Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/739

 VI.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 697 The avi songs had originally constituted parts of old yatras or popular plays. The simple epi- sodes in the yatras, especially those of the nature of light opera, were in course of time wrought into a separate class of songs, which were sung by these distinct bodies of professional bards called kaviwalas, whose domain was thus completely severed from that of the yatra parties. The kavr- walas used the musical instrument called the madala to mark time in their songs. The notes of the madala were lighter than those of the grave khol which was used by yatras and kirtana- parties. The earliest kaviwala about whom informa- tion has been obtained was Raghu, a cobbler who flourished in the 17th century. The low caste of this singer shows that the institution was based upon the amusement of the rustics. Gradually the higher classes came to take an interest init. But the chief audiences of the kaviwalas have always consisted mainly of illiterate rural people. Alas, these songs are heard no more in Bengal! The death-knell of this institution, once so popular, was sounded by the new Bengali drama influenced by European models; and though the yatras still exist, they are only like ghosts of their former selves. We miss the national tone in them. Our Yatrawa- Jas now mimic the modern theatres. They can not afford the costs of making a stage or purchasing scenery, hence they generally hold their perfor- mances in temporary sheds, raised for the occasion, or oftentimes under the open sky. They have abandoned the ground that once belonged to them, and from which they once wielded so great a moral 88 The origin of the kavi songs, Raghu, the cobbler. The degeneracy of the old yatra.