Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/48

18 curds and milk; if they bring on disease, get it cured by medicine. For, says Dāk, when one dies, there is an end of his connection with the world." This is quite an un-Hindu idea. The pleasures of the present moment are condemned by the Hindu Çāstras and the views quoted above remind us of Chārvāka and other free-thinkers, and we have said that the Buddhists of the latter-day school had turned into free-thinkers like Chārvāka. The Buddhistic Dharma Çāstra lays special stress on charitable works. In the short epigrammatic sayings of Dāk, there are many passages calling on a house-holder to perform works of charity and public good.

"One who is anxious to do a virtuous act, should dig tanks and plant trees (for the benefit of the people). One who founds institutions for the distribution of rice and water, never goes to Hell."