52 BENGALI LITERATURE This decline of the society and the intellect of Bengal is almost synchronous with and, no Inherent causes of doubt, was facilitated by the decay social decline; the 7 Caste system. of Mohammedan rule and the pre- valence of the Company's misrule ; but the process, slow enough to be almost imperceptible, was, however, not due to this circumstance alone. The political and social causes no doubt hastened the decadence already afoot : but it would be hasty and un- philosophical to attribute everything to such extraneous causes. There was something wrong in the social struc- ture itself to account for this decadence. A_ little re- flection will show that the Hindu society carried within itself the germs of its own decay. However beneficial the institution of caste might have been to the ancient society, of which it formed the universal and natural basis, it cannot be doubted that its exelusiveness, in course of time, gave rise to a monopoly, which, like the monopoly of the mediaeval monks of Europe, proved injurious to intellec- tual progress beyond a certain stage. Within the small privileged hereditary class to which the spread of know- ledge was confined, the arts and sciences, no doubt, were carried to a pitch of perfection, but competition, thus artificially limited, naturally gave no scope to favourable variations in intellectual development. The intellectual capacity of the individual or the class was increased at the cost of general ignorance and inferiority of the race. The system made life easy and smooth and comparatively free from that struggle and unrest which is the inexorable condition of all progress. This state of things, leading as it did to decadence, could not continue long, and under the influence of Mohammedanism and its doctrine of equality, afresh impetus was given to progress by relaxing the restrictions of the caste system. From about the beginning
