Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/53

 INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT 29 place could not be expected to possess the same inherited tradition of culture and refinement as marked the ancient aristocracy of the land. Side by side with these, there was created another class of landlords by the very measure itself; for under the new law, the mere collector of the revenue was, in many cases, invested with every proprietory right in the land. Before passing from this cursory account of the dissolu- tion of the Mohammedan government and the ruin of the zemindars, it would not be out of place to refer to the depraved moral influence of the Moral depravity of a ; Mohammedan court upon the courts of 1e period. the noblemen and also upon the society in general. The vivid pages of the Seir Mutaghern has already made familiar to us the depth of luxury, debauchery, and moral depravity of the period, and Ghulam Husain in one place offers a few bitter remarks on the ethicality of Murshi- dabad.' “It must be observed ” he says “ that in those days Moorshoodabad wore very much the appearance of one of Loth’s towns ; and it is still pretty much the same to-day. দিও Nay, the wealthy and powerful, having set apart sums of money for these sorts of amours, used to show the way and to eatrap and seduce the unwary, the poor, and the feeble; and as the proverb says—so ts the hing, ২9 becomes his people,—these amours got into fashion.” It is no wonder, therefore, that this atmosphere of luxury and moral degeneration did not fail to vitiate the general moral tone of society, especially of the upper classes. Public opinion was so low that very many forms of shameless vice, often accompanied by cruelty and violence, attracted little condemnation and received less punishment. It reminds one of the days of Charles II and his courtiers. It 1 Seir Mutagherin, iii. p. 85.