Dr. Carey and his Serampore contemporaries; and that of Ram Mohan Ray, and the Tatwabodhini Sabha.*

Muhammadan influence had exerted itself in checking every development of a National Literature. The officers of the Revenue Courts under the Mogul regime as a general rule would not even receive a petition in Bengali: it had to be written in Persian, which was the avenue to all places of trust and emolument. Yet it is surprising that, even under the British Government, the Persian held its ground, until the memorable 1st of January, 1839, when, by the orders of the Authorities, the Bengali was substituted for the Persian in all the courts of the Lower Provinces, and this Moslem language was deposed from its unjust ascendancy. On the other hand, though the Pandits (like those subtle trainers of the intellect, the School-men of the middle ages) kept the Hindu mind in a certain state of activity-yet it was the activity of a class, not of a nation; and no man dared to encroach on the preserves

celebrated for logic, as Oxford now is the Raja being very partial to Nyaya studies, which still retain the ascendancy at Nadiya. The Raja set an example of correct diction, "which encouraged the people to study Bengali with unusual diligence." He is said to have once, on the occasion of the Durga Puja, offered a sacrifice of goats and sheep to the goddess; he commenced with one, and, doubling it by the process of geometrical progression, at the end of sixteen days, he had slaughtered 65,535 animals. He sent the carcases as presents to the Brahmans. He was a regular Alva in defence of his own religion, and once put a Sudra to death, for having intermarried into the family of a Brahman. Such was caste ! Even as recently as forty years ago a case occurred near Calcutta, when a Brahman, as a punishment for having received a gift from a goldsmith (one of the lower castes), was sentenced to fast two days, to repeat a holy text 100,000 times, and to have his mouth, which had been polluted through the food received from the goldsmith, purified by filling it with cow-dung.

The grandson of the Raja was equally superstitious. Mr. Ward relates the following anecdote of him :-" About twenty years ago, (1790) Ishwara-chundru, the Raja of Nadiya, spent 100,000 rupees in marrying two monkeys, when all the parade common at Hindu marriages was exhibited. In the marriage procession were seen elephants, camels, horses, richly caparisoned palanqueens, lamps, and flambeaus. The male monkey was fastened in a fine palanqueen, having a crown upon his head, with men standing by his side to fan him : then followed singing and dancing girls in carriages; every kind of Hindu music; a grand display of fireworks, &c. Dancing, music, singing, and every degree of low mirth, were exhibited at the bridegroom's palace for twelve days together. At the time of the marriage ceremony, learned Brahmins were employed in reading the formulas from the Shastras!" At that period none of these monkeys were to be seen about Nadiya; now they are so numerous that they devour almost all the fruit of the orchards, as the inhabitants are afraid of hurting them.

Those, who are anxious to know any further particulars respecting the Rajah, will find various interesting details in a little work published at the Serampore Press, and sold for eight annas, called Raja Krishna Chandra Ray Charitra. The author, Rajib Lochan, on account of the purity and polish of his Bengali style, is well entitled to be called the Addison of Bengal.

* Rammohan Ray professed to be a follower of Sankar Acharjya. His acquaintance with Sanskrit contributed very much to polish his Bengali style. His writings, as well as those of his followers in the Brahma Sabhâ, have given a powerful impulse to the study of classical Bengali, and have imparted nerve and expressiveness to the language. To those, who wish to know what the expressiveness of the Bengali language means, we would recommend the perusal of the Tatwabodhini Patrika, a monthly publication in Bengali, which yields to scarcely any English publication in India, for the ability and originality of its articles.

of the twice born castes.* The Vernacular was consequently neglected by both, and even despised, while the saying was strictly acted on, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion." Hence a writer, well acquainted with native attainments, forty years ago, states:

"If they can write at all, each character, to say nothing of orthography, is made in so irregular and indistinct a manner, that comparatively few of them can read what is written by another; and some of them can scarcely wade through what has been written by themselves, after any lapse of time. If they have learned to read, they can seldom read five words together, without stopping to make out the syllables, and often scarcely two, even when the hand-writing is legible. The case is precisely the same with their knowledge of figures."-Friend of India, vol. ii., p. 392.

