Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/372

 A realistic poet. 336 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap, + who was a contemporary of the poet and of whom he speaks in terms of high regard. Madhavacharyya’s poem was first sung by a glee-party consisting of recruits from the lower classes and he prays to Chandi in the preliminary chapter that she may not be offended with him for | ! their incorrect pronunciation. It is said that Madhavacharyya later on came and settled at Navin- gour (modern Nanpur) in the district of Mymen- sing. It will be seen that Mukundarama Kavi Kankan’s Chandi Mangal is a great improvement on the poem by Madhavacharyya as indeed it is upon all other poems of this cult. In dealing with Mukundarama we shall touch on all the important _ features of the literature of the Chandi cult, so — a separate notice of them is unnecessary. Madhav- — acharyya’s poem was up tilllately extensively read in Chittagong, and in the back-woods of Bengal. — But the printing of Mukundarama’s work has © carried it to all parts of the country, and it has now almost driven the former poem out of its strongholds in those backward regions where it held undisputed sway for more than three centuries. Mukundaram Kavikankan and his Chandi-mangal. We have now come to consider one of the greatest of Bengali poets. Mukundar4ama was not given to idealism; he depicted what he saw with his own eyes. One who reads his poems closely will find the Bengali home of the 16th century mirrored in his pages. They are full of realistic interest. It is for the intense realism of his description that Prof. Cowell calls him the Crabbe of Bengal and Dr. Grierson speaks of his poetry “as coming from the heart and not * 15 ॥