INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT 39 would ever call poetic in the true sense of the term. The literary ideal was not, as can be expected, very high, and its tone not always commendable: yet one thing most remarkable about these songs, which puts them in sharp contrast with the literature which Bharat-chandra set in fashion, was its comparative freedom from the stamp of ornateness or erudite classicality as well as from the vitiated moral tone which defaces the writings of many a great poet of this period. Yet in spite of these and other merits, none of the Kabiwalas had reached that standard of literary excellence which would have enabled them to emulate the more substantial writings of the older poets although they contributed some truly beautiful pieces to the literature of national songs. Fallen on evil days, their genius seems never to have received its fullest seope, and besides keeping our literature back from absolute death during the period of interregnum, their work seems to possess historically no other permanent value. They act as a link keeping up the continuity But they did their best, during this long ; period of barrenness, by themselves affording an interesting eee: oan from field of study, they belong through their literary filiation and inherited artistic tradition to the age preceding our era. By the beginning of the 19th century, however, the old order was changing, yielding place to new. A new of our literary history and, though literature, a new spirit, and a new order of society were gradually taking the place of the time-honoured institutions which had held their sway over the country for centuries. We often find in literary history that _ Effect of the revolu- with some great revolution politi- tionary changes which ; , as এ the British occupation al, social or religious, literature of Bengal brought এ রর ol রি receives a fresh impetus. We need hardly recall the example of the
