পাতা:Vanga Sahitya Parichaya Part 1.djvu/৪২

31, INTRODUCTION. worship the Fire by offering incense and ghee before touching the cooking pots (p. 196). Though the subject is a matter-of-fact one, the poets occasionally enlivened it by poetic touches such as in the passage—“While stooping low, stirring the curry with the ladle so that the froth gathered at the top might subside, her golden ear-drops moved to and fro.” This calls up a lovely familiar picture of the Hindu household. Golden plates were abundantly used in serving food (p. 198); various kinds of plates and cups used for ordinary purposes are described on p. 245. It is curious to note that the flesh of the tortoise was a favourite food. The way in which it used to be prepared is mentioned on p. 224. Descriptions given on pp. 4, 197, 221, 222, 333, 479 and 1301 include a large variety of preparations of meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and sweets. The artistic dressing of the cocoanut fruit and the preparations of sweets with it as described by Jadunandana Däs (p. 1301) is very interesting. We may also feel some curiosity in examining whether there is any truth in the exaggerated account of Dāk who wrote in the 10th century A.D. that the lobster fried with oil and asafetida, if taken regularly, gives a man vision for eight miles (p. 4). The dress of women was another favourite subject of the old The costumes of Bengali poets. The reader will find typical descripWΟΥΩΘΥΠ, tions on pp. 210, 227, 260, 286, 334, 335, 372, 385, 386, 667, 829, 907, 910, 1228, 1291, 1293, 1294, 1295, 1519, 1520, 1521, and 1794. The quality of cloth worn by women was so fine that we find a 17th century poet mentioning the fact that threads weighing a tolà used to be sold for Rs. 50, which in those days carried a much higher value than now (p. 289). The most artistic female costumes are described in the passage quoted on p. 1290-95. The account here is so graphic and the ornaments and clothes worn by women in the mediaeval ages are described with such a superior aesthetic sense as to call up a perfect vision of a princess's toilet-room, and lovers of Indian art will be delighted to find in them some of those costumes and ornaments with which the stone-images in the Indian sculpture-galleries are found to be decorated. The dancing of women is described on pp. 225, 229, 285, 286, and Dancing. 1116. The poets exaggerate the skill shown in the performances. But it is plain that the aim of the dancers was often to produce an illusion of equilibrium and rest by the extreme quickness of the movements. I quote from pp. 1116:— Krisova’s conditions for Rādhā’s dance. “Oh moon-faced one, dance to this tune—(here the tune is given).