Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/759

 VI.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 717 “You have brought innocent goats for sacrifice. “Why not say, ‘ Victory to Kali!’ and sacrifice your passions, which are your real enemies ? ‘Why these sounds of the drum? Only keep your mind at Her feet and say,— “Let thy will, O Kali, be fulfilled, and saying so clap your hands.”’ In another song he says, ‘‘ Making pilgrimage, visiting shrines is only a physical labour unto you.’ But if Rama Prasada condemned empty rituals and the worship of images, it was only at a moment when the mere means were confounded with the end. In fact the image of Kali was to him a perpetual fountain from which he drew the realisation of the sublime, the terrible and the beautiful in nature ; and it inspired in him the most poetic songs that adorn the literature of the Caktas of Bengal. The songs of Rama Prasada still reign supreme in our villages. In the pastoral meadows, amidst sweet scents of herbs and flowers, with the gentle murmurs of the river flowing by, or in the rice- fields where sounds of the cutting of grass or reaping of harvest lend a charm to the tranquil village-scene, one may often hear the Malacri songs of Kama Prasada, sung by rustics in the following strain. *‘ This brief day will pass, sure তুমি 'জয় কালী' 'জয় কালী' বলে বলি দেও ষড়রিপুগণে ॥ প্রসাদ বলে, ঢাক ঢোল কাজ কিরে তোর সে বাজনে । তুমি 'জয় কালী' বলি দেও করতালি, মন রাখি Sig Apacs | & “নিত্রান্ত যাবে এদিন, কেবল ঘোষণা রবে গে। | তার নামে অসংখ্য BAR ATI CM The image of Kali inspires his songs. The poet of the rural Bengal.