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EARLY BENG ALI KIRTANS.

Nov. 1, 1872.]

I am obedient to thee, thou knowest it well, Why dost thou burn my soul?:

If thou wilt not look on my face, to what place shall I go?: Without thee to what end shall I preserve my life, I will abandon my own life: When Kánh had made all this entreaty, and still she looked not on his face :

Gobind Das says vain was hope, weeping really then went Kānh. IV.

Hămări ächhila katapuraba bhāgi? Pheri äola hām so phala lägi. Bidyāpati kahe nå kaha kheda Aichhe hoyala payilai sambheda (Rádhá's regrets at the long absence of Krishna.) I have remained in much fear enduring this body Not having been near that ocean of delight; Not one of my companions has been in my power; As the madana creeper stinging the hand; Again how in any entreaties have I made humbly Even so the sin in my heart understands not its error.

Róg : Dhyānesri. Hari ! Hari! boli dharani dhari uthai bolat gadgada bhākha:*

Nila gagana heri tähäri bharamat bhāba bihisanchef măgeyes pākha: Kikaraba chandra chandana ghana lepana kisalaya dharani šayåne : Ána beyāri, fina pāya, aukhada| Gobinda Dása nahijäne: TRANSLATION.

(Radha repents of her coldness.) “Hari! Hari!” she calls, lying on the ground she rises up. Speaking trembling words.

Looking at the blue sky thinking of his wandering, She asks from the birds wings: “What avails the moon, thick smearing of sandal

What fortune was mine in a former life 2

Again I have come to attain this reward. Bidyāpati says, speak not this grief, Thus has occurred the first separation.

There is a mystic meaning in all these kirtans which it is worth while to draw out more clearly. The old Aryan element-worship had led to the creation of a multitude of gods between whose varying attributes and powers a considerable amount of confusion must necessarily have ex isted. In the long centuries of depression under which the Brahmanical religion languished du ring the supremacy of Buddhism, the necessity of introducing some order into the grotesque and crowded Pantheon of the Hindus must have

forced itself upon the mind of the Brahmans. The monotheism of Buddha, affording as it did one definite person upon whom the popular mind might fix itself, led to the idea of elevat

paste,

Kisalaya leaves, or lying on the ground 2

Bring him, friend, bring him to my feet,” a remedy Gobind Das knows not. V.

ing either Siva or Vishnu into the

supreme

place. The shadowy parama Brahma of an earlier age became personified in one or other of the rival gods, and gradually the incarnation of

Krishna, an Indian rendering of the great Chris Sri Rág. Hàm ati bhiti rahanu tanu goi," So rasaságara thor" nã hoi; Baša nähi hoyala kaona je sāti,

Madana latājanu dańsana hāti; Puna kata kākuti kaola anukula, Tabhu pâpa hiva majhut nähi bhula.
 * HIW It is a distinctly Hindi peculiarity

to pronounce this “bhākha." T is in Hindi regularly kh, but not in Bengali. That it must be so pronounced here is evident from its rhyming with pākha, a wing. f Bihisanche : my authorities are not in accord about this word. One writes it. bihangame,' a second, “bibisane, while

bihi sanche; the above seems the more probable reading. $qrā’ī seems a sort of double formation, mage, i. e. mar Perhaps ob metrum.
 * ggests
 * {{R i.e. +H.
 * would have been sufficient, the additional syllable is
 * [[ºf


 * 1) TTT etc.

The meaning is not clear. I have

tian fact received through the medium of later

Buddhist legends, shaped itself into a distinct creed and won an immense and ever increasing popularity. A further development awaited it when the Muhammadans came to India. The emotional or

unphilosophical monotheism which they profess rendered it as though beydri was for piyār; and supposed Rādhā to be addressing her sakhi or confidante, but I am not satisfied with this. Babu Jagadish thinks (ina pāya is one word for anupaya ‘i. e. without resource, he also translates ſina beyiri by “without the lover, but I cannot get

this meaning out of the words.
 * Siſää Here again comes the Bihar type with a for

Q unknown to modern Bengali.

-

gam, meaning “having caused to go,” that is, having borne or endured. f Majhu a form of Hs! i. e. *Tā. f Payila for Tſºſ, first. -->
 * goi probably corrupted from goyāi a causal from root
 * Thor perhaps from Pſific.

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