History of Bengali Language and Literature c8.26

c8.26

It was the fashion with the Bengalis of the higher classes to wear their hair long and in plaits. We find in Chandi Dās, Rādhā’s maidens humorously asking Kṛṣṇa why his braided hair hangs loosely down his back. We have many accounts of how Chaitanya Deva’s long hair was perfumed and washed with Āmlaki (myrobolan) and how it was cut off by a barber named Devā (according to some Madhu) on the eve of his taking the vow of asceticism. In Vijay Gupta’s Padmāpurāṇa we find the following lines:—