পাতা:Vanga Sahitya Parichaya Part 1.djvu/২৪

16 INTRODUCTION. in regard to each of such groups. The classification has been made as follows:— 1. The Buddhistic age a s a ... 8th-12th century. 2. The Songs of Shiva - - - ... 10th-18th 35 3. The Song of the Sun-God ... ... 10th ox 4. Poems on Manasā Devi - - - ... 12th-18th 33 5. Poems on Chandi * * * ... 13th-18th y? 6. Poems on Dharma - - - ... 15th-18th 33 7. The Rāmāyana ... - - - ... 14th-19th yy 8. The Mahābhārata - - - ... 14th-18th yy 9. The Bhāgavata ... * - a ... 15th-19th yy 10. The Vaişņava Padas - - - ... 14th-18th o 11. The biographical works of the Vaisnavas 16th-19th 2y 12. Miscellaneous translations ... ... 16th-18th yy 13. Miscellaneous poems - - - ... 15th-19th 25 14. The Age of Rājā Krisnachandra ... 18th 23. 15. Old songs — - - - ... [8th xx 16. The Sahajiyā literature - - - ... 14th-18th לע 17. Old prose - - - * * * ... 14th–19th sy 18. The supplement. I have already said that many of the old Bengali poems lay forgotten for centuries, while only a few of them were published at various times by the Battala presses; this small number of books claimed a precedence over others sometimes by their own intrinsic merit but oftener by sheer good fortune. The poems, thus favoured, became known to the public while others, often more meritorious than they, lay unrecognised and unknown, pining in the cold shade of popular neglect. The song of Shiva by Rāmeswara written about 1750 A.D. is the only work of the Shaiva literature that is known to the people. Out of a very considerable number of Shaivait poems that have come to light quite recently, I have given extracts from the writings of the following — 1–3. Three sets of manuals of Shaiva worship called the Gâzan composed probably in the 10th century with subsequent interpolations and changes in them, collected from Maldah, Burdwan and Backergunj Districts. Shaiva Literature. 4. Song of Shiva by Rāmāi Pandit ... ... 10th century. 5.,,,,, Rāmkrisma ... ... 17th century. 6.,,,,,,,, Jivana Maitra ... ... 1744 A.D. 7.,,,,,,, Rāmeshwara ... ... about 1750 A.D.