The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c14.s6.42

c14.s6.42

To come down to our own times, it may be said that Folk-Bengal of the nineteenth century has not cared much to inquire into the Sanskrit *Vedas*, *Samhitās*, *Purāṇas*, *Tantras*, etc. for the origins and legends of its faith and devotion, but has sought for the "whole duty of man" in Bengali treatises like Krittivāsa's *Rāmāyaṇa*, Vidyāpati and Chaṇḍīdāsa's *Vaiṣṇava Padāvalī*, and the *Kālī Songs* of Mukundarāma and Rāmaprasāda. Through all this literature there has been a steady increase in the number of gods and goddesses, saints and *avatāras*. In some cases a new interpretation has been imparted to the older deities and heroes, who have thereby acquired an altogether fresh significance in the people's thought and activity. There has been no generation of Bengali history without its own mythology, hagiology and anthology.