Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/619

 V.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. — 579 being profound scholars. Some of them very learnedly agree that the shrine of Vadarika is good for nothing; it is worth a kachu (Arum Colocasta).’’ The above satire levels itself at three points of Vaisnavism with which the orthodox community was particularly disgusted ; the first is the upsetting of the rules of caste, the second is remarriage of widows in the lower ranks of the Vaisnavas; the third is their utter disregard for Castric ordinances, and disownment of the sanctity of shrines. The Vaishnava singers took the country by The Manohar surprise by their composition of the Manoharsahi 5818 6416. tune. For pathetic chant of tender sentiments and for cadence and soul-stirring effects, the Manoharsahi tune is without its rival in the Indian musical system. As in their ways and views of life the Vaisnavas broke down the conventions of ages and displayed originality and freedom, so in thier Azrtana songs they rejected the time- honoured musical tunes and modes which were so greatly favoured by the leading singers of fashion- able society, and introduced a new tune—the Manoharsahi—full of strange modulations, which sounds like acry from the depths of the soul and appeals to the heart by its tender wail, bringing tears to the eyes of the hearers often without words. This is the tune adopted in the Vaisnava kirtanas where the singers’ voice set at naught the hard and fast rules of the stereotyped six Ragas and thirty six Raginies of Indian music and flowed এক এক জন কিব। বিদ্যাবন্ত, করেন কিবা সিদ্ধান্ত বদরিকাকে ব্যাখ্যা করেন কচু ॥” From a poem by Dacarathi.