Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/415

 LOVE-LYRICS 391 absurdity to represent them as thoroughly revolutionary or entirely “modern.” Regarded from the standpoint of form, their songs incline more to the old than to the new. They write with ease and naturalness, no doubt, but the varying measures and melodies of the coming age were not for them. In ideas and general tone also they did not venture to go beyond certain limits. They pre- serve ina degree the old posture and the old manner. But in spirit and temper, if not in anything else, they herald the new age. The contrast between them and writers like Jaynarayan Ghosal, who was almost contem- poraneous, will exhibit the whole Intermediate place (difference between the old and the between the old and the new spirit. new poetical instincts. They were, therefore, like intermediaries between the old and the new poets and, although casting a lingering look behind, they stand at the threshold of the new age of poetry. Ramnidhi Gupta (or simply and endearingly Nidhu Babu) was the earliest and by far the most important writer of this group. There was a time Ramnidhi Gupta or ee : এ . Nidhu Babu, the ear. When people went into eestasies over = Reade Nidhu Babu’s songs and singing. was the first dealer in this new species or whether it was he who introduced it into Bengali; but the extraordinary power which he displayed and the enormous popularity he enjoyed justify the high eulogy bestowed upon him by his glorious nickname “ the Sori Mifia of Bengal.” As a result of the capricious instability of changing taste, Nidhu Babu’s songs are sometimes severely deprecated to-day and seldom read; yet from the artistic as well as_histori- eal standpoint, these neglected songs, it must be admitted, possess considerable value and importance,
 * It is not clear whether Nidhu Babu