Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/14

 6 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [January, 1873. tees of Sri Krishna Chaitanya singeth Brinda¬ ban Das. 3. First set up the plantains* array the full pots, adorned with twigs of the mango; the Brahman chants the Vedas, the women shout jay ! jay I and all cry Hari 1 Hari! Making the consecration with curds and ghi, all display their joy; bringing in the Vaishnavas, giving them garlands and sandal-paste, for the celebra¬ tion of the Kirtan ; joy is in the hearts of all, hither come the Vaishnavas, to-morrow will be Chaitanya’s kirtan; the virtue of &ri Krishna Chaitanya’s name, and the indwelling of Sri Nityanand singeth Das Brindaban.* 4. Jay ! jay ! in Nawadwip; by Gorang’s order Adwaita goes to prepare the consecration of the drum. Bringing all the Vaishnavas with sound of “ Hari bol,” he initiates the groat feast. He himself giving garlands and sandal-paste, converses with his beloved Vaishnavas, Gobind taking the drum plays ta-ta-tum turn, Adwaita lightly clashes the cymbals. Hari Das begins the song, Sribas keeps time, Gorang dances at the kirtan celebration. On all sides the Vaish¬ navas crowding echo “ Hari bol,” to-morrow will be the great feast. To-day consecrate the drum and hang it up, joyfully saith Bansi sound vic¬ tory ! victory !! The metre of this last is rather pretty, and I therefore give the original of the first two lines. Jaya jaya Navadwipa majh, Goranga adeSa pan a, Adwaita thakura jana. Rare khola mangala saj : Having thus concluded the initiatory cere¬ monies in the 1st Pallab, the 2nd Pallab begins the real “ Kirtan.” It contains 26 hymns by masters who arc mostly of comparatively recent date. Of the old masters Gobind Das and Chandi Das alone appear in this Pallab. We now commence the long and minutely described series of emotions and flirtations (if so lowly a word may be used) between Radha and Krishna, and this Pallab and in fact the whole of the first Sakha is on that phase called “ purbaraga” or first symptoms of love. In No. 2, Chandi Das represents two of Radha’s Sakhis, or girl¬ friends, whispering together as they watch her from a distance (the punctuation refers to the caesura, not to the sense) : Gharcr bahire, dande Satabara, tile tile ai'se m: tan in the preceding line. f The & in this word is the palatal nasal occasionally Mana uchatana, niswasa saghana, kadamba kanane ebay : Chorus. Rai emana kene ba haila; Guruduru jana bhaya nahi, Mana kotha ba ki deba paila : Sadai chanchala, basana ancliala, sambarana nahi kare: Basi thaki thaki, uthaye charaaki, bhfishana khainaf pare : Bayese kisori, rajar kumftri, tahe Kulbadhu bala : Riba abhilashe, badhaye lalase, na bujhi tah har chhala: Tahar chari te, hena bujhi chite, hat bapaila chande: Chandi Dasa kay kari anunaya thekechhe Kaliya phande. “ She stands outside the house, a hundred times restlessly she comes and goes: depressed in mind, with frequent sighs, she looks towards the kadamba jungle. Why has Rai (Radhika) become thus ? serious is her error, she has no fear of men, where are her senses, or what god has possessed her? Constantly restless, she does not cover herself with the comer of her robe : she sits still for a while, then rises with a start, her ornaments fall with a clang. Youthful in age, of royal descent, and a chaste maiden to boot: *hat does she desin, (why) does her longing increase ? I cannot understand her mo¬ tives : from her conduct, this I conceive, she has raised her hand to the raoonj : Chandi Dfte says with respect she has fallen into the snare of the black one (Krishna).” This poem vividly expresses the first symp¬ toms of love dawning in the girl’s heart, and from a religious point of view the first awakenings of consciousness of divine love in the soul. It is difficult for the European mind, trained to draw a broad distinction between the love of God and love for another human being, to enter into a state of feeling in which the earthly and sensual is made a type of the heavenly and spiritual, but a large-souled charity may be perhaps able to admit that by this process, strange though it be to its own habits and experiences, there may have been some improvement wrought in the inner life of men brought up in other schools of thought; and my own experience, now of fourteen years standing, enables me to say that Vaishnav- ism does, in spite of, or perhaps in virtue of, used for in old Bengali, and sometimes for an ua war a simply. £ She has formed some extravagant desire.
 * The poet’s name is inverted to make a rhyme for Kfr-