Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/997

 VII. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. — 95! the appeal against the abolution of Suttee was rejected on the 11th of July, 1832. After a resi- dence of three years in Europe Raja Rama Mohana Roy died at Bristol on the 27th of September, 1833. How far the Raja’s strenuous and self-sacritic- ing efforts against idoiatry may have succeeded will engage us fora few moments. Asa heated contro- vercy was going on in the vernacular tongue on this point, we consider ourselves justified in summaris- ing here the arguments advanced by the other side. From the time of the Risis, when Usas appear- ed to them as beautiful nymph of the horizon clothed in purple apparel, down to the days of the Puranas, the religious history of India has been one in which monotheism has constantly adopted the garb of allegory, in order to appeal more potently to popular minds; and the vast pantheon of the Hindu gods and goddesses have an emblematical. signifi- cance which has been repeatedly emphasised by the writers of theological treatises. The Raja him- self admitted ‘‘there can be no doubt however, and it is my whole desire to prove, that every rite has its derivation from the allegorical adoration of the deity, but at the present day all is forgotten ’’;* and again “ many learned Brahmins are well in- formed of the pure mode of divine worship.”t The position taken by his opponents was not without a rational basis; and the controversy was as interesting as it was learned. In the spiritual world, as in pony and even in Mathematics, the symbol - ঠা রি of Raja as Mohana Bee, oe ef page 5. + Do. do. vol. I, page 127. and death. Gods and goddesses of the Hindus.