Page:Bengal Vaishnavism - Bipin Chandra Pal.djvu/10



In sending out into the world, what is practically the last contribution of my esteemed friend Mr. Bipin. Chandra Pal to the Philosophy and Religion of Bengal Vaishnavism, not many words are needed by way of preface.

Mr. Bipin Chandra Pal was not only a political leader and an eloquent and convincing exponent of Indian Nationalism, but a profound student of the composite culture of his people. Though not a scholar in the technical and limited sense of the term, he was a deep student of the Indian religions and philosophies and a contemporary thought-leader in many ways. I knew him quite intimately. Dry-as-dust studies and collations of quotations would greatly bore him, but he had an instinctive and intuitional insight into Indian thought, both mediaeval and modern. His appreciation of Bengal Vaishnavism, with its unique contribution to Indian philosophical and religious thought, was truly profound and the reader who carefully studies the following pages will fully bear out this estimate.

Bengal, through the operation of forces—ethnic and historical—has developed a special culture of her own. No doubt, India is one cultural unit but inside the composite and far-flung civilisation of India, the different provinces of the Indian continent have developed individual cultures (as Mr. Pal loved to expound in his own inimitable way), finding expression in their own cults, customs, languages and literatures.