পাতা:Vanga Sahitya Parichaya Part 1.djvu/৯: সংশোধিত সংস্করণের মধ্যে পার্থক্য

{{float left|<small>{{ফাঁক|.5em}}Anthology in our old<br/>literature</small>|1|2}}{{ফাঁক}}When examining a collection of old Bengali MSS., we often come across volumes, more or less of an anthological character, containing choice passages from standard authors on a particular subject. In the days when printing was unknown, it was a saving of time and labour to the copyists to compile selections instead of transcribing the poems of individual writers in their entirety. For, mediocre poets had passages of occasional brilliancy, while the most favoured ones grew dull at times; and the copyists naturally preferred to select good passages and reject the dull and uninteresting ones, when preparing fair copies of a Rāmāyaṇa—a Mahābhārata—a Bhāgavata or a Manasār-Bhāsana—subjects upon which so many Bengali poets have written at various epochs of our literature. Anthology has therefore been a recognised branch of study and culture in Bengali Literature from very early times. The book “Twenty-two poets on Manasā Devi" published by Pandit Chandrakānta Chakravartī from Chittagong about twenty years ago, is a typical work of its kind. Among heaps of old Bengali MSS., written between the 15th and 18th centuries, we find numerous works of an anthological nature compiled by unassuming scholars who did not claim the distiction of compilers but subscribed their names at the end of the poems as mere copyists.