Bengali Religious Lyrics, Śākta

Open this record in the interactive library

Catalogue identifier: kali-0090
Alternate titles and import identifiers: KALI-0090; bengali_lyrics_thompson_spencer_1923
Author or attribution: Edward John Thompson and Arthur Marshman Spencer, translators; poems by Ramprasad Sen, Kamalakanta and others
Record type: Book
Language: English
Date / edition: 1923
Source / repository: Association Press, Calcutta; Oxford University Press, London
Access: Open access
Subjects: Kali Library Research Catalogue; Bengali Kali Literature; Historical Accounts and Colonial Records; Hymns, Prayers, and Devotional Poetry; Translations and Commentaries

Description and curator notes

This historical English anthology translates 103 Bengali Shakta lyrics, with a large group attributed to Ramprasad Sen and additional songs by Kamalakanta and other named and anonymous poets. Its contents preserve the intimate speech of devotion to the Mother: complaint, dependence, household and economic metaphors, mortality, religious longing and the seasonal emotions associated with Uma. A representative Ramprasad song asks to serve as the Mother's treasurer, showing how everyday occupations become a language for devotion. The contents and closing author index are important research aids because the collection includes more than the two best-known poets. It is therefore useful both for a Ramprasad/Kamalakanta shelf and for recovering the wider Bengali Shakta lyric tradition. The complete digitized volume is freely downloadable as a 120-page scan. Wikisource transcription is still uneven, but the scan itself is the qualifying full text. Translated wording and interpretive framing belong to the 1923 translators and should be compared with Bengali originals when studying individual songs, attribution, or variant readings. The collection is catalogued once rather than treating its 103 poems as 103 independently published sources.

KALI-0090 — Kali Library Research Catalogue.
Access and reliability assessments below are supplied by the curator's 4–5 November 2026 research release, not a new independent verification.

Author / attribution: Edward John Thompson and Arthur Marshman Spencer, translators; poems by Ramprasad Sen, Kamalakanta and others
Publication: Association Press, Calcutta; Oxford University Press, London · 1923
Heritage of India series. Calcutta: Association Press; London: Oxford University Press, 1923. Complete scanned volume.
Format / language: Historical book / primary devotional or interpretive source · English; original: Bengali
Composition / textual history: Individual poems of multiple dates; exact dates generally unknown.
Identifier: bengali_lyrics_thompson_spencer_1923
Kali relevance: Major complete translation collection of Bengali songs to Kali and the Mother.
Context: Poems span multiple Bengali authors; do not attribute the entire volume to Ramprasad.
Subjects: Bengali Kali Literature; Historical Accounts and Colonial Records; Hymns, Prayers, and Devotional Poetry; Translations and Commentaries
Evidence / reliability: Primary historical source in a freely accessible transcription; historical claims require comparison with modern scholarship.
Access / rights: Complete text checked 2026-11-04. Commons marks this 1923 volume public domain; both translators died more than seventy years ago. Public-domain status is also identified on Wikisource. Follow host terms for editorial transcription.

Source and alternate access links:
Read complete text: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Bengali_Religious_Lyrics%2C_%C5%9A%C4%81kta.pdf
Source record: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bengali_Religious_Lyrics,_Śākta.pdf
Alternate / related form: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Bengali_Religious_Lyrics,_Śākta_(1923)

Source access

Read or locate the original source at Association Press, Calcutta; Oxford University Press, London

Rights and reading conditions

Complete text checked 2026-11-04. Commons marks this 1923 volume public domain; both translators died more than seventy years ago. Public-domain status is also identified on Wikisource. Follow host terms for editorial transcription. This library links to the source and does not reproduce its full text.

Citation

Edward John Thompson and Arthur Marshman Spencer, translators; poems by Ramprasad Sen, Kamalakanta and others. Bengali Religious Lyrics, Śākta. Association Press, Calcutta; Oxford University Press, London · 1923.

This page supplies catalogue metadata and links. It does not reproduce the underlying source text. Historical, religious, healing and interpretive claims belong to the cited sources, not to an independent verification by this catalogue.