Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/331

 IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 295 shape and size of altars. Poetry welled up for the singing of hymns to God. Mundane considerations never seriously occupied the attention of Indians or served as any inspiration to them. Bengali poetry was employed in its earlier Howthe stages for religious purposes. Poems in honour of Stadualia Manasa Devi, Chandi and other local deities testify improved. to the same inspiring motive in their writers. The songs in honour of the house-hold deities had to be recited on the occasions of their worship. This was enjoined as a part of the religious func- tion itself. Men and women assembled in great numbers in places of worship, inspired by faith, and the poets who wrote the poems gradually felt the need to make their performance really interesting and attractive. The earliest specimens of songs, in honour of the tutelary deities of Bengal, are generally short. They gave stories in brief form illustrating the might and grace of particular deities. For this purpose, a short and simple tale, without any pretensions to scholarship or poetical merit, was first composed ; the next poet sought to Improve upon this work, and as_ particular religious sects gained ground and counted increasing num- bers of votaries, their religious poems also improv- ed, till the mere outlines of the earlier writers grew into elaborate poems in the hands of later poets. Here, in Bengal, people lived in straw-built huts —_ejigion themselves, while the oratory of their tutelary শির deity was often made of bricks, and rich people _ poetry. living in brick-built mansions, always spent far larger sums of money on their chapels than on their own dwelling rooms. The finest touches of decora-