Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/27

 DIVISION OF SUBJECT 3 thing written after 1760 till almost half a century elapses ; on the other hand, the growth of this new trend in literature may be detected some half a century earlier than 1858, and [svar Gupta himself is not wholly free from the new influence. If an approximate date is neces- sary; it is to be found somewhere ‘in the first quarter of the 19th century: and the year 1800 is usually, and may be roughly, taken to be the starting aa point. But it must be borne in mind may be taken as the that such approximation of a date is টিটি টি হত intended, more or less, merely to facilitate classification. Some misguided eritic has been induced to baptise this era of literature as the Victorian age. Such a nomenclature is not only mistaken but also misleading; for, as put by a well-known critic of the present day, “neither reigns nor years, nor centuries, nor any arbitrary measure of time in the gradual evolution of thought can be exactly applied, or have any formative influence. A period of so many years, having some well- known name by which it can be labelled, is a mere artifice of classification.” ! Subject to this caution, however, we may safely take 1800 to be the starting point in the new era of Bengali literature. But the historian of literature cannot, however, overlook the long dead-season for 64 —— ee ee fifty years which preceded the most eventful period year 1800; for although 17) this between 1760 and 1800; : ৮ andthe period, 1800. Period we have scanty literature, yet 1858, though not rich work of another kind was being in actual production, is 2 yet itsformative stage accomplished in these apparently and itsi t ot ৮৬18১০52০১৮ 190 599, From the battle of not be ignored. Plassey to the beginning of the 19th
 * Frederic Harrison, Studies in Early Victorian Literature, p. 2.