Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/182

t82 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. part. They preached that man, being essentially a creature of circumstances, could not at all depend on self-help. He needs divine grace at every step. Faith, they said, was the only thing to be sought for,—not only in order to attain salvation, but for the purpose of building up character. They went so far as to declare that it was not in the power of a human being to commit so many crimes in life. as could not be expiated by utterring the name of God once in sincere faith! The dissemination of such ideas was neces- The growth of the — sarily accompanied by the growth of the Brahmanic Brahmanic 4 নু power. power. As a set-off against the lawlessness of the Buddhistic free-thinkers, absolute obedience to the leaders of society was enforced. The Mahammo- dans, as the new ruling race, did not enterfere with the social and spiritual movements of the Hindus. Full powers, thus, came to be vested in the leaders of society. Without a reverence for the promul- gators, truth loses much of its force. Hence in the Pouranik Renaissance the Brahmin came to the front, and stood next to God in popular €:tima- tion. Hinduism thus became in a far greater sense than ever before, Brahmanism, or a Brahmanic cult A creed of faith has, often, much in it that is peculiar; it has its weak points which every rational man can laugh at. Yet aman of faith, blindly devoted to his faith, is often a better man than the rationalistic sceptic. There were many absurdities in the propaganda of the Hindu reaction. The following lines in Kaciram Das’s Mahabharata shew the nature of the romances invented and