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)

02 LITERATURE Of: BENGAL.

or*^e sky eternally bending over the fertile earth, always
changing in light and sh'ade yet eternally the same;
the beauteous moon, fire, air and the elements,—these
and such like deities were invoked to bestow health aud^
comfort, to increase cattle and prosper the crops, and
above all to help the white men ('Aryans )' against the
black aborigines (Dasyus) in the great war wlv'ch conti-
nued for ages, and which ended in the conquest of the
whole of India by the nobler race. This was polytheism,
no dqubt, but it was not of a debasing nature ; on the
contrary we find some of the earliest hymns of the Vedas

instinct with fire and devotion, such as almost rival the'

•

Psalms of David who worshipped one God. There was
no priesthood, there fvere no religious inequalities,
here was no offering up prayers in an unknown tongue,
or through the agency of hired persons. No. Each
bold patriarch looked wkh respect and awe, but also
with the dignity of a man; to the great heavens above
him, each offered his sarcifices to the object of his wor-
ship, and craved for blessing^ on himself, his children, his
race. Such was the religion of our ancestors,—such the
first aspect of the Hindu religion.

From this simple faith of a simple race to the gor-
geous and endless mythology of later days, the vast and
immutable inequalities of caste, the endless customs, rites
and superstitious observances—in one word,1 from the
Hinduism of the Vedas to the Hinduism of the Puranas
and' the Tantras,—what a wide leap, what an astound-
ing change ! This was not, however, brought about in
a day; and though we have no account left of the