Literature-Critique

3
By that time, Buddhism was in the way of transition from its stoic feature to an
epicurean one. Thus sexuality, which was discouraged by its early preachers,
became in course of time, an auspicious part of its ritual.
The Buddha was then accepted even by the Hindus as their avatar. Its proof
is the 12 th -century Sanskrit poet Jayadeva’s work Gitogobindam. Acclaimed as the
epic of Vaishnavism, this poem possesses a psalm on the Buddha. Now some critics
even claim this poem to belong to the Vajrayan school of Buddhism.
In 1907, Dr. Haraprasad Shastri (1853-1931) discovered a Banga-Kamrupiya
(i.e. the earliest form of Bangla and Assamese) script in Nepal’s Royal archive and
published entitling Charya-Charya-Binischay. It is in fact, an anthology of Buddhist
Sahajiya mystic (Charya) songs. However, this poetic collection is claimed by at
least six languages – Bangla, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili, Hindi and Manipuri.
Charya-Charya-Binischay includes the songs of Lui Pada, Kanho Pada, Sabar
Pada, Kukkuri Pada, Dhendon Pada, Vusuku Pada, Shoroho Pada and many others.
Through this work, Bangla literature was born and started to walk in its long-destined
way. A masterpiece of the era, it is in fact the progenitor of our dear mother-tongue.
The poets of Charyas depicted the lives of lower class and ‘untouchable’
people (like boatmen, potters, hunters etc.) in the surface. But they in fact reveal
spiritual ideas supported by Sahajiya Tantric Buddhism.
The Tantric Buddhists relied on sexual practice as a part of their religiosity;
their notion of sex too is evident in this book. Later this cult developed into
Vaishnava Sahajiya, Nath and Baul mysticisms; so the subsequent Bengali culture
bore their inheritance.
There are some beautiful imageries in the anthology, for example –
“High mountain, there lives the hunter girl,
Peacock feathers are her attire, a Gunja-garland is around her neck.”
(Translated by the author)
The following lines refer to those days’ poverty-stricken people’s lives –
“My home is on a small hill, I have no neighbor,
No rice is there in my pitcher, starvation lasts forever.”
(Translated by the author)
Dak, Khana’s Bachans (i.e. utterances) and a huge number of fairy tales too
are believed by some scholars to belong to this era. Khana was a legendary
astrologer who gave rhymed counsels to the common public.
Atish Dipankar Srijman (982?-1053), the most renowned scholar of the age,
is believed to have written Charya songs in Banga-Kamrupiya. Unfortunately only the
Tibetan translations of his works survive.
Some scholars imagine that some writings of ‘Nath’ literature (which really can
be traced since the 17 th century) might have been done in the Buddhist era. But not
a single piece of writing of that genre has been discovered yet.
In this context, it is noteworthy that the languages of the whole Eastern India
(including Bengal, Kamrupa, Maghad and Kalinga) were closely similar in those
days. So it was an age of the entire Eastern Indian literature.