Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 1.pdf/357

 Nov. 1, 1872.]

323

EARLY BENG ALI KIRTANS.

KÍRTANS, OR HYMNS FROM THE EARLIEST BENGALI POETS. By JOHN BEAMES, B.C.S., &c. &c.

special interest attaches to the six short | Indibara garaba bimochana lochana, hymns which I now lay before the public manasija phānda: for the first time. Not only do they represent a Bhānga bhūjaga pāše bândiafa, kulabati kul debati mana kända : large and widely popular class of compositions hi therto almost unknown to European scholars, but Anukula dolata bhramara karambita, keli kadamba mala : they are at the same time absolutely the earliest known specimens of Bengali literature, and thus Gobinda Dása chite niting|sthirai,

present to the philologist a means of solving many very obscure and difficult problems, while to the student of Indian philosophy they exhibit to the fullest extent the natural and unrestrained sentiments of a follower of the Vaishnava creed

in its first and purest stage.

These hymns are still sung in every village in Bengal. I believe there are some thousands of them living on the lips and in the hearts of

the peasantry which have never been reduced to writing. Collections have been made, and I believe a few have been published in Bengali, but not in such a way as to be generally acces

sible to English readers. From their internal structure and from historical considerations they



aichhana" murati rasăla. Translation.

Rādhā loquitur; Surpassing collyrium (in blackness) delighter of human kind, Conquering in hue the cloud-masses: Tender as the dawn, redder than the nelumbium, His feet adorned with manjira : See, dear friend, shines the king of youths: (His face) expanded with nectared smiles is fair (so that) the moon has become dim from shame: -

Annihilating the pride of the lotus with his eyes, Love's snare:

Binding with his eyebrow's snake-like noose, The race of women, distress of goddesses: Made musical by bees hangs the beautiful

may be ascribed to the end of the fourteenth, and beginning of the fifteenth century, and are therefore genuine representatives of the speech

In the heart of Gobind Das is ever firmly fixed

of Bengal five hundred years ago.

The lines being very long I have divided each one into two, with the exception of the third,

I.

Rág Sindhāra madhur-tála.

Anjana ganjana, jagajjana ranjana, meghapunjajini* baraná : Tarumãruna,f sthalakamala dalăruna, manjira ranjita charaná : Dekha sakhi nāgara rāja birâjef : Sudhai sudhāmaya hāsa bikasita, chända malina bhel Sláje:

Garland of keli and kadamba flowers:

that gracious form.

which is a sort of chorus, and shorter than the

rest. The whole piece thus consists of eight lines. The end of each line is marked by a colon.

II. Lálit Rágin?.

Šun, Šun Mādhaba, mirdaya deha Dhik rahu aichhan tohari” sinehal


 * Jini—having conquered, an old form of the aorist par


 * This poem contains more grammatical forms than the

ticiple. “the dawn,” in the second “red.”
 * ſiruna has two meanings. In the first place it means

preceding one; and those who are acquainted with the

f biráje. This form of the simple indefinite present is common to all the languages of the Aryan group, though its meaning as a present is somewhat obscured by modern usage in Marathi and Hindi; the older form is in -aī as in sudai, sthirai, and is contracted from the Sanskr. ending

-ati. In the forms láje, pasſe, chite, we have the old oblique case of the noun which expresses both instrumentality and location, in the poems of the mediaeval period of all the seven languages this form occurs though in the modern of each of them it has met with a different 0.
 * 1) ºpment

..S. Bhel is still used in the Bhojpuri dialect of Hindi, but ls no .. current in Bengali, which uses instead the more mºdem orm holl,—(hoilam, hoile, &c.). lºng=nityam. The anuswäia written as -ng.


 * * aisa ;

Bhojpuri, aisan; (from Skr.

Bengali of the present day will see how little these forms have as yet acquired of the distinctive characteristics of

that language. Thus–

old Hindi (Chand) iſs, àTſ also ičt ; Marwari IRT, Panjabi, #RT: Gujarati, HRT ; &c. It would seem that Tohari is almost as closely allied to any one of these forms as to the modern Bengali. Uā “may it remain be it!” The termination accords with Oriya in deii, jáil, but not particularly with Bengali. It re sembles more the
 * 1) ft of thee, Bengali,āft; Bhojpuri Hindi, Hºrrºr;

Tºg, Hää

of old Hindi.

It is in fact

Sanskrit (# 3. Sing, imperat: which becomes in Prakrit USS rahau, and the hiatus is in Hindi filled up by #, while in our text the a is dropped. Whence the Bengali gets its final k in houk, rahuk, I do not yet know.