Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/361

 =. - IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 325 Then he was.sent to a day-school belonging to Dwija Janardana. The boy acquired Sanskrit rhetoric and grammar in no time. He displayed wonderful intelligence and power of grasping the texts. Whatever he laid his hands on, he did_ with marvellous grace, for surely his birth had been the result of a boon, granted by Chandi to his mother Khullana, as a reward for her life-long devotion to that goddess in the midst of many sufferings. Much as Crimanta was loved, however, his father’s long and unexplained absence from home, cast a gloom on the family ; and going to school at the age of twelve, the sensitive child was wound- ‘ed by a slight levelled against his birth, by his teacher on the score of his father’s long absence from home. Now Crimanta was loved by all, he had never been accustomed to harshness. His teacher’s remarks, therefore, cut him to the quick. He was now a lad of some twelve years. He made for home straight way and going there shut himself up in a room alone, not even seeing his mother. Khullang made enquiries about him and dis- covered him in his solitude sobbing out his misery, and when his mother had asked him again and again what was the matter, he told her what the teacher had said, weeping all the while vehemently ; he expressed his desire to go at once in search of his father, wherever he might be, nor would he touch food, until his mother gave him permission to set out on this quest. Poor Khullang did not know what to do. Her dear lord had been away for more than twelve years. She bore a sorrow in her heart for which The doting mother and her child, Resolved on sea voyage