RUSSELL STREET, CALCUTTA

THE HERITAGE OF INDIA SERIES

Bengali Religious Lyrics,

Śākta

 

 

Selected and Translated

 

BY

EDWARD J. THOMPSON,

LECTURER IN BENGALI, UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; AUTHOR OF "RABINDRANATH TAGORE, HIS LIFE AND WORK," ETC.,

 

AND

 

ARTHUR MARSHMAN SPENCER

 

ASSOCIATION PRESS

(y.m.c.a.)

RUSSELL STREET, CALCUTTA

 

LONDON: OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
NEW YORK, TORONTO, MELBOURNE,
BOMBAY, CALCUTTA AND MADRAS

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TRANSLATORS' PREFACE

These versions were first made from bazar-texts, the corrupt, irresponsible texts that swarm from Indian presses. We have had access to a better text lately, the best available, but it is not a good one. A scholarly edition of Rāmprasād is badly wanted.

We have received generous help. Dr. Brajendranath Seal discussed with us many of these songs, both in letters and conversation. Dr. Dineshchandra Sen has given valuable information. Professors Pramodekumar Banerji and Ramsaran Ghosh, our colleagues at the Wesleyan College, Bankura, and Babu Sasibhusan Ghosh, have gone over the original and notes with us. Babu Jnanendranath Sen has given permission to use four Āgāmanī; songs by his father, the late Rajanikānta Sen.

Rāmprasād's songs are the great bulk of this selection. His eminence makes this right, especially as his songs are constantly imitated by other poets. But, if the Śākta literature of Bengal is to be appreciated, a fuller selection is needed than we have space for. Bengali scholars must first collect and edit this scattered literature; till this is done, our selection may serve a purpose.

Orthography proves a more difficult question every year. Such words as Brāhman and svadeśī; may be taken as now anglicised into Brahmin and swadeshi. The Sanskrit orthography misrepresents Bengali, but is a convenience to scholars. We have given it on the[4] first occurrence of a Bengali word. But we have non-conformed in the spelling of some Bengali places and of Rāmprasād. If the poet is Rāmprasād to the fifty millions of his compatriots, and if Ravindranātha Ṭhakura is allowed to call himself Rabindranath, not only in Bengali but in English, we think Rāmprasād Sen should be saved from becoming Rāmaprasāda Sena. Titles of poems are our own.

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