under the administration of a dynasty which claimed Hence Having now found throughout Southern India solid grounds for believing that Hindu drama arose from the celebration of the dead and not from the cult of Krishns alone, as has been held by many, nor from the worship of a Vegetation spirit or the Dæmon of the year, we turn to Bengal in confident expectation that the same conclusion will result from the fresh evidence now at hand from that great region. The late Dr J. D. Anderson pointed out to the writer that in Bengal, at this very hour, dances are commonly held in buildings called Chandi-mandaps in honour of the goddess Chandi; and this statement was confirmed by Rai Bahadur Pandit Radha Krishna of Muttra, who adds that these dances are held also in honour of other deities and saints. When religious rites are not in progress, the mandapa (shed) is often used as a village school, in which capacity it frequently figures in current literature, novels, and the like. The ceremonies are performed in the presence of the deity, and the Chandi-mandap is erected for that purpose.' Fleet, Dynasties of the Kanarese Districts,' pp. 536, 548. It must be borne in mind that each old high-caste Hindu family has usually two shrines-one termed Thakur-ghar, where the salagrama, a round stone hidymbolising the god Narayana or a Siva linga, is shivorshipped daily by the priest. This is a sort of family he semes the basis of Mala of the dra le, while th hapel, and the gods there worshipped are regarded in kome way as the protecting deities of the family. But ther deities are worshipped in certain months; and for Signing at E his purpose there is another shrine called the PujarJalan ('worship-house'), also termed Chandi-mandap, or Durga-mandap, Chandi being only another name for Durga, the chief deity there adored. These ceremonies ast about three days and are attended with sacrifices of nimals. In front of the Pujar-dalan there is usually nother large hall for festivities called Nata-mandir dancing hall'), or simply an open quadrangle.* During hese seasonal rites in honour of deities or on some mportant domestic ceremony, e.g. a wedding, Bengali Yatras or similar dramatic entertainments are enacted. Hif the temple or family dwelling-house possesses a Natanandir (an open pavilion with a roof) the performance akes place there. Otherwise it is held in the quadrangle acing the temple or in the case of a private house Sacing the Pujar-dalan.† Only the wealthier temples and families can afford such entertainments. es and the Hinda fe nance of the the c Dr Anderson finally obtained from Rai Sahib Dinesh Chandra Sen, author of the standard History of Bengali Literature and of many other works in English and Bengali, and the unquestioned authority on the preEnglish literature of his country, the following valuable ccount of the origin of serious drama in Bengal. "The origin of Bengali Mangala gans, which latterly developed into melodramas, is to be traced to short hymns or adulatory verses, in honour of Manasa Devi, Mangala Chandi, and other local deities, to some of whom the Aryan Hindu Pantheon latterly opened its doors. These deities have attached to them each a tale of prowess and glory composed For this information I am indebted to Prof. S. N. Dasgupta, Chittagong. † I owe this memorandum (through the late Dr J. D. Anderson) to Mr Atul Chandra Chatterjee, an old Cambridge man, now District Officer, United Provinces. by village bards. These tales describe the good fortunes acquired by the devotees and the misfortunes that attended the non-believers. The gods and goddesses are often de scribed as coming down from their respective heavens to fight on behalf of their worshippers. Like the Druids, they sometimes raised storms in the seas and by other ways punished those who would not accept them. The stories of Manasa Devi (the goddess of Serpents), Shitala Devi (the goddess of Small-Pox), Mangal Chandi (the goddess of Fortune), the Dharma (the Buddha), and even Satya Pir (the deity worshipped by the Hindus and Muhammedans alike), are full of glowing accounts of the favours and acts of grace done to the favoured ones, and of the misfortunes that attended those who entertained sceptical views in regard to their power and authority. 'These tales were originally in the form of short poems that could be recited in less than an hour's time. Such recitations were held indispensable to, and formed a part of, the ritual of worship. As particular gods and goddesses rose in popular estimation, counting a large number of followers, new poets came forward to contribute to the development of these poems; and often a few brief adulatory verses of the earlier poets supplied the foundation of elaborate poems in which the main plot and its incidents were minutely worked out by the gifted poets of a succeeding generation. The period of worship also extended from a few hours to a full month or even more for the celebration of pompous rituals The poems, as they grew in size and excellence, were no longer recited but sung and played before the particular deities, whose acts and deeds they described, by professional musical parties headed by the Gayanas or the minstrels These people