Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/1008

 962 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap 24. Kavitkarer Sahita Vichara, 35 pages, 182r. 25. Bhattacaryyer Sahita Vichara, 80 pages, 1817. 26. Gaudiya Vyakarana, 80 pages, 1833. 27. Samvada Kaumudi, 20 pages. The English works of Raja Rama Mohana Roy have been edited by Jogendra Chandra Ghose, M.A., B.L., and published by Crikantha Roy of Calcutta in three volumes. The Bengali works of the Raja referred to above, were collected and published by Raja Naray- ana Vasu and Ananda Chandra Tarkavagic¢a in 1873. The collection contains over 800 pages (quarto size). Most of his Bengali treatises are short; but the vast learning which he displays in each of these productions, together with the closeness Their of argument and sincere and ardent desire for merit. truth, lends them an importance second to none in our literature. His interpretation of the Vedanta, chiefly based on the commentary of Cankara- charyya, gives ia lucid Bengali prose what would be impossible for any other person of his age to have done in the vernacular. The intricacies of one of the most abstruse subjects that ever engaged the human intellect,—the difficulties of a language whose prose was not yet properly formed, were all overcome, and the truths of the great Philosophy were brought within the easy reach of every man of ordinary intelligence in a masterly way. The Raja, like a Risi, realised the truths of the Vedanta and expressed them from his own soul through his verna- cular writings. We repeat that it would have been impossible for any other man of his age, however