Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/1051

 VII.] BENGALI LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE. 1005 Kshemgnanda and other poets of the Rada Deca abridged the story described by East Bengal poets, adding some poetical features which the improved resources of our tongue had placed at their command. The Chandi-cult had also its earliest exponents in the poets of Eastern Bengal. Madhavacharyya was a native of Mymensing and Dvija Janardana, probably of Tipara. Owing to to the great beauty of Mukundarama’s poem written in later times, preceding attempts in the same field which had belonged to Eastern Bengal, were cast into the shade. Manuscripts of these early works, from two to three centures old, have been recovered not only from Eastern Bengal but also from the Rada-Dega, showing that they were at one time read by the people of the whole of Bengal. We thus see that poems belonging to the various Cakta-cults had for their earliest home the much despised east of the country, which remained poli- tically free for more than a century, after western Bengal had been conquered by the Mahamadans. The Sen-kings at Vikrampur patronised Brahmins ; and it was natural that in the 13th century Vikrampur should be turned into an important seat of classi- cal learning. The first translation of the Mahabha- rata was undertaken by Sanjaya, probably a Brahmin of Vikrampur. He belonged to the Varat- dwaja Gotra, and compiled the translation in an abridged form. The next translation of the great epic by Kabindra Paramegvara, an inhabitant of Chittagong rose to the highest point of popularity ; it was written in the latter part of the 15th century, and was read by the people of east and west alike. Manuscripts of this recension of the