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)

THE PERIOD OJP LYRICAL POETRY. 13

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Mudhu Sudan Datta, Hem Chandra Banerjea, Dina
Bandhu Mitra and Bankim Chandra Chatterjea.

The first period presents us with a mass of love songs
about Krishna and Radhika, composed with deep feeling.
The second period presents us with more earnest think-
ing and work* with the rise of a new religion, the culti-
vation of literature in the classical style, and investiga-
tions Into Sanscrit philosophy. The last period strikes us
with an outburst of multifarious feelings and the display
of a free daring intellect. The second period iS^a im-
provement on the first, and the third beats all. For
we do not hesitate to say that the Meghnad Badha
Kavya leaves Chandi and Vidyasundar as far behind as
Chandi and Vidyasundar leave behind the simple though
sweet strains of Vidyapati and Chandi Das.

If our readers have followed us 'attentively through
I the foregoing remarks, they must have1 been struck with
the close resemblance which the history of Bengali
literature bears to the history of English literature.
Leaving aside Jayadeva who wrote in Sanscrit, and who
may therefore be compared to the earlier Anglo-Saxons
who" wrote in Latin, we shall find that the earliest poets
who wrote in Bengali, namely Vidyapati and Chandi
Das, wrote probably (for the precise date or even
century is not known) at the time when Chaucer and
Gower were writing in England, viz. about the close
of the 14th century. In the sixteenth century Luther
began his work of reformation in Europe, and Chaitanya-
in Bengal j and the rise of a new religion and a variety
of other causes led to an unusual activity in thought