Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/297

GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 278 the final bent of modern literature. In spite of the natural persistence of old methods and old forms, access was obtained to new methods and new forms, and the tide of literary fashion began to flow in other and more novel directions with the advent of European writers and European ideas in the field. The description which suggests itself for the quarter of a century from 1800 to 1825 is that of the early or first Transition Period ; for it marks the Its transitional character and the ah it brought the new, although another period of first great advance from the old to progress was necessary (09 bring about in its fulness the dawn of modern literary Bengali. The changes of the period are many and far-reaching and everywhere transitional in character. In_ polities and social affairs, the conflict between the old and the new was gradually taking shape and there was unrest and uncertainty everywhere consequeut upon such conflict. In linguistic matters, we find not only profit and loss in details of vocabulary but also an innovation in the direc- tion of a simpler syntax. But in literature, although the ancient trend of thought and feeling was to some extent being continued in the popular Kabi-songs and other indigenous forms of literature, the British contact did not fail to bring about changes of the gravest kind, in rela- tion to its material, its form, and its literary temper. The field of literary adventures was enlarged and since the tentative efforts resulting from these innovations took, for the most part, the form of their models, radical changes in literary form became palpable. The changes in the literary temper were so subtle and varied that no summary description would be adequate but that it was marked by a greater desire for individual liberty. The age became more and more articulate and forthwith res- $9