INTRODUCTORY RETROSPECT 4) but if we look to the literature itself we shall see that a process of inherent decay and dissolution had already begun in it which indicated rapid decline, and which, if un- checked, might have independently led to its ultimate extinction. A change of the deepest and widest kind was eoming over the spirit of Bengali literature during the years when the political destiny of India was being decided in other fields: but this change, such as it was, meant no good augury to its future course. In spite of occasional royal patronage, as in the cases of Bidyapati or Kabi-kankan, the vernacular literature before the 18th century very seldom found shelter in the courts of the wealthy, and it was never, in any sense, courtly literature. From this period, What this process however, it began to centre round the ee eee how itcame courts of the wealthy and a new world, that of the courtier and the adventurer, was being formed. The courts of Raja Krsnachandra of Nadiya and of Raja State of Bengali Raj-ballabh of Dacca were notable not literature on the eve : , of the 19th century. only for their luxury, their splendour, and their intrigues, but also for their patronage of arts and literature. But this court-influence, as it would be natural to expect in this age, was not an unmixed good, Poetry, which had hitherto consisted of simple tales of village-life or of devotional poems of rare beauty and fervour, had now to appeal exclusively to the upper classes of society whose taste and temper it natur- ally reflected. As on the one hand, it gained in refinement and splendour, so on the other, it lost all its pristine simplicity, and was marked with a stamp of ornateness and erudite classicality which found favour with these courts. What had been fervid and spontaneous became fantastic and elaborate : and with these new poets, some of 6
