Obscure Religious Cults as Background of Bengali Literature c5.8

c5.8

The history of Bengali language and literature, so far as it has been explored, begins with the religious doctrines and practices of the Sahajiyā Buddhists. Sahajiyā Buddhism is a particular development of a phase of later Buddhism, widely known as Tāntric Buddhism. Investigation reveals that during the reign of the Pāla dynasty Buddhism in various Tāntric forms gained popularity in Bengal and many Tāntric texts and commentaries were written in the different Buddhist monasteries that were established in Bengal. The authors of the Sahajiyā Buddhistic songs were mostly inhabitants of Bengal or of the vicinities of Bengal.¹