445 BENGALI LITERATURE in this beaten way and we learn that in the vara of Parama, already alluded to, there was less musie and more dialogue—a device which was meant to infuse a dramatic interest in the story; yet it is well-known that the chief attraction of the yitr@ consisted in its songs and that there was nothing more delightful than Parama’s famous /vtko whose musical quality no other yatrawala is said to have ever surpassed. A very considerable portion of ancient Bengali literature consisted of songs and of poems which could be recited or chanted and the ya/ra in its peculiar lyrie quality, strictly con- formed to this widely prevalent lyric propensity. The influences which moulded national life and national cha- racteristics helped rather than checked this universal tendency and there was absolutely nothing which ০9010 lift the ya/ra out of its religious envelopment or its musi- eal structure. The yatra, again, began to be extremely popular from a literary period which powerfully contributed to its lyrie and religious tendencies. ‘The earliest reference to the yatra probably dates from the emphasised and en- = Baisnab era. But Baisnabism, if it couraged by the aa oie Baisnab literature, humanised literature toa certain extent, lyric and mystic d 2 ; 7 quality. : hardly ever secularised it. It only inten- sified the religious ardour of the people and brought with it a mass of lyrie and mystic literature which was not only alien in its essence to the drama but which also encouraged the musical, melodramatie and religious predilections of the ya/ra@. The Baisnab poets, no doubt, brought new ideas and novel modes of art but it is hardly correct to designate the Baisnab era as the Renaissance period of Bengal. It would be out of place
» Saradacharan Mitra, in Sahitya, 1815 B. 8,
