Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/26

 2 BENGALI LITERATURE How different are the problems of life and character which Kabikankan paints from those we see reflected in the pages of Rabindranath! What a new world is that of Michael, Hem, or Nabin beside that revealed to us by Bijay, Ksemananda, or Ram-prasad! What wholly different types, ideas, and aims! It may not be easy to indicate what these characteristic differences are, but there can be no doubt that our age, although presenting, as it does, instances of a dozen different styles, certainly possesses its own unmistakable zeztyevs¢t in phraseology Hence the necessity of a separate treatment in spite of historiccon- from all other ages. What these tinuity. and substance which distinguishes it characteristic points of difference are we shall see clearly as we proceed in our study of the literature itself ; but at the outset it must be admitted that modern Bengali literature, as such, has surely a claim for treatment peculiarly suited to itself. But it would be a difficult problem in social dynamics to fix any thing like an exact date for The starting point. this change in the tone of the litera- ture or to trace it back to its social causes. Broadly speaking, our literature began, no doubt, with the permanence of the British rule and the spread of western ideas ; but these events cover almost a century from 1757 to 1857. The death of Bharat-chandra in 1760, only three years after Plassey, in which we reach a political and social cause of the great change, is The dates usually and often taken as the typical date ; but it generally accepted are টু 1760 and 1858; but might also be contended that the both rbitrary. 5 : ; - (1 51 09901) 01 15527 001)0% 10) 1535 marks the end of the most effective note in the older current of literature and the beginning of the new era. Yet both these dates, it is obvious, are purely arbitrary points. . For the modern tone in literature ean hardly be detected in any