INTRODUCTION. 39 Pauranic literature began in the earlier part of the 15th century. The country had by this time been awakened to a full appreciation of the Bhakticult. The Buddhist temples had already given flickering lights of it from amidst the clouds of their pompous ceremonies. The Mahāyanists had sown the seeds of Bhakti", but it was reserved for the revivalists of Hinduism to reap its rich harvests. The revivalists spread their religious propaganda throughout the country Bhakti in our Litera by various means. The Bhakti-cult was accepted by ture. the people with enthusiasm. The literature of this age is full of passages emphasising Bhakti. In the Bengali versions of the Rāmāyana and the Mahābhārata an under-current of Bhakti was introduced, and for this apparently there seems to be no justification. The original epics did not supply any data. The Rākshasas who were great enemies to Rāma An indigenous figured in the Bengali versions of the Rāmāyana as growth. his great Bhaktas. The genius of the Bengali race - shaped Sanskrit models in the light of the predominent idea that ruled the people, and unless one knows the country intimately, this old world-charm will not be rightly appreciated. These epics and other poems of Bengal used to be sung before thousands of people. Each line of the poets thus called forth distinct images which superficial readers are sure to miss in a cursory reading. The country became fully charged with poetical ideas. The Mangal-songs created an atmosphere for the right appreciation of the poems and helped the spread of poetic and spiritual ideas among the people. Their minds were impressed with every word of a good poet, and thus his works possessed a truly representative character. Divested of the old Yātrās, the Kirtanas, the Kathakatas, the Mangal-gāns, and the Rayānis— the atmosphere in which the poems grew and were nourished—they look like relics of some great temples or of stone-images which used to be worshipped there, and imperfectly convey the effect once produced by them in the midst of their right environment. The mere poems would not indicate the great poetic beauties developed through these popular institutions, any more than Ganot's Physics would give an idea of the scientific laboratories of Europe. The hereditary bands of ministrels who sing these poems are still to be found in the country side. The Chaņdī of Kavi Kankaņa, the Rāmāyaņa, the Mahābhārata and even the Dharma-mangalas are still sung before the rural people. This explains why a lakh of copies of the Rāmāyana of Krittivasā are sold every Kear to the people. Without advertisement the Battalà presses sell hundreds of copies of the Mahābhārata, the Chandi and other works
- See Kern's manual of Buddhism p. 124.
