Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c29.2

c29.2

We have seen before that many of the religious movements, with which we have dealt, were esoteric in nature and it was quite in the fitness of things that the language in which the religious contents were given poetic expression was often extremely enigmatic. This enigmatic language of the old and mediaeval poetry is popularly styled as *Sandhyā-bhāṣā*, which, according to its conventional spelling, literally means ‘the evening language’,—and the word ‘evening’ here may be explained as pointing to the mystical nature of the language. In the Hindu as well as Buddhist Tantras, and in the Buddhist Dohās and songs, we find much use of this *Sandhyā-bhāṣā* and MM. H. P. Śāstrī has explained it as the ‘twilight language’, *i. e.*, half expressed and half-concealed (*ālo-amdhāri*). But MM. Vidhuśekhara Śāstrī in an enlightening article in the *Indian Historical Quarterly*¹ has demonstrated with sufficient evidences from authoritative texts that the language is not *Sandhyā-bhāṣā*, but is *Sandhā-bhāṣā* (*sam* + √*dhā*) or the ‘intentional language’, *i. e.*, the language literally and apparently meaning one thing, but aiming at a deeper meaning hidden behind. Reference to this word *Sandhā-bhāṣā* is found in many texts of Pāli Buddhism as well as in Sanskrit Mahāyāna texts. Warning has often been given not to interpret the sayings of Buddha literally, but one should sink deep into them to catch at the right meaning aimed at by the Lord, and we find that the Buddhist preachers, particularly of the esoteric schools, would often use this intentional language to which the faithful adepts only had access. The same device was adopted by all the esoteric schools within the province of Hinduism.¹