Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/468

444 BENGALI LITERATURE Yatrawala making a skilful use of the common yet useful device of mingling the ludicrous and the pathetic in order to add a lively zest to the story. The serious and_ the comic set off each other and relieve the melodramatic strain of the whole performance. Again, every representation was concerned primarily with the gradual unfolding of a single plot ; it never consisted of a disjointed “padding ” of unconnected scenes and characters. Through the necessarily slow and elaborate transition of the whole performance, the story is made to stand out clear and alive. In the midst of all its surroundings and accessories, this was always kept in view in every regular /7/77. Speaking of the once famous y@/ra of Parama Adhikari, a writer in the old series of Baiigadarésan lays stress upon the fact that Parama’s ya/ra could never be realised in isolated scenes or songs, inimitably done though they were, but the whole performance had to be witnessed from the beginning to the end. In later periods, mundane subjects and secular themes found their way into the religious yafr@ and its monotony and seriousness were relieved by the introdue- tion of lively, though conventional, interludes of a farcical nature conducted by characters like Narada or Madhu Mangal. All these indicated the enormous possibilities of the yatra for gradually approximating towards the regular drama. In course of time, the drama proper might have, in this way, slowly evolved itself from the indigenous ya/7a@, just in the same way as the English drama of the Renais- sance evolved itself from the medi- Why the amorphous : নর yatra did not develop eval mysteries and miracle-plays. into the regular ul ‘A ay , y এ ন্‌ টা There were, we have seen, inherent opportunities for such a course of development. The mimetic qualities of a ya/ra, its real- istic tendencies, its weaving out of a consistent plot, its