Page:Rabindranath Tagore - A Biographical Study.djvu/98



In the story of "The Trespass" two boys, the trespassers, dare one another to seal flowers from the court of a temple. The temple is owned by Jaikali, a widow, and in the end an unclean spirit in the shape of a pig breaks into the court where one of the boys, Nalin, has been imprisoned. The priest drives out the pig and Jaikali punishes the boy for his desecration.

Let those who will shake their heads over the superstition of Jaikali. Rabindranath Tagore learnt in the house of his father, the Maharshi, to turn away in his religion from that old idolatry. But in his poetry he is true to the Vaishnava tradition, whose poets brought new life to their art by turning to the folk-life