Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/796

 754 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. His tappas, as his songs are generally called, after the scale adopted by him, have human love for their subject, and the high spirit of idealism which breathes through them, coupled with the charms of a novel melody, elicited the appreciation of the educated community of Bengal. His verses were never popular in the sense in which those of Rama Prasada and Dacarathi had been so. The latter commanded appreciation amongst all sections of Bengali Society, but Nidhu Babu’'s tappas were mainly admired by the higher classes, who knew something of music asa science and had the culture to enter into the spirit of his ex- ceedingly refined ideas, expressed as these were with laconic brevity. The masses still had the notion that no song was worth hearing which did not bear some explicit reference to religion in it. In a collection of songs published in 1905 by Babu Durga Das Lahidi the number of Nidhu Babu’s songs inserted is 472, and this does not indicate one-tenth of the number composed by him. They are generally brief,—ordinarily taking not more than eight lines, while there are many that have four lines only. But however short they may be, one is sure to find a complete idea in each of his songs. A Jively emotion ora fine thought is put into charming language and they are as suggestive as they are brief. They remind us of the short and sweet love-lyrics of Robert Burns. Nidhu Babu never says any thing vulgar. He has always an elevated notion of love and gives us only the highest forms of tender sentiment. I here | quote a few examples ;— 7 ;