Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/606

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Supplementary Notes CHAPTER V.

0 Chaitanya Chaitanya Deva himself was not the organiser did not ৯ রর organise of the Vaisnava community that afterwards sprang the Vaisna- 4p» in Bengal. In fact it was not his mission to va society. নর make 00095 ৪0 16019019105 107 the guidance of a small community. He spoke for all men, lived for all men, and lost in the love of God as he was, he was not at all actuated by any desire of a secular kind, to establish a community and claim the glory of being its founder. But a great idea — the idea of equality and freedom—was put into a stereotyped and orthodox society. The Chandals and the Parias felt that they were no_heriditary bondsmen ;—the Cudras felt that the Brahmins were not the only souls privileged to interpret the truths of religion. Freeing themselves from the iron grip of Brahmanic rule and the trammels of monastic r " codes, the people of all castes gave quick response rhe idea of pe ad P A equality tothe call from the new order that was being and রর রর ee ; freedom, formed. In the Buddhistic age fallen women and men who had lost their caste, flocked to the sanctuary of the véharas and shaving their heads as a sign of penitence became monks and nuns. On the re- The Bud- vival of Hinduism the portals of society were dhist closed against this class of people and they had masses. din ra no locus stand? in the land of their birth, after the a nae