824 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. illusive. He alone is really root of all. This is the view, the Vedantists argued, that was held by Cankaracharyya; also the great law-giver Cula Pani, Manu, and others have openly avowed this truth.” Amongst respectable people the women-folk not only received a sound education in Bengali, but The edu- often acquired a good knowledge of Sanskrit also. cationof 7 a টু women, Anandamayi’s education made her a match for any ordinary Sanskrit-knowing Pundit ; and of her liter-
ary compositions, bearing evidences of great pedan- try, we have already spoken in full. Yajneg¢vari, a poetess who composed songs fora Kavi party, lived in the beginning of the 19th century, and some of her songs show creditable command over the lan- guage. Gangamani Devi, a sister of the poet Jaya Narayana Sen and a native of Vikrampur in Dacca, composed a large number of songs, which the women of that place sing up to now, during marriage festivities. Arabic, In the courts of the Hindu Rajas it was consi- Persian, ee . and Hindi, “ered an indispensable acquirement for a scholar to have a knowledge of Arabic, Persian and Hindus- thani. The Pundits who scrupulously avoided all court-influences, considered a knowledge of any other language than Sanskrit as profane, just as they would not touch a non-Hindu or a low caste Hindu for fear of contamination. পড়িলে বিপত্তিকালে, দোষ যদি ঘটে বলে, HT WS AYA ATS স্মৃতিশ|স্ত্রে লেখা এই, শলপাণি মত এই; TSE) CSW AP BB I”
