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History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s3: Chandīdās and Vidyāpati compared

History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s3

Language
English

Chandīdās and Vidyāpati compared

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Of Chandī Dās and Vidyāpati, it may be said that the one sings as impelled by nature,—his is a cry from the depths of the soul; literary embellishments are lost sight of; poetry wells up like a natural fountain, whose pure flow contains no coarse grain of earth. The other is a conscious poet, and a finished scholar, whose similes and metaphors are brilliant poetical feats; they at once captivate the ear, and the boldness of colour in the pictures, presented to the mind, dazzles the eyes. The scenes of sensuality, and lust are redeemed by others which are platonic and spiritual,—a strange combination of holy and unholy, of earthly and heavenly. His earlier poems are full of sensualism,—his later, of mystic ideas. Chandī Dās is a bird from the higher regions, where earthly beauties may be scant, but which is nearer heaven, for all that. Vidyāpati moves all day in the sunny groves and floral meadows of the earth, but in the evening rises high and overtakes his fellow poet.∗

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∗ Complete editions of the love-songs of Vidyāpati and Chandīdās are expected shortly to be published with copious annotations by two Bengali scholars. Vidyāpati is being edited by Babu Nagendra Nath Gupta under the patronage and directions of Babu Sarada Charan Mitter, late Judge of the Calcutta High Court and the credit of collecting a large number of hitherto unknown poems of Chandīdās belongs to Babu Nilratan Mukherjee, Head Master, Kirnahār School in the district of Bīrbhum. Each of the two compilations will contain about a thousand poems or padas. This is far ahead of the number of padas hitherto extant in the country.

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CHAPTER IV.

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THE POURĀNIK RENAISSANCE.

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1. The Leading characteristics of the Renaissance. Faith in God and in the Brāhmin.
2. Vernacular recensions of Sanskrit works. General remarks.
(a) The Rāmāyaṇa.
(b) The Mahābhārata.
(c) The Bhāgabata.
(d) The Chandi of Mārkandeya.
3. The conception of Çiva in the Renaissance and songs in honour of him.
4. The Çakti-cult and its development in Bengal. Poems in honour of
(a) Manasā Devi.
(b) Chandi Devi.
(c) Gaṅgā Devi.
(d) Çitalā Devi.
(e) Lakṣmi Devi, Saraswati Devi and Ṣaṣthi Devi.
5. Dharma Mangal poems recast by the Brāhmins.
6. Poems in honour of Dakṣina Rāi (God of tigers). Some remarks about the poems.

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1. The leading characteristics of the Renaissance. Faith in God and in the Brāhmin.

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The reaction-ary movement.

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I have tried to shew that the revival of Hinduism, which had reached full development amongst the vernacular-reading classes in Bengal by the 15th century, was effective in bringing society back into discipline and order, thus counteracting those vices of free-thinking and gross Tāntrikism to which it had succumbed during the last days of Buddhism. In written language, metrical forms, aiming at rythmical perfection gradually found favour, and Sanskritic expressions were preferred to the loose Prākrita which in the Buddhistic age had been the current dialect of this country. Everywhere a reactionary movement—a tendency to correct and embellish the current forms—was observed. Both social and literary movements were imbued with this spirit.

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But the chief point in the revival of Hinduism was the promulgation of the creed of devotion and trust in God, which tended to balance the scepticism of the later forms of Buddhism. Buddhism had, in its flourishing days, observed a strict moral code. The metaphysical side of religion was rejected by Buddha as vain speculation. In the Ambatta Sutta, he declares theological discussion to be utterly fruitless, and advises his followers to stick to the practical matters of high moral principles and works of philanthropy and charity.

