পাতা:আশুতোষ স্মৃতিকথা -দীনেশচন্দ্র সেন.pdf/২২০

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criticises any particular institution, it is wholly on historical treating of orthodoxy, Kulinism or decadent Buddhism he do es not forget to give the other side of the picture. He shows how Ο 1θε event leads to another, how one system of thou ght, or cult slowly and imperceptibly merges into another, low national activity arrested in one direttion seeks an altogetlner : novel outlèt and may ultimately find it. He has a historian’s sense of the clash and intermingling of ideas and ideals, the strong and weak points of conservatism and orthodoxy, the spirit of revolt that seeks its satisfaction in bold speculations and experiments. If with the advent of foreign lhordes in the 13th century, the Hindu lost their political power and their social and religious life faced a great and persistent onslaught, they brought into bei11 g on oue hand an invincible social organisation uncontrolled by State and on the other a free and untrammelled spiritual force that manifested itself in new creative forms. If for want of support ad encouragement and in view of iconoclastic activity, sculptural and allied art decayed and died, it did not nea the end of art in IBengal. Its technique and traditions were preserved to a certhin extent by the womenfolk of Bengal and her illiterate artisans and craftsmen. Thus history as interpreted by Dr. Sen is a study in the continuity of things, in the action and inter-action () forces which must be atalysed with insight and imagination. in the reconstruction of Chaitanya's life, he has for the time being put aside his personal devotion to treatises of a predominantly theological bias, and has shown all his skill in using his apparatus of listorical research and discrimination in achieving his task. It is remarkable to notice that no other scholar before him has shown with such overwhelming evidence how much Bengal owes to women and the so-called lower classes of her society in the evolution and preservation of her distinctive culture. It will