Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/610

 570 BENGALI LANGAUGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. Deva. The people of OrissAé are more devoted followers of Chaitanya Deva than even the Ben- galees. The Vaishavas were anxious to do away with the pride of caste altogether. The Pada- kartas and other authors amongst the Vaisnavas have adopted the title of Das or servant in the place of their family surnames as a mark of humility. This word Das in the orthodox society of Bengal is exclusively used by castes inferior to the Brahmins. [17115 But in the Vaisnava literature all good Brahmins, not to speak of the inferior castes, delight in calling themselves ‘Das’ and thereby eliminate the titles indicating their family status; this has often made it exceedingly difficult for us to find out to what caste or family a certain author amongst the Vasinavas belonged. 88 The whole of the old Bengali literature sub- pens sequent to Chaitanya Deva bears the mark of the Ramayana, influence of the Vaisnavas. The original Ramayana by Krittivas is lost, but from fragmentary manus- cripts of the 16th century that have come to hand, we may surmise that the poet conformed to the original epic of Valmiki though he considerably abridged it ; the interpolating hands of later writers are, however, distinctly traceable in the subsequent manuscripts and in the modernised version of the work which is found in the market. In this book we find the Raksasas or demons metamorphosed into saints and Vaisnavas. In the whole range of our literature we can scarcely find a more curious matter than this transformation by Vaisnava poets of the Raksasas of the Kkamayana. In the original epic of Valmiki they are great warriors,—fighting to the last on the battle-field with unflinching