পাতা:Vanga Sahitya Parichaya Part 1.djvu/৮৯

INTRODUCTION. 81 walking in the sun, a guard held a golden umbrella over her head. If she perspired, four maids, each with a precious Châmara fanned her all the time. If the dew drops fell while she walked, the golden umbrella was again unfurled to protect her head. And now the hail-stones are beating incessantly against her head, and it seems at each stroke her very skull will break. Says the poet Phakira Rāma, “Hear me, oh princess, what next is in store for you no one can tell,” (17) “Oh my love, what will lecome of us? From the storm, the rain, the hail-stones, no. escape I see. What path should we follow 2 The thick hail-stones will ere long kill us both. The lightning's flash frightens my steed, and the striking of his hoofs on the rocky ground produces fire. The storm suffocates me and I feel as if the breath of life itself would cease. Says Phakira Rāma, “What next will follow?” (18) The Cooking. She was the pet child in the house, the darling of a hundred queens. Her beauty and noble qualities were the admiration of the palace. She never had passed the threshold of a kitchen. And if her hair was untied, with her own hands never did she adjust it, but her maids for her. Never had she learnt to blow the fire of the hearth with her breath. And as she does it now, the smoke of the wet fuel makes her face pale and sad. The smoke stifles her breath and the fire of the hearth well-nigh burns her skin. Alas! Once even the heat of a lamp-light was too much for her: with the smoke and the fire of the hearth she continues her struggle to cook a humble meal. Says the poet Phakira Rāma, “Continually does she perspire, and her eyes soft as the lotus float in tears.” - 17. Notes on Language. The Aryans settled in Bengal in a remote age when there was already a large non-Aryan population inhabiting the country. The new settlers gradually merged in the people as did the Roman settlers in Gaul, gradually identifying themselves with the Celtic tribes. The composite race in Bengal evolved a Prākrit in which the peculiarities of the speech of the indigenous people are still traceable. So far we should all agree. Mr. J. D. Anderson suggests that there are certain peculiarities of Bengali accentuation, the origin of which may perhaps be traced to the now lost language of the Chandālas and other aboriginals, who originally dwelt in the country 11