introduced many episodes into the poems for the purpose of creating a greater effect upon the audience; and the dramatic element in the poems was gradually developed, though the lyrical feature still predominated in this class of performances. An element of humour was always added when the poems themselves lacked it, and this proved highly interesting. All this used to be done, as it is still done, before the image of a god or goddess, when the deity is worshipped. The worship of a particular deity is attended by a performance of these musical parties. The Mangala gans and yatras have all originated in this manner The difference between these two is that, whereas in the former verses are generally recited in a sing-song voice with singing and dance at intervals, the yatras aim at being more dramatic in form with considerable prose dialogues, though, in the earlier of them, even conversation used to be conducted by means of songs. 'The chief place for the performance of a Yatra, a Panchali or a Kirtana has always been the Chandi-mandapa or courtyard facing a temple. Of course these players hold performances at any time and anywhere, and there is not much restriction as to that; but the chief place for their performances has always been the courtyards attached to temples, and the chief season of their activity and earning is that when the particular deities of whom they sing are worshipped. Even when a Kirtana or a Panchali is sung for ordinary purposes of imparting religious instruction or for mere amusement's sake (at other times than that of worship), it is customary to place a picture of the god or goddess associated with the play in front of the party and audience, and the performers begin their play by reverentially bowing down before it.' This important statement, together with the wellknown fact that in the classical Sanskrit dramas the performances always began and ended with prayers to the gods, thus corroborates the conclusion at which we have already arrived from much more positive evidence, namely, that the Hindu serious drama had its origin in the cult of deified persons, a process which has been in full activity from the Vedic times down to the present, and that not merely in Bengal but all over Southern India. But I have elsewhere shown the same principle in full operation in modern times in Northern India, in the case of Hakikat, a Hindu lad who refused to embrace the Moslem faith and was martyred at Lahore in 1734. There is a considerable literature about him, and dramatic performances representing his fate became exceedingly popular all over the North-West Provinces ; but, as they led to great bitterness between Hindus and Muhammedans, the Government had to forbid them. There are two other historical characters, Gopi Chand and Puran, who form the subjects of very popular dramas all over the same region. Both of these were famous devotees and are believed to have found salvation during their earthly existence, thus corresponding exactly to the devotees of Southern India whose lives are similarly dramatised. WILLIAM RIDGEWAY. Art. 8.-THE FICTION MARKET. 1. The Master of Man. By Hall Caine. Heinemann, 1921. 2. The Mountebank. By William J. Locke. Lane, 1921. 3. Her Father's Daughter. By Gene Stratton Porter. Murray, 1921. And other works. IN the years of unrecognised ease, before the War with its realities brought us to a truer perception of values, there was a tendency to decry the Victorian age as belonging to the backwaters of Time, and to consign to a vast derision its outstanding persons, their movements, works, ideals. The ethics and the eloquence of Ruskin and Carlyle, the economics of Mill, the inspiration of Tennyson, history as it was written by Froude and J. R. Green, the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brother hood, with much else characteristic that was limned or penned by the Victorians-with their fashions, of crinolines, wall-papers, whiskers-suffered the elaborate and rehearsed contempt of the new Intelligentsia. The tendency was not unnatural. Progress is bound to alter conditions, and it is absurd to quarrel with progress. The sins, especially the artistic sins, of the fathers are visited upon the children; so that it is only fair that the children, retaliating, should discover the ideas of their parents to be extravagant, inadequate, wrong. Reaction, however, in this case has gone too far, for—leaving aside the exceptional human nobility of sacrifice proved in the War-save in science, that is, in material and not spiritual effort, the Victorian age has shown an incomparable superiority over anything discovered within the succeeding twenty years. The truth is especially evident in creative literature In fiction, as in verse, though the lyrical poets have risen to their opportunity better than writers in prose have done, mediocrity has ruled and continues to prevail. With no lack of energy and even a colossal output, there has been a dearth of originality, and-since Mr Hardy put by his pen after the supreme effort of 'The Dynasts -no outstanding figure; whereas the Victorians-for years their names will shine. By the side of Dickens, Thackeray, George Eliot, the Brontës, Meredith, to |