Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/200

 The great effect on the au- dience. Krittivasa and his great popu- larity. His autobiogra- phy Born 1346 A. D. 170 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. | is heard in that assembly like the plaintive sound of a single lyre strains of tender wail which and the story becomes more real than any history. In all this, I have tried to show how great an influence was exercised on the minds of the people, I shall now proceed to deal with some of the popular by the Bengali versions of the Puranas. translations themselves which have helped to edu- cate the masses of Bengal, and also to form their character, for the last five centuries. (a) Translations of the Ramayana. The translation of the Ramayana by Krittivasa is by far the most popular book in Bengal. Five hundred years have gone by, since the date of its composition, and still nearly a hundred thousand of copies are annually sold in Bengal. I found the hill people of Tippera, who speak the Tippera dialect, purchasing copies of this work when they came down It is in fact the Bible of the people of the Gangetic Valley, and it is for the most part the peasants who read it. to the plains. Krittivasa has left a graphic account of his own ancestry, and of the earlier portion of his life. Owing to the omission of certain names, however, from this autobiographical notice, an important It has not been definitely ascertained who the Em- problem touching his career remains unsolved. peror of Gour was, referred to by him as his patron, by whose order he translated the Ramayana. We know for certain that he was born in Febru- ary, 1346 A.D., on the goth of the Bengali month Magh—the Cri Panchami day, when Saraswati, the