VI. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. — 669 the Ganges originates from the feet of the God Visau and its stream is caught by Brahma in his Kamandalu (water-pot). Thence it flows down to the matted locks of Civa and thence it comes down to the earth. The words chalacchal, kalakkal and talattal in the fourth line which refer to the waves of the Ganges are singularly happy. Chalacchal in the colloquial dialect seems to signifya flow, ¢alatta/ transparency, and kalakka/ the sweet murmur of the waves. Three onomatopoetic words not to be found in the Bengali vocabulary have thus been strung together in the same line, to suggest to the ear three qualities of a stream; a line more happy could not be conceived. The whole of this poem is written in the sublime Sanskrit metre called the Bhujangaprayata. It is to be read with special care to place the proper accents on the vowels. The lines rhyme in measured sounds with a sweet jingle and the whole is an instance of admirable word-painting in poetry. The tendency to onomatopceia in_ poetry which was taken from Bharata Chandra, is marked in many later poems, and often the effect produced by such combinations of words is singularly happy, | as in the passage given below from Jaynarayan’s _ Harilila.* We refrain from giving an English
- “ সভামধ্যে রত্রসিংহাসনে নরপতি।
শিরে শ্বেতছত্র ইন্দুকুন্দ জিনি ভাতি ॥ ফক্ ফক্ জলে ভম্ম ত্রিপল্লব ভালে । মিস্ fay FSR SAC Seq |
