Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/24

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CONTENTS.

the Vaiṣṅavas—A satire against the latter, 577-579. Manahara Sahi tune—The origin and development of the Kīrtana songs—A list of Kīrtaniyās—Çivu Kīrtaniya, 579-585. The Kathakathas—Set passages committed to memory by them—Examples—A short history of the Kathakathas—Their extraordinary influence, 585-590. The story of Dhara and Drona, 590—596.—The preliminary hymn in Kathakatha, 596.—Mass education—The Bengali Mss. preserved in the house of rustics—The influence of Hindi—case-endings—The metres—The poetic license, 597-602.—A list of obsolete words—The pretenders.—How the Vaiṣṅavas gradually merged in the parent society.—Material prosperity—Cheap living and poverty—The merchants—The Mahotsava ceremony, 602-613.


CHAPTER VI.

The post-Chaitanya Literature.—613-775.

I. (a) The Court of Raja Krisna Chandra of Nadia—Vitiated classical taste and word painting, 614.—The reaction and its effects—Raja kriṣṅa Chandra—The Sanskrit and Persian models—The Kutnis—The depraved taste—The Sanskritisation of Bengali style and Bharat Chandra, 614-622.

(b) Syed Alaol, the Mahomedan poet, who heralded the new age—his life and a review of his works, 622-635—The style and the taste, 636-637.

(c) The story of Vidya Sundara—Vidya sends a challenge to her suitors for a husband—Her love with Sundara—The detection and punishment—The happy end by the grace of Kalī, 637-653.

(d) Early poems about Vidya-Sundara—Govinda Dās—Kriṣṅa-Rama, Rama Prasada, 653-662.—Bharata