The mean-ing of thischapter.
414 THE INDIAN VERNACULARS.
Darpan , or Mirror of Indigo, startled the community by itspicture of the abuses of indigo planting a quarter of acentury ago. It was translated into English by the well-knownmissionary and philanthropist, the Rev. James Long; andformed the ground of an action for libel, ending in the fineand imprisonment of the latter gentleman. In prose fiction,Bankim Chandra Chattarji, born 1838, ranks first. The Bengali prose novel is essentially a creation of the last half-century, andthe Durgesh Nandini of this author has never been surpassed.But many new novelists, dramatists, and poets are now estab-lishing their reputation in Bengal; and the force of the literaryimpulse given by the State School and the printing press seemsstill unabated. It is much to be regretted that so little of thatintellectual activity has flowed into the channels of biographyand critical history. But the returns of recent Bengali litera-ture for 1891 show that the tide is at last setting in towardsscientific and historical writing. The same practical tendencyis observable in Bengali journalism. It is perhaps a sign ofthe times that the leading native paper in Bengal, the HinduPatriot , has this year converted itself from a weekly paper,distinguished for its political and social essays, into a dailypaper, depending for its circulation chiefly on its news.
This chapter has dealt at some length with the vernacularliterature of India , because a right understanding of that literature is necessary for the comprehension of the chapters whichfollow. It concludes the part of the present book which treatsof the struggle for India by the Asiatic races. In the nextchapter the European nations come upon the scene. Howthey strove among themselves for the mastery will be brieflynarrated. The conquest of India by any one of them formeda problem whose magnitude not one of them appreciated.The Portuguese spent the military resources of their country,and the religious enthusiasm of their Church, in the vainattempt to establish an Indian dominion by the Inquisition andthe sword. This chapter has shown the strength and theextent of the indigenous literature of religious thought andcivilisation which they thus ignorantly and unsuccessfullystrove to overthrow.
The Indian races had themselves confronted the problemsfor which the Portuguese attempted to supply solutions fromwithout. One religious movement after another had sweptacross India ; one philosophical school after another had pre-sented its explanation of human existence and its hypothesisof a future life. A popular literature had sprung up in every