1892.] Address. 51 



Marathi. The pretentions of the Kayasthas of Bengal to a Kshatriya 

 descent have been opposed by a Brahman in the work entitled Hathdt 

 Kshatriya. The publication of the Balldla Charita is significant. The 

 Jogis and Sonar Baniyas of Bengal think that Ballal Sen degraded 

 them, and so they have unearthed a Balldla Charita, which paints 

 Ballal in the darkest colours possible. The Sennars or toddy dealers of 

 Southern India have been cried down in a Tamil pamphlet. 



The A'rya Samaj people have been for years carrying on a contro- 

 versy against the orthodox Hindus on the one hand, and against the 

 Musalmans on the other, giving to the literature of the Panjab a life 

 and vigour which are wanting in other provinces. No less than 15 

 pamphlets have been marked in one quarterly catalogue alone against 

 the theory of the transmigration of the soul. The locusts have also 

 absorbed a good deal of the attention of Panjabi writers. The im- 

 morality and dissolute lives of the Maharajas, or Abbots of the followers 

 of Ballabhacharya, have been exposed in a work entitled Pushtimdrga. 



Travels and Voyages are rarely undertaken by the great majority 

 of the Indian people. Most of the works under this head treat of 

 single journeys on business, from one part of India to another or 

 from India to England. Pandita Ramabai, however, is writing a large 

 work, in parts, of her travels in England and America. A description 

 of the journey undertaken by the Shah of Persia to England and France 

 has appeared in Urdu. Visvagunadarsana is the description of an ima- 

 ginary journey in Sanskrit, which has been translated into Tamil for the 

 benefit of the people of Southern India. 



Poetry and Religion. — In the palmy days of Indian literature, 

 when the Hindu mind retained its full vigour, the domains of poetry, 

 philosophy and religion were kept distinct. But with the decadence of 

 literature and the loss of independence, these three things began to be 

 so blended together that it is impossible to separate them ; as is the case 

 with the mediaeval poetry of India. The Premabhaktichandrikd and the 

 Smaranamangala, both in Bengali, by two of the great leaders of the 

 followers of Chaitanya, belong to this class of poetry. They comprise 

 the poetry, philosophy and religion of Vaishnavism. The Bdma Basd- 

 yana in Bengali is also a work of this class. It shows, however, how 

 the different sects in India derived their materials from the original 

 Aryan and Brahmanic sources, and adapted them to their own use. As 

 a Vaishnava work, the Bdma Basdyana leaves out those incidents of 

 Rama's life which have any thing to do with S'akta or S'aiva worship. 

 Nalayira Divyaprabandham, called the Tamil Veda, in Tamil verse, is 

 a large work in honour of Vishnu. It was written by the Vaishnava 

 Alwars, There is a very noteworthy point of difference between the 



