-IV.]) BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. = 275 notices, or if he touches them at all, he dismiss- es very briefly. He narrates a story in an intensely popular fashion. His dogmatic pronouncements on religious matters and great reverence for the Brahmins are all characterestic of the views and beliefs of the crowd, and he scarcely ever rises above their level in the narration of the story of the great epic. He often worries the readers by repeti- tion of common places ; his exaggerations, besides, are such as sometimes to verge on the grotesque. But throughout his writings one feels a constant The devo: tional ele- current of devotion, which flows like a noble se stream purging and refining all grossness, and beautifying what is awkward and inelegant. The strength of popular Indian Literature lies in the vehemance of faith which underlies its somewhat vulgar humour. There are many passages in Kaciram Das’s Insult to Mahabharata which bear testimony to his ardour of 0 belief, and in such passages, the Bengali recension- ist wonderfully develops the materials at 1713 command. The episode of the insult to Buibhisan, which does not occur at all in the original of Vyasa, is introduced by Kaciram with singularly happy effect. The piece shews the grandeour of Judhis- thir's Rajsuya sacrifice which was, it is said, attended by all the princes living in the vast continent, bounded on the North by the North Kurus, on the West by the dominions of the Jadavas, on the East by the Sea and on the South by Ceylon. Here had come King Joy Sen of Giribraja (Bhagalpur) with his gigantic array of boats that ‘ covered sixty miles of the Ganges.’’ Here was the Lord of
