Dutt, Romesh Chunder: The literature of Bengal: being an attempt to trace the progress of the national mind in its various aspects, as reflected in the nation’s literature from the earliest times to the present day ; with copious extracts from the best writers (Calcutta, 1877)

» INTRODUCTION. iii

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defhMjedjfrom its Literature. He will have to trace
the course of the national mind first progressing, and
then retrogressing, through successive stages of civiliza-
tion. He will give us picture after picture, as it were,
of the ancient Hindu society, moulding itself to the
various waifts and requirements of various ages. From
the hymn's or Sanhitas of the Vedas (the earliest record
extent, not only of Aryan, but of Human thought) he
will deduce and paint a simple state of a society of war-
riors on the banks of the Indus, fighting with the Basyus t
or aborigines, and [invoking the aid of their gods,—the
elements,—to preserve them in safety in a foreign land,
to keep their flocks from disease and themselves from
harm, and to destroy the enemy. These noble and yet
simple hymns at once indicate the simplicity of the people
as well as the fervency with which |hey prayed. The
vigour of the national mind however relaxed when the
.first onset of the battle of nations was past, and the-
Aryans obtained a footing in India; and the Brah-
mams of the Vedas present" us therefore with a state
of society more enervated and less simple. But the
vigour of the Aryan intellect could never die. There was
no longer however any need for action, for the Aryans
had obtained a permanent footing in the soil; and the
strength, therefore, which had ere while been displayed in
wars with the Dasyus, now manifested itself in the boldest
flights of daring intellect. The Upanishads of the Vedas
contain lofty contemplations and daring investigations
into the sources of creation, and into the mysteries of
religion and philosophy. The daring mind of the ih-