VII. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 1007 bharata, about 350 yearago. These poets were inhabitants of Jhinardi in Vikrampore ; manus-
cripts of their poems have been found in large numbers, in various districts of Western Bengal, as they have been in the native districts of the poets themselves. It will thus appear that Eastern Bengal, having been one of the great seats of Sanskrit learn- ing, produced a number of translations that helped to disseminate Pouranik ideas amongst the masses. Before the advent of Chaitanya, Eastern Bengal thus formed the chief nucleus of Vernacular com- position. Cakta-cult had strong adherents in that part of the country and classical learning was en- couraged by Hindu Kings and noble men. These helped powerfully in the importation of Sanskrit words into our tongue—a process which is especi- ally conspicuous in the translations that were com- piled in that province. This wave was retarded by the democratic movement in letters that was inspired by Chait- anya. The Vaishavas adopted Bengali as the chief vehicle for the teaching of their religion and at once monopolised the right of producing litera- ture in it. This accounts for the flourishing Eastern
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growth of vernacular literature in the Rada Deca 114 the from the 16th century onwards. The light that back came from the East gradually subsided below the ই horizon of our letters, and under Vaisnhava influence, even the Cakta writers of Western Bengal profited by the general intellectual awakening there, and wrote poems of considerable beauty, which gradu- ally over-shadowed the works written by the poets of Eastern Bengal, till the latter lost all the lustre that
