Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/413

IV.] there are passages in his work which are full of poetry, he always uses plain homely similes taken from common objects.

All the poems called Dharma Maṅgala which are treated of in this chapter, bear the stamp of the Paurāṇik Renaissance inspite of their Buddhistic ground-work. The writers wrote them in Sanskritic style and introduced into them thoughts and ideas which characterise the period of the revival of Hinduism and even the poem of Sahadeva Chakravarti which more than any other work of this class belongs to the people, is not without a touch of the predominant ideas of the time. The poems shew how Hindu ideals gradually rose to prominence; Buddhistic ways of thought being thrown in them, into the remote back-ground. It is for this reason that we have included these works in our review of literature belonging to the Paurāṇik Revival in Bengal.

Yet another god and we have done with this chapter. He is Dakṣin Rāi, the god of tigers. He is worshipped in many parts of Bengal, where tigers make havac amongst men,—especially in districts adjoining the Sundarvans. The form of this god, as made in clay, is that of a warrior with bow and arrows in his hands. He rides on a tiger. His first poetic votary was Mādhavācāryya, who lived in the middle of the 17th century. The work is called Rāyamaṅgala. The next poem on the subject by Kriṣṇarām contains two significant lines, which show the god as anxious to receive 48