Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/620

 580 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. into new forms. It delights the ear and overflows The the heart with soft emotions—like the tender wail Kirtaniya ; and his of the soul of woman uttered in song and expressed Pay ean heavenly pathos. The &zrtaniya or head- singer stands in the midst of his party and describes, for instance, the Mathur or the story of Krishna deserting Vrindavana; his voice trembles as a creeper trembles in the bfeeze, and he paints in words set to music how the trees of the Vrinda groves looked as if they wept, being wet with dews; how being unable to follow Krisna, as their roots were fixed to the soil, they moved with their boughs in the direction of Mathura ; how the cows, stood dumb as if they were painted on the air with tears flowing from their eyes, and did not graze ;—how the murmurs of the Jumna soundéd like a deep anthem that rent the heart. The shepherd-god left for ever the Vrinda groves, reducing it toa scene of desolation and making his loves and games a tragedy of the deepest woe. Whenthe master-singer sings, the musicians of his party stop playing, and other singers wait for the direction of their leader which is often intimated by a wave of the hand ; even the sweet violin stops when the master-singer alone holds the audience spell-bound and captivates their souls by singing the padas of the old masters. When a particular stage is arrived at he gives a signal and his party catches the last line of the song and resumes the music. Thus the master- singer with intervals of music in chorus resumes the thread of his tale, stage by stage, and brings to completion the whole episode of a story from the Bhagavata.