Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/836

 494 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LireRatTURE. [ Chap. are very common in this country even now. In the Statesman of the 17th November 1910, there is a leader on an article from the pen of the Hon’ble Mr. Mazhal-ul-Haque on this mutual assimilation by the Hindus and the Mahomedans of the customs and thought of each other. The article appeared in the magazine—‘‘ Modern Behar.’ We _ quote from the Statesman,—‘‘ From the begining the Musalman invaders adopted wholesale the customs of the Hindus, says Mr. Mazhar-ul-Haque, and when these went entirely against their religious ideas they so adapted them as to give a semblance of conformity to their own religion. From_ birth to death at every stage of life, the Mahomedan in India perform ceremonies which are of purely Hindu origin. When he is born, the songs sung are not of Musalman conception but those in which allusions to Cri Krishna are frequent. The series of ceremonies ‘which are performed during pregnancy are adopted from the Hindus, and the symbols of Hindu religions and philosophical ideas play the most important part. At marriage the ceremonies are even more Hinduised. In Islam the simple reading of the Nikah is quste sufficient to complete the marriage contract, and unnecessary and wasteful ceremony has always been expressly discouraged. But the Indian Musalman_ goes through a long series of festivities and ceremonies, most of which are bodily importations from the Hindus, while others are, adapted with © slight | modifications to give them some colour of Maho- medanism. ‘The custom, in connection with mar- riage ceremonies to which Mahomedan ladies | attach the greatest importance, is of purely Hindu ২