Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/12

 4 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [January, 1873. this respect, admitting men of all castes, includ¬ ing Muhammadans, to his sect. Since his time, however, that strange love of caste-distinctions, which seems so ineradicable from the soil of India, has begun again to creep into Vaislinav- ism, and will probably end by establishing its power as firmly in this sect as in any other. Although the institution'of love towards the divine nature, and the doctrine that this love was reciprocated, were certainly a great im¬ provement on the morbid gloom of Siva-worship, the colourless negativeness of Buddhism, and the childish intricacy of ceremonies which formed the religion of the mass of ordinary Hindus, still we cannot find much to admire in it. There seems to be something almost contradictory in representing the highest and purest emotions of the mind by images drawn from the lowest and most animal passions. 41 Ut matrona meretrici dispar erit atque discolor.” So must also Yaishnavism differ from true reli¬ gion, the flesh from the spirit, the impure from the pure. The singing of hymns about Radha and Krishna is much older than Chaitanya’s age. Not to mention Jayadeva and his beautiful, though sensual, Gitagovinda.* Yidyapati, the earliest of Bengali poets, and Chandi Das both preceded Chaitanya, and he himself is stated to have been fond of singing their verses. There was therefore a considerable mass of hymns ready to his hand, and his contemporaries and followers added largely to the number; the poems of the Padakalpataru in consequence are of all ages from the fifteenth century down¬ wards; moreover, as Vaishnavism aspires to be a religion for the masses, the aim of its support¬ ers has always been to write in the vulgar tongue, a fortunate circumstance which renders this vast body of literature extremely valuable to the philologist, since it can be relied on as representing the spoken language of its day more accurately than those pretentious works whose authors despised everything but Sanskrit. The Padakalpataru, to keep up the metaphor of its name throughout, is divided into 4 Vakhas or ‘ branches/ and each of these into 8 or 10 pallabas or smaller branches, ‘ boughs/ It should be explained that the kirtans are celebrated with considerable ceremony. There is first a consecration both of the performers and instruments with flowers, incense, and sweet¬ meats. This is called the adhibas. The prin¬ cipal performer then sings one song after another, the others playing the drum and cymbals in time, and joining in the chorus; as the per¬ formance goes on many of them get excited and wildly frantic, and roll about on the ground. When the performance is over the drum is res¬ pectfully sprinkled with chandana or sandal¬ wood paste, and hung up. Several perform¬ ances go on for days till a whole 6akha has been sung through, and I believe it is always cus¬ tomary to go through at least one Pallab at a sitting, however long if may be. The Bengali Kirtan in fact resembles very much the Bhajans and Kathas common in the Maratha country, and each poem in length, and often in subject, is similar to the Abhangas of Tukaram and others in that province. The first Pallab contains 27 hymns, of these 8 are by Gobind Das, 8 by Baishnab Das, 3 by Brindaban Das, the rest by minor masters. Brin- daban Das and Parameshwar D&s were contem¬ poraries of Chaitanya, the others—including Gobind Das, who is perhaps the most voluminous writer of all—are subsequent to him. Of the hymns themselves the first five are invocations of Chaitanya and Nityanand, and one is in praise of the ceremony of Kirtan. There is no¬ thing very remarkable in any of them. Number 5 may be taken as a specimen, as it is perhaps the best of the batch. Nanda nandana gopijanaballabha, Radhanayaka nagaraSyama : So sachi nandana Nadiyapurandara, suramunigana manamohana dhama : Jaya nija kanta kantikalebara, jay a jaya preyasi bhababinoda : Jaya Brajasahachari lochanamangala, jaya Nadiyabadhu nayana amoda : Jaya jaya Sridama sudamasubalaijjuna, prema prabandhana nabaghana rfipa : Jaya Ramadi sundara priyasahachara, jaya jaya mohana gora anfipa : Jaya atibala balar&mapriyanuja, jaya jaya Nityananda &nanda : Jaya jaya sajjanagana bhaya bhanjana, Gobinda Dasa asa anubandha. M Nand’s son, lover of the Gopis, lord of Radha, the playful Syam : Is he, Sachi’s son, the Indra of Nadiya, the heart-charming dwelling of gods and saints ; victory to him who is love embodied to his own it was in many parts far too warm for European taste.
 * It is many years now since I read Gitagovinda as a text-book at college, but the impression I still retain is that