Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/868

 Change undergone by words in use and meaning. 826 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE... [Chap language in a certain short poem for the purpose of display. The following extract will show what such efforts were like. “ শ্যামহিত প্রাণেশ্বর, বারদকে ৫গায়দ কবর, কাতর দেখে আদর কর, কাছে মবরে! রোয়কে । বক্ত,ৎ বেদং চন্ত্রমা, চু লাল চে রেখা, ক্রোধিত পর দেও ক্ষমা, মেটিমে কাহে শোয়কে ॥" Some of the words that were largely used in the 18th century have grown obsolete. The word 'মেনে' for instance, which we meet with frequently in Bharata Chandra’s poems, is no longer used in writ- ing. The word seems to have no meaning ; it was only used to emphasise a statement or merely to fill up a space in a line of verse which did not come up to the fixed number of letters required by the metre. The words @4l, পেখিল, বঘবরণী ধোহে, এখায়, এবে, এডিল ০7০ not now used in prose-writings ; they are confined to poetry. There are numerous words in Bengali which have lost their original Sanskritic — significance, The word #tfas is derived from AMfS-love, but the former word in colloquial Bengali has been. de- graded in sense, and implies an illicit love. | It was the promiscuous mixing of men and women in the lower orders of Vaishnava society, which by leading to immorality, caused the degeneration in the mean- ing of this word. But at the time of Chandi Das, and even of the poets of a subsequent age, the word was still true to its original significance In cur- rent Bengali and implied a pure sentiment. Chandi Das wrote short discourses using the word to imply a highly refined and austere feeling. The