Page:Bengali Religious Lyrics, Śākta.pdf/35

Rh carelessness, the poet's threatened law-suits or desertion of the Mother, the Mother's absorption in her wild, destructive dance, her standing over the 'Lord of Death.' The Calcutta theatre has kept up, along with worse things, the vernacular tradition of piety, and Vaishṇava and Śākta songs find their way from the boards into remote villages, the gramophone being the effective agent in this dispersal. An excellent example of the modern spirit at work is provided by No. LXXXVIII. The author is a baul. Bauls are mendicant religious singers, often almost unlettered (though the author of No. LXXXVIII can hardly be that). The reader will note the echo of Rāmprasād's protest against sacrifices. But this comes with a new tenderness—the dumb victims are 'the Mother's children.' The poet's thought takes a larger sweep, for he belongs to the present, whose instincts and practice are both (whatever pessimists may allege) more compassionate than any former age has known. The song's atmosphere and teaching reflect the merciful and ethical theism which is to-day overspreading all lands. Its Bengali differentia is that it looks towards the motherhood, and not the fatherhood, of God.

This song fitly concludes our Śākta selection, carrying the thought of Rāmprasād into the world of today. It is followed by fifteen Āgāmanī and Vijayā songs, taken from different writers and arranged to form a drama of welcome and farewell. Two new writers of importance appear in this section. Dāśarāthi Ray, born at Bandāmura in the Burdwan district in 1804, died in 1857. He enjoyed immense popularity, most of his verses being improvised before delighted crowds. By his very clever and very indecent poetry, he made a considerable fortune. He was in the old vernacular tradition, untouched by English influence. No. XCIX, a beautiful song, shows him at his best. Rajanikānta Sen was born in 1865; he practised as a pleader at Rajshahi; and died in the Medical College, Calcutta, of cancer. His Āgāmanī poems were composed during his last illness, and published posthumously.