Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/651

 V.]. BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 911 mautch ; no illumination; no dowry. It is related in the Chaitanya Bhagavata that this distribution of sandal-perfume, betels, etc., cost an amount of money out of which five ordinary marriages could have been celebrated! Yet the expenses calculated by the present value of money could hardly have exceeded Rs. 50. Compared with the present ex- penditure on marriages this was insignificant. For now-a-days no gentleman in Bengal can manage a marriage for less than Rs. 500 and a marriage of a pompous description must cost fifty times this amount. But I doubt if the present state of things ‘mean any improvement in the material condition of the people; it should rather be taken as the. result of extravagant ideas about style of living and display which are threatening to prove disastrous to us. The merchant-classes, occupying an inferior position in society inspite of their great wealth in Bengal, were lavish in expenditure on the occasion of marriage and other festivals in those days. The description of the marriage of Laksmindra with Vehula in Manasar Bhasan discloses a pomp and grandeur which far exceed anything of the kind found in the modern festivities of our rich people. The profuse display of jewellery, of gold and silver plate, the noble procession of elephants and horses all glittering with gold-saddles and ensigns, and the rich dowries carried by thousands of men, valuable diadems sparkling from the turbans of the gay companions of the bridegroom, and rich illumi- nation—all indicate the vast resources that were at the command of the merchants of that period. But this idea of -:pomp and extravagance in living was The merchants,