Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/1057

 VII. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 1011 much later period drew a pay of Rs. 300 a month, as member of the Council. Major Rennell as Sur- vey General of India was in 1767 granted a pay of Rs. 300 a month, and this amount was considered to be unusally high requiring an elaborate explana- tion from the authorities! We find Jaya Chandra a Raja of the Chittagong district, granting an allow- ance of Rs. 10 per day to the poet Bhavani Natha for translating a poem called the Laksmana Digvijaya into Bengali verse. This book was compiled about the middle of the eighteenth century and must have occupied the poet for at least six months. Rs. 300 a month in those days must have been equal to at least to times its present value. Not only poets but even copyists of vernacular poems received a high remuneration for their labour. A copyist of the 18 Parvas of the Maha- bharata by Kavindra Paramegwara wrote the fol- lowing concluding paragraph at the close of his Ms. in 1714A.D. “This Mahabhrata, containing 18 Parvas (copied by me) belongs to Cri Govinda Rama Roy. The total number of pages is 789. My name is Ananta Rama Garma—copyist. The remuneration promised is the maintenance of my family for life in a becoming style. On this condition I have copied the work with great care. Besides this, I have received rewards in cash; and orders for daily allowance and annual gifts have also been obtained. Good luck attend the donor, Gaka 1636- 1124 B.S. This the 25th day of Kartic. Finished on Thursday at noon, at Solagram—the native Vol. III p. 2.
 * Major Reunell’s life in Asiatic Society’s Journal No. 3