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When, however, Buddhism with its noble laws of character declined, the masses felt that the moral code was unavailing without faith. From one extreme, the human mind always runs to the other. In the natural evolution of spiritual thought, the negative aspect changes till it takes a positive character. The Hindu reaction put faith in place of laws. Thus moral principles, self-dicipline, and introspection, the watch-words of Buddhism, were thrown into the back-ground, and faith in God became the motto and the catch-word of the Pouranik Ranaissance. The Hindu revivalists, in running to such an extreme, perhaps overdid their part. They preached that man, being essentially a creature of circumstances, could not at all depend on self-help. He needs divine grace at every step. Faith, they said, was the only thing to be sought for,—not only in order to attain salvation, but for the purpose of building up character. They went so far as to declare that it was not in the power of a human being to commit so many crimes in life as could not be expiated by uttering the name of God once in sincere faith!

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The growth of the Brahmanic power.

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The dissemination of such ideas was necessarily accompanied by the growth of the Brāhmanic power. As a set-off against the lawlessness of the Buddhistic free-thinkers, absolute obedience to the leaders of society was enforced. The Mahammodans, as the new ruling race, did not enterfere with the social and spiritual movements of the Hindus. Full powers, thus, came to be vested in the leaders of society. Without a reverence for the promulgators, truth loses much of its force. Hence in the Pouraṇik Renaissance the Brāhmin came to the front, and stood next to God in popular estimation. Hinduism thus became in a far greater sense than ever before, Brāhmanism, or a Brāhmanic cult.

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A creed of faith has, often, much in it that is peculiar; it has its weak points which every rational man can laugh at. Yet a man of faith, blindly devoted to his faith, is often a better man than the rationalistic sceptic. There were many absurdities in the propaganda of the Hindu reaction. The following lines in Kaçīram Das's Mahābhārata shew the nature of the romances invented and the modifications introduced into older stories, at this time, in order to raise the Brāhmins above the level even of the Gods.

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* "It is a Brāhmin's anger which, like fire, burnt down the great dynasty of the Yādavas and of Sāgara—the distinguished king of the Lunar race. It is a Brāhmin's anger, again, which has placed a blot on the Moon's surface. Even the god of fire, Agni Deva, and the god of the sky, Indra Deva, have been subject in their turn to a Brāhmanical curse. A Brāhmin's anger has made the waters of the great sea saline. Even the greatest of the gods, Viṣṇu, bears the mark of a Brāhmin's kick on his bosom."

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Kācirām Dās describes the incident of the curse of a Brāhmin, under which Rājā Parikṣit was to die of snake-bite within a week. The snake had not yet appeared at the fixed hour. The Rājā grew restless, and when a worm was found in a fruit presented to him, he cried out, "Let this worm become a snake and bite me, rather than that a Brāhmin's word should prove untrue."† There is

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† "এই পোকা তক্ষক হউক এইক্ষণ। দংশক আমারে রহুক ব্রাহ্মণবচন ॥" Kācidās's Mahābhārata.

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* যাঁর ক্রোধে যদুকুল হইল নির্ব্বংশ।
যাঁর ক্রোধে নষ্ট হইল সগরের বংশ ॥
যাঁর ক্রোধে কলঙ্কী হইল কলানিধি।
যাঁর ক্রোধে লবণ হইল সলিলাধি ॥
যাঁর ক্রোধে অনল হইল সর্ব্বভক্ষ।
যাঁর পদচিহ্ন ধরে নারায়ণবক্ষ ॥"
Kācidās's Mahābhārata.

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nothing corresponding to this line in the orginal epic, which makes it only the more significant in Bengali, as shewing to what an extent Brāhmin-worship was developed in this country in a subsequent age.

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A Brāhmin was called Bhūdeva or god on earth. In the period of the Upaniṣadas, the glory of a Brāhmin lay in his knowledge of the Supreme Being. In the Paurāṇik age he claimed reverence equal to that offered to the gods, by virtue of his birth alone.

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The reason of Brāhmin-worship.

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But how are we to account for the meek submission of the people to the Brāhmanical yoke? Why did they allow a class of their own community to usurp the reverence due to their gods, on the claim of birth alone, and how could such wild stories about their powers obtain credence with the laity?

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The Yogis.

