Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/149

III.] Chandī Dās and Vidyāpati followed Jay Deva, and took this allegory for the expression in the vernacular of the highest form of the spiritual ideal.

From a reference given in one of Chandī Dās's poems, it appears that before 1403 A.D. he had composed 996 songs. He was born in the village of Chhātnā in the district of Birbhum, but in early life, settled at the neighbouring village of Nānnura, ten miles to the south-east of Bolpur–a station on the East Indian Railway. The site of his home—now reduced to a mere mound—is still to be seen at Nānnura, where he discharged priestly functions in the temple of Vāçulī Devī. This temple collapsed in course of time, and a new one has lately been built on the old site where the goddess Vāçulī is still worshipped.

Chandī Dās, in the popular estimation was one of those souls who turn love-mad. In Eastern Bengal a man of eccentric tendencies is sometimes called 'পাগলা চণ্ডী' or 'a mad Chandī'. The word 'পাগলা' or 'mad fellow' is not rightly translated by the bold English word 'mad,'—for in Bengali it is tinged with a feeling of tenderness. 'পাগলা চণ্ডী' and 'পাগলা নিমাই' are adored by the people of Bengal. The epithet 'পাগলা' is akin to 'Dewānā' in Persian. They imply the poetic excesses of a great genius and are far from being terms of contempt.

We have already alluded to Chandī Dās's love for Rāmi, the washerwoman. At Nānnura there is a spot which is pointed out as the site of Rāmi's