434 BENGALI LITERATURE was never on sea and land and which alone could have made them poetic. He is a good photographer but not a painter ; and whose considers him as such may appreciate him better. Jaynarayan’s other pub- ১72০ Karuna-nidana- )ished work, Karuna-nidan-bilas,' al- though less known, is much better production. Purporting to be a work devoted to the glorification of the special deity whose image the author had set up at KaSi and from whom the book derives its name, it really treats of Krenalila in a refreshingly original and poetical way. Other minor writers, who favoured the old style and belonged to this group, need not and can not in a book like this dealt with at much length. We must, however, mention, if not enlarge upon, a school of poets (or rather versifiers) who were the direct imita- 252 eae tors of Bharat-chandra and continued the style of Bidyasundar even beyond the fifties. Bharat-chandra, like Ram-prasad in another sphere, had been through his Bedyasundar the ruling power for nearly a century. Writing under the shadow of his genius, this belated group of writers are all servile copyists, reproducing the style and scheme of his Bidyasuwadar down to minute details but unable to repeat its poetry, they exaggerate its freedom into licence. 11 Mae: The details of Sundar’s amours, his sundar, intrigues, his capture and ultimate union with Bidya are all repeated anew in a more or less diversified form; but the
1 A printed copy of this will be found in the Calcutta Imperial Library, The book is included in the list of books published by the School Book Society before 1821. Long, in his article in Calewtta Review, xiii. 1850, describes this work as ‘‘an account of a new god recently created by a rich native,” For an account of the work, see Sahitya Parisat Patrika, loc, cit.
