Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/435

 DEVOTIONAL SONGS 411 This brings us practically to the end of the group of tappa-writers* who chronologically belong to our period, although in matters of date and & ist কি of chronology we are not on absolutely firm and safe ground. The tradi- tion, however, was carried on beyond the middle of the 19th century. In Sanigit-raga-kalpadrum, published in 1845, we find the songs of Kalidis Gangopadhyay, Sib- chandra Sarkar, Sib Chandra Ray and Ananda Narayan Ghos and ASutos Deb (Chhatu Babu), all of whom must have flourished in their poetical glory between 1820 and 1840. Later on we get Jagannath Prasad Basu Mallik of Andul, Kasi Prasad Ghos of Simla, Calcutta, author of Gifaa/z7 and of a large number of English lyries, Jadunath Ghos of Belur, who wrote Saigit Mano- raijan, Ramapati Bandyopadhyay, author of Sazgit- miladarga, Hari Mohan Ray, Ram Chand Bandyopadhyay, Dayal Chand Mitra and a host of others. ‘This minor poetry is of a strangely composite order vacillating between the finest poetie quality of Nidhu Babu and the dull flatness of Kali Mirja. Instead of dealing with these latter-day songsters in a piecemeal fashion here, we reserve them for detailed treatment in the next volume ; for the import- ance of this movement did not end with the period with which we are at present concerned but continued to be sufficiently prominent even in the next quarter of this century. It would be convenient to notice here briefly the devo- tional songs of this period, which, though dealing as they ' Gopal Ude does not properly belong to this group of Baithaki- tappa-writers. He was a yatrawala and although his songs go by the name of ‘appa, in quality and kind they belong to a different species.