------------------------------------------------------------------------ Transcriber’s Note: This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects. Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_. Footnotes have been moved to follow the Scene in which they are referenced. Minor errors, attributable to the printer, have been corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for details regarding the handling of any textual issues encountered during its preparation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ NIL DARPAN, OR THE INDIGO PLANTING MIRROR, =A Drama.= TRANSLATED FROM THE BENGALI BY A NATIVE. ------------------ _CALCUTTA_: C. H. MANUEL, CALCUTTA PRINTING AND PUBLISHING PRESS, No. 10, WESTON’S LANE, COSSITOLLAH. --- 1861. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION. ---------- The original Bengali of this Drama—the NIL DARPAN, OR INDIGO PLANTING MIRROR—having excited considerable interest, a wish was expressed by various Europeans to see a translation of it. This has been made by a Native; both the original and translation are _bonâ fide_ Native productions and depict the Indigo Planting System as viewed by Natives at large. The Drama is the favourite mode with the Hindus for describing certain states of society, manners, customs. Since the days of Sir W. Jones, by scholars at Paris, St. Petersburgh, and London, the Sanskrit Drama has, in this point of view, been highly appreciated. The Bengali Drama imitates in this respect its Sanskrit parent. The evils of Kulin Brahminism, widow marriage prohibition, quackery, fanaticism, have been depicted by it with great effect.