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In explanation of these startling facts, we have to remember that the highest type of Brāhmin was that of the Yogī, who had renounced the world, and developed the mystic powers of the soul by communion with God. These were unapproached and unapproachable. The people of Hindustan believed in the miraculous power of the Yogīs and offered a reverence to them which was not less than that they gave to the gods. The next class amongst the Brāhmins was that of pious saints, who were great scholars, caring only for a pure and stainless life and totally indifferent to worldly considerations. Such men took no thought for the morrow, even as Jesus taught. One of these was tempted by Mahārāja Kṛiṣṇa Chandra of Nava-

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The Saints.

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dwipa to accept a grant from him, but the Rājā received only a rebuke in return though the Brāhmin was in an utterly destitute condition.

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Besides these, there were lay Brāhmins, who could not boast of any particular merit beyond that of birth. But the whole Brāhmin community was imbued with the spirit of the Brāhmanical ideal on which the reverence of the people for the Brāhmins was mainly based. It is absurd to suppose that men who had no political power could enforce obedience, without first inspiring regard through their character and high attainments. The stories invented to glorify the Brāhmins beyond all measure, were due to a vague and exaggerated idea of the powers of the great Ṛiṣis of old—the ancestors of the modern Brāhmins. In the backwoods of Bengal one meets even now with wonderful instances of belief in the Brāhmin. There are people there who will not touch food before tasting water mixed with the dust of a Brāhmin's feet. Before a Brāhmin, they will tell no lie nor commit any other sinful act. Blind faith sometimes raises the character of illiterate people, in a way which it is easy to undo, but difficult to replace by the spread of education.

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Yet it is the Brāhmanical ideal and not the Brāhmin of flesh and blood that is really worshipped by Hindu society. It is love of truth, absolute trust in God, utter indifference to worldly concerns, wonderful devotion and universal charity which are still the governing principles in the ideal Brāhmin's life. The indifference of a Brāhmin to worldly concerns is shown in the following story

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The lay Brāhmins.

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The Brāhminical ideal pervaded the society.

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related in the Chaṇḍi Kāvya by Madhavāchāryya of Bengal.

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An example from Chaṇḍi Kāvya.

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The sage Lomaça.

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Lomaça the great Brāhmin, was passing through the austere duties of the religious life on the sea-coast. There, immaculate and pure, he was firm as a rock in his high pursuit and exposed like the rock to the inclemencies of the weather. He cared not though the burning rays of the tropical sun beat on his bare head and was indifferent alike to the violent rain and the howling wind that came roaring in from the surging sea. Nīlāmvara, a son of the God Indra, one day approached him and said, "Great sage, I want to build a hut here in order to give you a little shelter." Lomaça replied, "No need of a hut since life is transitory." Nīlāmvara asked the sage, "How long then will you live in this world?" Lomaça said "My body is covered with hair as you see; the fall of each hair will take the whole cycle of an Indra's reign; when all the hair thus falls off, my death will surely come." That is to say, the sage would live for ages and ages, and yet he would not allow others to build a hut for him. 'For', said he, 'when death was certain, sooner or later, what good could there be in coveting the small comforts of life'.

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Though couched in the form of an exaggerated Paurāṇik story, this supreme indifference to the world and devotion to the cause of the highest good which is everlasting, is the true Brāhminic ideal which has been the cherished dream of the whole Indian community through ages.

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Gifts to a Brāhmin.

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According to the Çastras, it is a great act of virtue to make gifts to the Brāhmins. They were prohibited from pursuing any avocation for money.

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Their lives were to be devoted to religious work, to study and to other disinterested pursuits, calculated to contribute to the happiness of mankind. And as the State would not take charge of them, it was enjoined as a part of the duty of every man in society to provide for their maintenance.

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I have tried to indicate the lines on which the Paurāṇik Renaissance attempted to build up Hindu society. The literature that grew up in this attempt at a proper exposition of the spirit of Hinduism, promulgates the creed of faith in God and in the Brāhmin which constitutes its essential features. We shall next deal in detail with those Bengali translations of Sanskrit works which first gave an impetus towards popularising the doctrines of the Paurāṇik religion.

Cites (3)