Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/166

 136 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap, | of the glory of the Mithila university and at that time there was a great interchange of thought between Mithila and Bengal. Hence Bengali poems dealing with the love of Radha and Krisna found entrance into Mithila and the versions of those poems current there are full of Maithil idioms and expressions. The poems of Govinda Das, the great Bengali poet, are still known in Behar, al- though the people there have changed their lan- guage by introducing many. Maithil words and idioms which sound strange to the Bengali ear. In the same manner, Vidyapati’s poems have passed 15 through changes in the hands of the Bengali poets - poems who recast them. The reader may compare the eneaty recensions current in the two countries from a poets. collection of Vidyapati’s poems made by Dr. Grier- son. One looks very much like a translation of the other, yet the Bengali recension is sometimes marked by as much genius as the original itself. It not only retains the sweetness but occasionally improves upon it by introducing new sparkling thoughts. Some of the best songs attributed to ৬1055817115 “জনম অবধি হাম রূপ নেহারিন্ু' are found only in the Bengali recension and the people of Mithila have not preserved them in their collection, nor even heard of them. It is the popular belief that Vasanta Rai, uncle of Raja Pratapaditya of Jessore prepared the Bengali re- cension of Vidyapati in the 16th century. Vidya- pati’s songs in Bengali glow with poetry, colour, and wealth of expression, and, as we have said, are quite equal to their Maithil originals. Under these circumstances Vidya pati must be counted as
 * language. The days of Vidyapati were the days