Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/374

 338 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [Chap Dwarukecvar, crossed the Damodara and came to the village Kuchuttya. ‘There without oil,” says the poet ‘‘we had our bath and appeased our hunger by drinking water. The famished children cried for food. On the banks of a pond with offerings of Saluka and Sapla flowers I w orshipped Chandi. Exhausted, famished, and frightened, I fell asleep and dreamt that the goddess Chandi appeare ed to me.” | Chandi taught him metres and their laws, and bade him sing a song in her honour. | He next went to Arrah Brahmanbhumi, where Raja Bankura Ray was much pleased with his: poetry. He ordered five aras of rice* to be pre- sented to the poet and cleared all his debts, and! besides appointed him as a tutor to his son Raghu’ He com- poses his ; ছা. greatpoem. Raja, he began to write his poem on Chandi which was destinedto win for him such great celebrity. Nath Ray. There enjoying the patronage of the. The Raja lavished rewards upon the chief singer, who sung the poem in his court, and held our poet in great esteem. i But Mukundaram never forgot the village of — Damunya from which he had been driven by the — oppression of Mamud Sherif. We can trace his yearning for his native place in the autobiographi- cal account. Though by the favour of the Raja, he His great 110৮ enjoyed plenty at Brahamanbhumi, Damunya — love for where he had owned only a few acres of land and his native E village. tilled them with his own hands, was far dearer to him by many tender associations. His family had lived at Damunya for eight generations. The { {
 * About 3 cwt.