Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/526

 490 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. without any male heir, and I had no_ brother. Wherever I happened to stay I was treated with eee great indulgence. In fact I was almost spoiled. notes. None could succeed in giving me lessons. Thanks be to my maternal grandfather Purusottama Gupta, a man of high character who gave me sound thrashings and at last succeeded in teaching me the alphabet.” Lochan Das’s Chaitanya Mangal has half the bulk of Vrindavan Das’s Chaitanya Bhagavata. It does not claim the authority of a reliable biography. ক The Vaisnavas love the work because Lochan was রি a fine poet; his work is more a creation of not agood fancy than an historically accredited account of ০98 Chaitanya’s life. There are professional parties of singers who sing the whole of Chaitanya Mangal and people delight in its high flown poetry. I quote a passage below from this book. The author is describing a conversation of Chaitanya Deva with his wife Visnu Priya on the eve of his turning Sannyasin. It is doubtful if the stoical character of Chaitanya is consistent with the feelings attributed to him in the passage but it does credit to our author as a piece of emotional poetry. যথা যাই তথাই ছুল্লিল করে মোরে । ছুলিল দেখিয়া মোরে পড়াইতে নারে ॥ ধন্য সে পুরুষোত্তম চরিত তাহার । মারিয়। ধরিয়া মোরে শিখাল আথর ॥" Chaitanya Mangal.