Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/198

168 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [Chap |! ance with new tastes, will fall those passages of des- cription and devotion, which are now expected, I have already referred to the subject-matter of these songs. The vast literature of the Pauranik — stories furnished the Gayaks with inexhaustible stores of inspiration. Most of these stories are wrought by the Mangal Gayaks 11) high strung pathos. The story of the Great Hari¢ Chandra, for instance, is one of their favourite subjects. The Story 1115 mighty king, after having performed the of 19116 Chanda. Agwamedha and other sacrifices, felt that there was no monarch in the world who was as righteous as he. He was indeed one of the most truthful of men, but the vanity that he secretly indulged in the recesses of his heart was to be rooted out in order to make him a perfect man. A _ severe trial follows :—Vi¢gwamitra, the sage, seeks to complete and manifest Haric Chandra’s passion for truth. He appears before the king and seeks gifts. Hari¢ Chandra whose bounty is unlimited promises to give him whatever he would seek. The sage asks for his whole kingdom. The king has already pledged his word and there is no escape. He leaves the king- The King : gives his dom and with his Queen Caibya and the prince kingdom. . . . রর Rohitagwa goes a-begging. But the sage will not let him alone even in this plight. He comes to the king and asks for dakshina, the religious fee which must be added to all kinds of gifts to a Brahmin. He could not, he said, accept the kingdom if a fixed sum was not paid on this head. The Sellshim- King finding no remedy sells his wife and son toa self,his =Brahmin: and he himself becomes the slave of a wife and ; son, Dom, one of those low-born men, who serye in the