Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/10

 Vill PREFACE of the subject. Pundit Ramgati Nyayaratna’s more con- siderable and painstaking work is far too sketchy and too orthodox to serve as a connected and critical account ; and his treatment of the nineteenth century, with which the Pundit seems to possess but little sympathy, is meagre and hasty. Mahamahopadhyay Haraprasad Shastri’s fruitful researches in the field of early Bengali Literature is well- known; but it is to be regretted that the learned scholar did not direct his investigation to comparatively modern periods except by way of contributing a suggestive survey of the nineteenth century literature in the old series of the Baigadargan. It is needless to mention other subsequent works like those of Padmanabba Ghosal, Mahendra Nath Bhattacharjee, Kailas Chandra Ghose, Romesh Chandra Dutt and others; for researches in the field or at least accumulation of materials have necessarily made great strides in the thirty or forty years which have elapsed since their publication. The most recent treatment of the subject is to be found in Babu Dinesh Chandra Sen’s newly published History of Bengali Literature, but it must be admitted that the learned author’s account of the nineteenth century, which is dealt with only partially and which possibly did not come within the scope of his lueid lectures, is tacked on as a sort of appendix to his more valuable work on the earlier periods and, based as it is chiefly on the doubtful authority of Rev. J. Long’s Catalogue, it is in itself a hardly satisfactory study of the schools and leaders of this important era of Bengali Literature. It is remark- able indeed that recent investigations and researches in this field are directed more towards ancient Bengali Literature than towards its more modern phases. This apparent want of interest in a very noteworthy period must not, however, lead one to underrate its importance. It is true that the period of European writers in Bengali is not very acceptable