Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/885

 VI.) BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 843 The translation of the Sanskrit work on Logic called the Bhasa_ Parichchada, in simple Bengali, was indeed a bold attempt, for even in the present advanced development of our prose literature, the subject is considered to be too intricate for Bengali, especially as it would be most difficult to translate the technical words of Sanskrit Logic. The same may be said of the various translations of the Hindu 77716 ৫৩. Law-books compiled in prose two centuries ago. Yelopment
 * ; of poetical

We find mention in a poem named Kirti Lata literature by Raja Prithvi Chandra of Pakur, of an author কাত te named Radha Vallabha Carma who translated = PFOS® most of the Hindu Law-books before the battle of Plassey. All this shows that though prose-writing was not much in favour with the authors of past ages in Bengal, yet on account of the high develop- ment which our language had already attained through its vast poetical literature, there would be no difficulty experienced by any author in attempting translation into Bengali prose the most abstruse and metaphysical of Sanskrit works. This fact also explains why our prose has developed so wonderfully within the last half century. The literary language was already in a highly prepared state, so it needed no great effort to bring our prose to a considerable degree of perfection within a comparatively short time. In early times prose was classified in Bengali as asort of metre. With what justification they called it so is mat known ; but prose passages are ফি generally found introduced by the ৮৮০1৫ গদ্য ছন্দ. metre.’ In a poem in praise of Chandi Das by the poet Vaishnava Das we find the line—“yteq fagaa গদ্য পদাময় গীত! which indicates that prose pass-