1<8#8.] M. M. Chakravarti —Language and literature of Orissa. 333 
Vaisnavism. The sanctity of Pari attracted a considerable number 
of devotees, and several maths of Ramanuja and other] sects sprang 
up on its sands. About 1510 A.D. Caitanya, the great,Vaisnavite 
apostle of Bengal, first visited Orissa, and later on settled in Puri. 
Here lie gathered a considerable following and by and by came to 
exercise much influence. Though a good Sanskrit scholar, he aimed 
to impart his religious instructions through the vernaculars. With the 
Pandits he argued in Sanskrit, but to the laity he preached in their 
spoken dialect. His disciples came chiefly from the lower classes, and 
■carried out this practice of vernacular preaching more extensively. In 
this way religion which had hitherto been a strong prop of the mono¬ 
polising Sanskrit learning, ceased to be so. In contradistinction to 
Brahmins, grew up a body of Vaisnava gurus and mahantas whose 
influence gradually increased over the land, and with whose increasing 
influence the vernaculars came more and more to the front. The 
Vaisnava devotees translated the Sanskrit religious works, composed 
new devotional poems, and by sarjkirtans and vernacular songs con¬ 
siderably developed the power of the vernaculars. To the Vaisnavites 
are due almost all the early vernacular compositions both in Orissa and 
in Bengal. 
Another cause for the change lay in the overthrow by the 
Mahomedans of the paramount Hindu power. In 1568 A.D. the 
last independent Hindu king Teliqga Makunda Deva was defeated and 
killed ; and Orissa was overrun by the victorious army of Sulaiman 
KeranI of Bengal. From that year for nearly two centuries Orissa 
remained subject to the Mahomedan rule, first under Pathans and 
next under the Mughals. On the transfer of the supreme power the in¬ 
fluence of the Brahmins and of the Sanskrit language received a check. 
The Hindu religion itself lost the powerful support of the ruling power. 
In the towns the Persian and the Persianised Hindi (Urdu) came into 
vogue. They showed the people that Sanskrit was not the oidy highly 
cultivated tongue in India. Hence a certain amount of freedom was 
produced which was favourable to the cultivation of vernaculars. In 
the towns and in the courts of petty Hindu chiefs many turned their 
attentions to compositions in Oriya. 
To summarise, the difficulties of compositions in the dead Sanskrit, 
the example of the early developed Telugu, the influence of Vaisnavism 
and the supersession of the Hindu rule by the Mahomedans—all tended 
to swell the tide in favour of the vernaculars. Original Sanskrit works 
by the Oriyas practically ceased. From the 16th century downwards, 
one finds no real Sanskrit compositions by non-Brahmins. Even among 
the Brahmins the writers confined themselves chiefly to tikas or ex- 
