History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s5.5

c7.s5.5

of one eye."*—he said in great contempt when he was offered prosperity and happiness provided he agreed to worship Manasā Devī. King Chandra-Ketu in Çitalāmangal, inspite of his great troubles would not worship Çitalā Devī and remained true to Çiva. But what do the followers of Çiva gain as the reward for their heroic devotion to his cause! The great Çiva passive and inert, cares not for the sufferings of his followers. So it is no wonder that the followers of other deities who lavished favour upon the believers and undertook to destroy their enemies and confer wealth and prosperity without being asked, increased daily in number, till the poems in honour of Çiva, though forming a part of the earliest literature of Bengal, were gradually overshadowed by larger and more poetic compositions in honour of Manasā Devī, Chandī and Satyanārāyaṇa.