Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/471

 MISCELLANEOUS WRITERS 447 for the concrete facts and forces of human nature and human life, a sense of enjoyment of the good things of earth, a passion of energy and action are traits which foster material civilisation and arts but which are antagonistic to Hindu ideas of placid contentment, to the insensibility, amazement and ecstasy of religious devotion, to the wist- fulness and pathos of spiritual desire. Even in Sanserit, complete secularisation of literature and development of poetry and drama could be possible in the more practical, positive and materially civilised age of a Vikramaditya or a Harsavardhan. A national drama is not only the pro- duct of national glory but it is also a sure index to the sensitive and energetic strength of the external life of the nation itself. But there were drawbacks inherent in the yatra@ itself which stood in the way of its developing into a drama proper and the foremost of these drawbacks was the fact that in the yatra, the operatic and The preponderance of the melodramatic elements al ways the operatic and melo- dramatic elements in preponderated over the dramatic. টপ its ০17 There was little dialogue, still less action, but there was always an ex- clusive predominance of songs in which even the dialogues were carried on and the whole action worked out. This over-flow of the song-element, no doubt, redeemed much of the incongruities and anomalies of the ya/ra@ but it also told seriously on the development of its dramatic elements by tending to destroy, ina flood of music and musical epi- sodes, all considerations of dramatic probability and pro- priety. The peculiar mode of singing chaupadis or the mahajan padas by ‘pattan’ or devising the peculiar variation of a (xkko in the music of 0109 /1///7 was utilised by every Yatrakar for entrancing his audience. An expert and skilful Yatrawala, however, did not always choose to walk