In tracing back the progressof improvement during the last half century in Bengal, there is nothing more striking than the development and finish given to the language of the people during that period. It was contemned by the Pandits as à Prakrit dialect, fit only for " demons and women," though "it arose from the tomb of the Sanskrit." And, even in the early days of Fort William College, it was so despised, that the attention of students could with difficulty be directed to its study, so that Dr. Carey could scarcely muster a class there. Yet it has burst through all these obstacles: and the era of Missionary enterprise has been also the era, when the rich resources of the

* We quote the following anecdotes as illustrative of the thraldom of the profanum vulgus. "It came to our knowledge, that the dust from the feet of a thousand brahmans, and even of a lakh, has actually been collected, and drachms of it disposed of, from time to time, as a specific against various diseases. There is now living at Calcutta, a spice-seller, named Vishnu-sah, who believes that, by a pinch of the dust shaken from the feet of a lakh of brahmans, worn as a charm, he was cured of the leprosy; and this poor infatuated man comes into the street (at Chitpore) daily, both in the forenoon and afternoon, and stands and bows in the most reverential manner to every brahman, who passes by him. Should a brahman pass by without receiving this honor, he calls out to him, and says, "Oh! Sir, receive my salám." He has now for years paid these honors to this tribe, firmly believing that he owes his deliverance from the most dreadful of diseases to the virtues imparted by them to the dust shaken from their feet. Amongst others, who have gathered and preserved the dust from the feet of a lakh of brahmans, are mentioned the names of Gunga Govinda-sing, and of Lala-babú, his grandson. The former, preserving this dust in a large sheet, as often as he was visited by brahmans, took them aside, and made them shake the dust from their feet upon this sheet for the good of mankind. Even the dust collected from the feet of single brahmans is given away in pinches, and is inclosed in gold, silver, and brass caskets, worn on the body, and carried about as a charm against diseases, evil spirits, &c. When a poor Hindu leaves his house to proceed on some difficult business, he rubs a little of this dust on his forehead; and, if it remain on his forehead till he arrive at the place, where the affair is to be adjusted, he feels certain of success. In addition to this mark of superstitious devotion to this tribe, we have heard that it is common, six days after the birth of a child, to rub the dust from the feet of the brahman guests upon the forehead, the breast, and other parts of the child's body, as a security against disease. The sudra is even taught to believe, that by eating constantly from the plantain leaves, which have been used at meals by brahmans, he shall lose the degradation of continuing a sudra, and in the next birth be infallibly born a brahman.-Quarterly Friend of India, vol. ii., pp. 69-70-71.

Bengali have been developed, in spite of the genius of Brahmanism, which excludes the masses from the temple of knowledge. It is a singular contrast, that while Budhism encourages the study of the Pali among its votaries, and Islam, the study of the Arabic-among the Hindus, the Sudra's sole prospect of acquiring knowledge lies in being born a Brahman in another birth. "The separation of the soul from intellect, which the Hindu philosophers have for ages attempted to establish in theory, they practically accomplished in the case of the Sudra." But as the press, in the hands of Voltaire, Condorçet, Rousseau, and the Encyclopedists, shook the fabric of despotism, both priestly and aristocratic, in France, so, it is destined to discharge a similar office in this country. Already the people are less dependent on the oral instruction of the Brahmans, who feel as strong an aversion, as Free Masons, to have their arcana disclosed to the vulgar gaze. An able writer in the Quarterly Friend of India, vol. iv., pp. 152, makes the following judicious remarks on this subject:

"As the priesthood derived all their importance from the general ignorance of the people, it became their interest to neglect their language. A pandit, who twenty years ago, should have written the Bengalee language with accuracy, would have been treated with contempt. So far indeed did the literati carry their contempt for their own mother tongue, that, while they cultivated the learned language with the greatest assiduity, they, in many instances, prided themselves on writing the language of the people with inaccuracy. They even discouraged the use of it among the people, and set their face against its improvement. When Kírtibas, about sixty years ago, translated the Ramayana into Bengalí, the literary conclave at the Court of Raja Krishna Chundra Raya, is said to have denounced it in the following rescript, copied from the Sangskrit. "As it is not the work of a Pandit, let it not be read." As the Bengali language is totally dependent on its parent for philological strength and beauty, and even for the principles of orthography, this system was fatal to every prospect of its improvement."

The most ancient specimen of printing in Bengali, that we

We are happy to state that, of late years, the Pandits have rendered their knowledge of Sanskrit eminently conducive to forming a standard of style and orthography for the Bengali. We have just received a work, translated by a Pandit of the Sanskrit College, Ishwar Chandra Sarma, from Chambers's Biography, containing the lives of Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Herschell, Grotius, Linnæus, &c. This translation reflects the highest credit on the ability of the translator; and, we hope, that he will proceed with a series of works on the same plan.

+Young Bengal seems to retain a spice of this old leaven still. No Kulin frowns with deeper indignation at the notion of imparting knowledge to the people, than he does at communicating information through the Vernacular.

