Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/609

 Med BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 569 drugs and liquors; they were thus effeminate in the eyes of those who drank wine, took ganja, ate all kinds of meat and were followers of kapaliks— those dreadful people who could perpetrate the most heinous crimes without a blush. The lay Vaisnavas as a retort composed s/okas to prove that Chaitanya was Vishnu incarnated in the flesh and interpolated them in the manuscripts of the Vamana Purana, the Vayu Purana, the Naradiya Purgna, the Bhovisya Purana, the Matsya Purana, the Vishnu Jamala, the Garuda Purana, the Visau Purgna, the Kurma Purana, the Devi Purana, the Skanda Purana, the Valmiki Purana, the Nrisinha Purana, and in the Mahabharata. These s/okas signify in the form of a prophecy that God will be incarnated in Chaitanya Deva in kali yuga. The activity with which the Vaisnavas proceed- ed with their task of reforming society was re- markable. There is no sphere of Bengali life which does not bear the stamp of their influence. At early dawn in the winter-months every village in Bengal resounds with the &rfans of a class of Vaisnavas called the Vairagies who visit every house, from the hut of the rustic to the palace of the Raja, calling upon all to rise from their bed and offer thanks to God, as another day has dawned. Amongst the Tipras, a_hill-tribe living in the hills of Tippera, who speak broken Bengali, I found in circulation such learned Vais- nava works as the Chaitanya Charitamrita and the Chaitanya Bhagavata. Many of these men wear tilak marks like the Vaisnavas, and the Manipurians are all zealous followers of the creed of. Chaitanya 72 An incar- nation of God,