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)

72 LITERATURE Of BENGAL.

he1 returned an enthusiastic and, we might say, a fanatic
reformer.

Now, for the first time, were seen those violent out-

o

ward manifestations of faith and feeling which charac-
terized the ardent worshippers of Krishna of those times.
Fired with unwonted zeal, they were now and then over-
taken by paroxysms of faith, if we are allowed the
expression, and wept and laughed and danced like mad-
men. Horripilation, violent perspirat.:.r>n, accompanied
by frequent fits of fainting, marked these periods of
religious ecstacy. The poor mother of Chaitanya trem-
bled for her son, and marked with fear and concern the
change in his demeanour, but it was beyond the power
of domesti6 affection of - any sort to make the reformer
turn from the path he had chosen. It is not possible in
the present age of reason to conceive the extent to which
the mind can at times be subjected to the violent sway
of religious feeling and'fanaticism. Chaitanya was now
a changed man ; he fired in his followers and pupils an
ardent faith in Krishna:'he ignored all rites and cere-
monies ; he proclaimed from house tops that the salva-
tion of man depended solely on faith in Krishna; The
town of Navadwipa suddenly rang with the loud San-
kirtan of Krishna.

Day after day, Chaitanya and his followers assembled
together, and proclaimed and preached 1 the faith of
Krishna. They met in the house of Sribas, where Nitya-
nanda, Adyaita, Sridhara, and a number of other devout
followers, anointed Chaitanya with water, sandal powder
aud flowers. Their number daily increased; people of