Bidyúnath, who translated an indelicate work into the popular dialect, apologizes in the preface for the use of it, which he ascribes to the imperious necessity created by his pecuniary embarrassments. He is in fact so greatly ashamed of countenancing such an innovation, that he blushes to name his ancestry, whom he has hereby disgraced. He then proceeds to compare the Bengali language to the hideous notes of a crow, sounding amidst the melody of the kukil.

have, is Halhed's Grammar, printed at Hugly in 1778. Halhed was so remarkable for his proficiency in colloquial Bengali, that he has been known to disguise himself in a native dress, and to pass as a Bengali in assemblies of Hindus. The types for this Grammar were prepared by the hands of Sir C. Wilkins, who, by his perseverance amid many difficulties, deserves the title of the Caxton of Bengal. He instructed a native blacksmith, named Panchanan, in type cutting, and all the native knowledge of type cutting was derived from him. He was the editor of the Bhagavat Gita and of a Sanskrit Grammar, and was one of our first Sanskrit scholars.

One of the earliest works, printed in Bengali, was Carey's translation of the New Testament, published in 1801. Though written according to the English idiom, and in a Bengali style, that would be considered disreputable in the present day, yet it was a great work for its time, considering the few books in the language. He received considerable assistance in the translation from one Ram Basu, who had been recommended to him by Mr. W. Chambers. This man was the author of the life of Raja Pratapaditya, and was a good Persian scholar. To Carey the Bengali language is as much indebted, as the Urdu was to the untiring zeal of Gilchrist. He published a useful Grammar of the language: and his Dictionary, in three volumes quarto, containing 80,000 words, will long remain as a monument of his skill and industry in investigating the resources of the Bengali tongue. He had in fact to pioneer his own way; and Bengali then lay before him as shapeless as was Italian, when the plastic hand of Dante undertook the moulding it into form and beauty. The clumsy Bengali characters of this Testament present a marked contrast to the beauty of the existing Bengali typography.

The life of Raja Pratapaditya, "the last king of Sagur," published in 1801, at Serampur, was one of the first works written in Bengali prose. Its style, a kind of Mosaic, half Persian, half Bengali, indicates the pernicious influence which the Muhamadans had exercised over the Sanskrit-derived languages of India. Raja Pratapaditya lived in the reign of Akbar at Dhumghat near Kalna in the Sunderbunds: his city, now abandoned to the tiger and wild boar, was then the abode of luxury, and the scene of revelry. Like the Seer Mutakherim, this work throws some light on the phases of native society, and enables us to look behind the curtain. The following is a summary of the contents of this interesting work.

Ram Chandra was a Bengali Kayastha from the East of Bengal, who obtained employment in an office at Satgan, where he

had three sons, Bhabananda, Gunananda and Shibananda, who, in consequence of a quarrel, retired to Gaur, which was then flourishing under Suliman, where Shibananda obtained influence and employment. Daud, the son of Suliman, succeeded to the Musnud; but, puffed up by prosperity, he determined not to pay tribute any longer to Delhi. Ram Chandra's family saw the storm impending, and quitted Gaur for a retirement in Jessore, a place full of swamps, and wild beasts, which they soon reclaimed. After a few years they erected a city there. In the mean time Akbar sent an army of 200,000 men against Gaur under Raja Tarmahal; and Daud was defeated. Daud gave orders to remove the most valuable property in Gaur to Jessore; and fled, with his family, to the Rajmahal hills, while his two brothers assumed the garb of Vairagis. In the mean time, the Mussulman Generals, Tarmahal, and Amra Sing, entered Gaur, and plundered it of whatever was left. Daud's two brothers, induced by bribes, surrendered themselves, and gave information respecting the revenue papers that had been concealed; and one of them received as a recompense the Zemindary of Jessore.

Daud himself was betrayed by his Khansamah to Amra Sing, who cut his head off. Vikramaditya then obtained a firman to be Raja of Jessore, and went and settled there. He gave on his arrival a lac of rupees to the poor, and fed a lakh of Brahmans. Many Kayastas came and lived in the place, who obtained large grants of land, extending from Dhakka to Halishar; and the Raja established a Samaj, unequalled in the country for the number of learned men attached to it, while Chaubaris and Patshalas were formed in the different villages, as well as inspectors to dispense charity every month to the poor. To this king a son was born, named Pratapaditya, who, as the astrologers predicted, would revolt against his father. He was instructed in the Persian and Sanskrit languages, music, wrestling, &c.; but the king, becoming jealous of Pratapaditya, sent him to Delhi, where he received a khelat from Akbar on account of his skill in poetry. After a residence of three years there, the Raja of Jessore not paying his tribute, Akbar ordered him to be deposed, and Pratapaditya was appointed by Akbar as his successor. Pratapaditya finding Jessore too small, selected a spot at Dhumghat, south-west of Jessore, where he built a city on a magnificent scale, and a palace, furnished with every convenience of luxury, several miles in extent; the gates were so high that an elephant and howda could enter without stooping. At his inauguration, the nobles from Rarhi, Gaur, and all parts of the country, were present. There