Twilight of the Sultanate c18.s5.3

c18.s5.3

Muslim conquest was not without its blessings in Bengal. There, as elsewhere, developed an understanding between Hindus and Muslims. Hindus offered sweets at Muslims shrines; consulted and kept copies of the Quran. Musalmans responded with similar acts.⁴⁸ Vidyāpatī dedicated his songs to Nāsir Shāh, and Sultan Husain Shāh of Gauda is supposed to have been the originator of the cult of Satya Pir to which both Hindus and Muslims were attracted. But the state of Hindu religion was far from satisfactory. On the one hand there was the worship of Chandī with all its concomitant sacrifices and tantrism of a debased and sensuous nature, on the other society was suffering from the harmful pride of pedigree, caste and religious narrowness. Everywhere in Bengal the power of the Brahmans was in the ascendant, and the lower strata of society groaned under the tyranny of the higher.⁴⁹