36 
MAITIIIL CHKISTOMATHY. 
[Extra No. 
from blind singers, and others whose profession it is to sing these Vaish¬ 
nava songs, but I am also indebted to the Maharaja of Darbhanga for 
many of them : I have, however, searched everywhere for them that I 
could consistently with my official duties, and I regret that these prevented 
my directly having much communication with Bid}ffipati’s present de¬ 
scendants. I have, however, learnt sufficient to be satisfied that they have 
no collection of their ancestor’s songs. 
For further information concerning Bidyapati and his times I must 
refer to the books above mentioned, and to an excellent article in the 
Bangali Magazine the “ Banga Darsana,” for 1282 (B. $.), Vol. IV. 
p. 75. Mr. Beanies’ article in the Indian Antiquary for October, 1875, 
Vol. IV p. 299, also contains all that is important, and gives a resume 
of the contents of the article in the Banga Darsana, with his own most 
valuable criticisms thereon. In another article in the Indian Antiquary 
(Vol. II. p. 37) Mr. Beames also gives an interesting account of the 
Bangali recension of the Pseudo-Bidyapati. 
It now remains to consider the matter of Bidyapati’s poems. They 
are nearly all Vaishnava hymns or bliajans, and as such belong to a class 
well known to students of modern Indian Literature. They cannot be 
judged by European rules of taste, and must not be condemned too hastily 
as using the language of the brothel to describe the soul’s yearnings after 
God. Now that the Aphorisms of S'andilya have been given in an English 
dress by Mr. Cowell, no one need plead ignorance of the mysteries of the 
Indian doctrine of faith. “ God is Love” is alike the motto of the Eastern 
and of the Western worlds, while the form of Love proposed is essentially 
different. The people of a colder Western clime, have contented themselves 
with comparing the ineffable love of God to that of a father to his 
children, while the warmer climes of the tropics have led/the seekers after 
truth to compare the love of the worshipper for the worshipped, to that 
of the Supreme Mistress Badha for her Supreme Lord Krishna. It is 
true that it is hard for a Western mind to grasp this idea, but let us not 
therefore hastily condemn it: the glowing stanzas of Bidyapati are read 
by the devout Llindu with as little of the baser part of human sensuous¬ 
ness, as the Song of Solomon is by the Christian priest. 
For further particulars as to the Vaishnava poets of Bangal (includ¬ 
ing Bidyapati) see Indian Antiquary for 1873, Vol. II. pp. 1, 37 and 187 
where Mr. Beames elaborately discusses the whole question, and Dr. Bajen- 
dralal Mitra’s preface to the Chaitanya Chandrodaya. 
As regards Bidyapati’s prosody, it is needless to say that no rules are 
in existence : P ingala’s Prakrit Sutras which are said to apply to Braj 
Bhasha will not apply here, for I have tried them. I have therefore 
been compelled to analyse the metres for myself, and on another^ occasion 
