RECENT BENGALI LITERATURE.

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As Bengali poetry owed its rise in the 14th century, and its Bengali fresh impulse in the 16th, to outbursts of religious song; so century 91 ' 1Bengali prose is the offspring of the religious movementheaded by the Raja Ram Mohan Rai in the 19th. This greattheistic reformer felt that his doctrines and arguments requireda more serious vehicle than verse. When he died in 1833, heat once received the position of the father of Bengali prose,—a position which he still enjoys in the grateful memories of hiscountrymen. 1 Of scarcely less importance, however, in thecreation of a good prose style, were two rival authors born in1820. Akkhai Kumar Datta enforced the theistic doctrinesof the Brahma Samaj with indefatigable ability in his religiousjournal, the Tatwabodhinl Patrika. Reprints of his articlesstill rank as text-books of standard Bengali prose. Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar , also born in 1820, devoted himself tosocial reform upon orthodox Hindu lines. The enforcedcelibacy of widows, and the abuses of polygamy, have formedthe subject of his life-long attacks.

An older worker, Iswar Chandra Gupta, born 1809, took the Modernlead in the modern popular poetry of Bengal. His fame has pQg t | ahbeen eclipsed, however, by Madhu Sudan Datta, bom 1828, 19th cen-who now ranks higher in the estimation of his countrymen than tul T-any Bengali poet of this or any previous age. Madhu Sudan’sepic, the Meghnad. Badh Kdbya , is reckoned by Bengali criticsas second only to the masterpieces of Valmiki , Kalidasa ,

Homer, Dante, and Shakspeare. This generous appreciationis characteristic of the catholic spirit of Hinduism . ForMadhu Sudan Datta became a Christian , lectured as professor Madhuin a Christian college, went to England, and returned to SudanBengal only to die, after a too brief career, in 1875. His epic 1828-75.relates the death of Meghnad or Indrajit, greatest of the sonsof Ravana , and takes its materials from the well-known episodein the Ramdyana. Among Bengali poets still living, HemChandra Banarji occupies perhaps the highest place ofhonour.

In the Bengali drama, Dina Bandhu Mitra , born 1829, died The1873, the way. His first and greatest work, the ^

Chandra Vidyasagar , Iswar Chandra Gupta, Madhu Sudan Datta, HemChandra Banarji, Bankim Chandra Chattarji, Dina Bandhu Mitra , andNabin Chandra Sen.

1 Raja Ram Mohan Rai (Rammohun Roy ) is also well known for hisEnglish works, of which it is pleasant to record that a collected reprint hasbeen issued under the editorship of Babu Gogendra Chandra Ghose, M.A.

(Calcutta, 1885.)