Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/419

 IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 383 element was not Sullied by the touch of anything foreign. The word tt# (moon), #ff (sun), WX (air), Ata} (water) 4 (flower) and those denoting objects of nature and social life retained their original Sanskrit or Prakitic forms—not to speak 91 words relating to religious functions which remain- ed unchanged. As nearly all Bengali works of the period deal with social and religious sub- jects, there are scarcely any foreign words in them, and only a sprinkling of these occurs in the des- criptions of the Courts of kings. This was an age when Sanskritic words were being largely vernacularised, a practice to which we have already alluded. The translations are full of instances of highly artistic Sanskrit expressions as SIA ISA 'অগ্রিআংশু যেন পাংশু' 'চলংচপলা' ০০০. 4৯ 0০৬ school had came into existence, the. function of which was to Sanskritise Bengali. Even in the works of Mukundarama who more than any other Bengali poet except Chandi Das used provincialisms in his poetry, we come across such words as PAY, ঈবুপাশ, নিন্ন 20৫ প্রবল-চপল-ভঙ্গ|. 101) ingenious similes and figurative expressions which developed in a subsequent period are indicated in Mukundargma’s writings though he seemed least inclined to use them. He belonged to the school of the people but owned some kinship with that of the pedantic scholars also. We quote here a passage in illustration ;— ‘“‘T cannot describe the beauty of Uma’s face. Smitten by its beauty the moon dares not appear in the daytime, for this reason the moon looks pale and wears a blot which men speak of as the lunar spot. The pomegranate seeds, beaten by the beauty of Uma’s teeth, have lost their The Sanskriti- sation of Bengali. Pedantic style in Mukund- ram,