Obscure e Religious Cults

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THE book represents the thesis of the author which was submitted by him in 1940 for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Calcutta. The book was written in 1939 and submitted to the Calcutta University Press for publication in 1941. A considerable portion of it was printed by the year 1942 and then the work of printing was indefinitely postponed for scarcity of paper caused by the Second World War. This will explain the long interval between the submission of the book to the press and the actual publication of it.

The aim of the present work is an expository study of the obscure religious cults that inspired Bengali literature in the old and the medieval times. Religion has always been one of the main motives of literature. It has been so in all countries and particularly in India which is pre-eminently a land of religion. As a matter of fact, the history of the modern Indian literatures is so intimately related with the history of some of the most important religious movements’ flourishing in this country that an intimate acquaintance with those religious movements seems indispensable for a thorough study of the vernacular literature.

But it is no use treading the beaten track. Some of the religious schools have already been discussed by scholars; some again are very simple so far as their theological stand- point is concerned. The mere introduction of a Pantheon in literature cannot be the subject of serious study unless the Pantheon in question admits of fruitful theological speculation. Instead of gleaning in the already harvested field or discussing the obvious, the writer has limited his scope by selecting the more obscure cults, which are noteworthy by nature and have inspired a considerable amount of literature, but the true nature of which has not yet been thoroughly discussed and clearly determined.

THE origin and growth of the modern Indian literatures (we mean the modern Indo-Aryan literatures) are closely associated with the origin and growth of some religious sects, which began to stir the life of the people from about the tenth century onwards. Up till the advent of the nineteenth century with a new outlook on life and literature, none of the Indo-Aryan literatures seem to have had the capacity to stand erect without the prop of some religious view, and this again seems to be particularly the case with Bengali. We have no type of literature in Bengali even corresponding to the Rasau literature (literature based on the annals of heroic episodes) of Hindi, and poets like Cänd Bardai or Bhusan and Lal are almost unknown in old and medieval Bengali. In our old and medieval' literature man's glory is seldom depicted in its own grandeur and eulogised independently of divine glory. The versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata that we have in our literature possess a vein more religious than human; the heroes and heroines of the various Mangala-Kavyas are depicted more as toys in the hands of the gods and goddesses than as dignified figures glowing with the heroic grandeur of their personality. Lausen of the Dharma-mangalas is a mere agent of the Dharma-thakura, Kälaketu of the Candi-mangalas is origin- ally a god, being the son of Indra, and is dragged down from heaven on earth only to glorify the almighty power of goddess Candi and to establish her worship on earth, The human interest of the life-long struggle of Cand Sadagar of the Manasa-mangalas has been minimised by the under- current of the religious tone-by the fact that it really represents the struggle of decaying Saivism of Bengal against the growth and spread of Säktaism represented by the Manasa cult. During the long period, beginning with the Carya-padas of the tenth, eleventh or twelfth century, the only type of literature that may be said to be free from the influence of religion, is the ballad literature of Bengal dealing purely and simply with the diversified life of rural Bengal and pastoral love-episodes.