Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/481

/V.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 545 hear stories related about their gods and about _ the mythological characters of pre-historic times as narrated in the Puranas. The scholars were _ ins- pired by the ideals set up in classical works and altogether lost light of the living men and women of the human world. But Chaitanya Deva’s holy life and his pure devotion threw Castras and theological works into the back ground; the Puranas came to occupy only a secondary place with his followers, and living examples of faith came to the fore-front. The Brahmins with Manu’s jurisprudence, Yajnvalkya’s laws and the caste-stories created by the Brahmavaivartha ‘Purana, lost their authority with the Vaisnavas, and in the new order Cuddras, the lowest of the four original castes, often occupied equal rank with Brahmins. The Vaisnavas of Bengal like the Buddhist Cramans were held in as much res- pect as the Brahmins, though they were recruited like the Cramans from all castes. The social order was completely upset; the followers of Chaitanya Deva often showed a fanatical disregard for caste- prejudices. A person in Hindu society cannot, according t) rule, partake of cooked food at the hands of one who belongs to an inferior caste. In Chaitanya Charitamrita, we find one of Chaitanya’s disciples named Kali Das who belonged to one of the hightest castes in society, making it the mission of his life to partake of refuse food left on the plates of Pariahs, Doms, and Chandals, and it is written that when Chaitanya Deva heard of this he was pleased. At a time when caste-rules held people in their iron grip, such fanaticism was neces- sary, In order to open the eyes of men to the truth, Caste ignored in Vaisnava biogra- phies.