Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/1045

 VII.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. — 999 Devendra Natha Tagore compiled a code for the guidance of Brahma-life from the Upanisada in 1848, to which he also appended a Bengali trans- lation. This serves as the hand-book and guide to the modern Brahmas,—specially to the members of the Adi Samaja The Bengali translation does great credit to the compiler owing to its simplicity and elegance, and it is a interesting point to note that Devendra Natha dictated the treatise to Aksaya Kumara Datta who took it down, the whole thing occupying only three hours. The great activity and the religious earnest- ness displayed by the band of noble workers has borne great fruit in various spheres of Bengali life. Bengali literature particularly has been immensely profited by them. The Tattta Bodhini Patrika under the editorship of Babu Aksaya IXumara Datta weilded an influence which it is difficult to con- ceive now-a-days. “It is scarcely possible” writes Mr. R. C. Dutt ‘in the present day when journals have multiplied all over the country to describe adequately how eagerly the moral instructions and earnest teachings of Aksava Kumara conveyed in that famous paper, were perused by a large circle of thinking and enlightened readers. People all over Bengal awaited every issue of the paper with eagerness; and the silent and sickly, but inde- fatigueable, worker at his desk swayed for a num- ber of years the thoughts and opinions of the thinking portion of Bengal.’’*
 * Literature of Bengal by R.C. Dutt, Page 87.