Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c26.2

c26.2

The Nāth literature of Bengal consists mainly of longer narrative poems and stray songs. Thanks are due to the scholarly enthusiasm and literary taste of Dr. Grierson, who, when a civilian in the district of Rangpur in North-Bengal, collected for the first time some versions of the songs concerning Māṇik-candra and his son Gopī-candra or Govinda-candra. In course of the narration of the eventful stories of the royal family the poets described the supernatural power attained by some of the Nāths, who are generally spoken of as the *Siddhas* or yogins who have attained perfection. The first publication of these narrative poems in the *Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal* in 1878 under the caption of *Māṇik-candra Rājār Gān* (song of king Māṇik-candra) readily attracted the notice of the Bengali scholars to such narrative poems, generally sung by the illiterate villagers in the interiors of Bengal and different versions of the song were soon discovered in different parts of North-Bengal as well as of East-Bengal.¹