________________
Nov. 1, 1872.)
EARLY BENGALI KIRTANS
325
I am obedient to thee, thou knowest it well,
Why dost thou hurn my soul ? : If thou wilt not look on my face,
to what place shall I go?: Without thee to what end shall I preserve my life,
I will abandon my own life : When Kårh had made all this entreaty,
and still she looked not on his face: Gobind Das says vain was hope, weeping really then went Kanh.
IV.
Râg: Dhyânesri. Hari! Hari! boli dharaṇi dhari uthai
bolat gadgada bhakha :* Nila gagana heri tâhâri bharamat bhaba
bihisanchef mâgeyes påkha: Ki karaba chandra chandana ghana lepana
kisalaya dharaņi sayâne: Ana beyâri, âna pâya, aukhada! . Gobinda Dâsa nahi jane:
TRANSLATION. (Radha repents of her coldness.) " Hari! Hari!" she calls, lying on the ground
she rises up. Speaking trembling words. Looking at the blue sky thinking of his wandering,
She asks from the birds wings: “What avails the moon, thick smearing of sandal
paste, Kisalaya leaves, or lying on the ground ? Bring him, friend, bring him to my feet," a remedy Gobind Das knows not.
V.
Sri Rág. Hâm ati bhiti rahang tang goi, So rasasagara thor" nã hội; Basa nahi hoyala kaona je sâti, Madana lata janu dansana hati; Puna kata kakuti kaola anukula, Tabhu pápa hiya majhut nahi bhula.
Hâmâri achhila kata poraba bhagi? Pheri âola hâm 80 phala lagi. Bidyâpati kahe nå kaha kheda Aichhe hoyala payilat sambheda (Radha's regrets at the long absence of Krishna.) I have remained in much fear enduring this body Not having been near that ocean of delight; Not one of my companions has been in my power; As the madana creeper stinging the hand; Again how many entreaties have I made humbly Even so the sin in my heart understands not its
error. What fortune was mine in a former life? Again I have come to attain this reward. Bidy&pati says, speak not this grief, Thus has occurred the first separation.
There is a mystic meaning in all these kirtans which it is worth while to draw out more clearly.
The old Aryan element-worship had led to the creation of a multitude of gods between whose varying attributes and powers a considerable amount of confusion must necessarily have existed. In the long centuries of depression under which the Brahmanical religion languished during the supremacy of Buddhisın, the necessity of introducing some order into the grotesque and crowded Pantheon of the Hindus must have forced itself upon the mind of the Brahmans.
The monotheism of Buddha, affording as it did one definite person upon whom the popular mind might fix itself, led to the idea of elevating either Siva or Vishņu into the supreme place. The shadowy parama Brahma of an earlier age became personified in one or other of the rival gods, and gradually the incarnation of Krishna, an Indian rendering of the great Christian fact received through the medium of later Buddhist legends, shaped itself into a distinct creed and won an immense and ever increasing popularity.
A further development awaited it when the Muhammadans came to India. The emotional or unphilosophical monotheism which they professrendered it as though beydri was for piydri and supposed Radha to be addressing her salhi or confidante, but I am not satistied with this. Babu Jagadish thinks ana pdya is one word for anupaya 'i.. without resource, he also translates and beyári by without the lover,' but I cannot get this meaning out of the words.
Big Here again comes the Bihar type with for anknown to modern Bengali.
I goi probably corrupted from goyai causal from root gam, meaning "having caused to go," that is, having borne or endured.
* Thor perhaps from prir. + Majhs a form of बुझु बुध्यते.
Payila for YET, first.
• Te It is a distinctly Hindi peculiarity to pronounce this "bhakha." Tis in Hindi regularly kh, but not ia Bengali. That it must be so pronounced here is evident from its rhyming with patha, a wing.
Bihisanche : my authorities are not in accord about this word. One writes it' bihangame' a second,'bihisane,' while a third suggests 'bibi sanche'; the above seems the more probable reading.
I HE i. e. .
Sarita seems a sort of double formation, mage, i. e. mirgats would have been suficient, the additional syllable is perhaps ob metrum.
ara etc. The meaning is not clear, I have
