Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/874

 Causes leading to the devel- opment of modern prose. The early Bengali prose- works. The Cunya Purana, 832 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. “ অতএব এ সময়ে তুমি কমর বাধিয়া আমার উদ্ধার কৰ্রিতে পার, তবেই যে হউক, নচেৎ আমার নাম লোপ হইল, ইহা! মক্ররর, মকররর জানিবে, নাগাদি ৩রা ভীদ্র, তথাকার রোয়দাদ সমেত মজুমদারের লিখন সম্বলিত মনুষ্য কাসেদ এখ। পৌছে তাহ করিব!, এবিষয়ে এক পত্র লক্ষ হইতে অধিক জানিব1।” [ may add here, that the chief causes that have contributed to the development of Bengali prose in modern times are (1) the preference of Bengalis to live in conjested cities, (2) the establishment of Post offices all over the land, (3) the easy means of communication afforded by railways and steamers, different provincialisms, helping the unification of provincial (4) the great efforts of Missionaries and of Government, dialects by eliminating particularly in the earlier periods of British rule, to spread education amongst the masses. But though circumstances did not favour the development of Bengali prose before the advent of the English on the field, and though Mr. Nathenie! Prassy Halhed could not lay his hand upon any prose-work in Bengali, as he tells us in his preface, such works, nevertheless, did exist in the country in his time, and long before it, though they did not possess that importance which would render them accessible to any casual enquiry. I shall here notice some of the books that have come down to us, as specimens of early Bengali prose. 1. The Cunya Purana is one of the earliest works in Bengali, upon which we _ have already written (page 30). It was composed in the toth century and though it was recast in subsequent times, the few prose portions which it contains have [ Chap.