History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s5.22

c7.s5.22

and cried for food.”* Yet Umā was the daughter of a king. The household of Çiva—a scene of extreme indigence is painted in contrast with that of king Himavata and the sorrows of the queen who was in affluence herself, at the recollection of Umā’s sufferings and those of her sons, find expression in the old songs which at once appeal to the heart. Innumerable songs of this class are sung every year in Bengal by the professional singers who visit almost every house in the month of Āçvina; and where is the heart so hard that it can refrain from tears, while hearing them. The girls here, of too tender an age to play the wife, are often taken away from the custody of parents. With veils over their faces they have to stay in their husband’s home, speak in whispers and subject themselves to the painful discipline of the daughter-in-law. At an age when they should skip and bound like wild deer, these tender beings have to live in a home to which as yet they are strangers, subject to possible censure at every step, and cut off from their parents and playmates. When the Āgamanī songs, describing the sorrows of Menakā—the queen of Himabata and of Umā, her daughter are sung by professional singers, the eyes of many a child-wife glisten behind her veil, and the hearts of their mothers cry out for the daughters who have been taken away from them. The Çephālikā flower falls to the ground in showers