Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/837

৬1.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE.’ 795 - origin; so, too, is the line of vermilion and the dot on the forehead, while the bridal songs are all in Hindi, a language which is certainly not the mother-tongue of the Musalmans. Funeral rites, too, can be easily traced to a Hindu origin, and widow re-marriage, which is not only permitted but enjoined by Islam, is considered a disgrace in Muslem as well as in Hindu society. The mutual participation in religious festivals is a phenomenon which strikes even the European observer, though perhaps none have had the experience of Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haque himself, who relates that in his childhood at Mohorum time, he has seen Hindus weeping as copious tears at the recital of the incidents of Karbala, as any pious Shia would do. But perhaps the most striking instance of the sympathy of ideas to which Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haque refers 1s the well-known sight of Hindus revering the shrines of Musalman saints and martyrs 1n_ the same degree as, if not in a greater degree than, Musalmans themselves. Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haque re- pudiates the idea that this is to be attributed merely to the superistitious nature of the Hindu. “It is to be ascribed to a deep truth ingrained in “the human nature and discovered by Hindu ‘‘ philosophers.’’ No man is absolutely bad or good. Some are more, others less so. If a man was adored by his own people who know him well, the good in him must have predominated over the bad, and, acting on this principle, the Hindus adore and worship the good qualities of .the man ’) and. not the man himself. ‘To me,’ says Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haque, ‘‘ this worship of the Musalman ‘saints and pious men by the Hindus reveals