mony has not yet, | am afraid, crowned the at- tempts of the opposing forces in this field. But all the same, we are conscious of a great activity in our literature and we owe it preeminently to the devoted labours of Raja Rama Mohana Roy,
- The English works of Raja Rama Mohana Roy. Vol. I,
Introduction, page XIX.
