History of Bengali Language and Literature c8.52

c8.52

Kaḍna Sen of Maynāgar whose resignation was as great as her austerities that stripped even death at the stake of its natural horrors. The name of a Shelly, a Victor Hugo, or an Alfred de Musset evokes in the minds of enlightened Bengalis feelings of great admiration, but they do not care to know who were Chaṇḍī Dās, Mukundarām and Krittivāsa. The ears charmed by the beauty of Iambic and Trochaic measures would not stoop to favour the Payāra and the Tripadi Chhandas of the old Bengali poems. Yet it is their own literature which contains elements that they are naturally best fitted to appreciate, and their appreciation of the romantic motives of European literature is apt to be fraught with disastrous results to our society which, under its peculiar constitution, leaves no room for the betrothed pair to have the slightest share in the mutual choice.