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10 the early Bengali poets. Their courts were guided by Sanskrit-knowing Pandits, and how are we to reconcile the fact, that these Brāhmins welcomed the poor patois—the despicable Paiçāchī Prākrita of Bengal, for which they had hitherto only a feeling of unmixed contempt.

This elevation of Bengali to a literary status was brought about by several influences, of which the Mahammadan conquest was undoubtedly one of the foremost. If the Hindu Kings had continued to enjoy independence, Bengali would scarcely have got an opportunity to find its way to the courts of Kings.

The Pāthāns occupied Bengal early in the thirteenth century. They came from a far distance—from Bulkh, Oxus or Transoxina, but they settled in the plains of Bengal and had no mind to return to their mountainous home. The Pāthān Emperors learned Bengali and lived in close touch with the teeming Hindu population whom they were called upon to rule. The minarets and cupolas of their Mosques rose to the sky, adjoining the spires and tridents of the Hindu temples. The sounds of the conch-shells and bells emanating from the latter, were heard while the new-comers assembled in the Mosques to say their evening prayers. The pompous processions and the religious rites of the Hindus—their Durgāpujā, Rāsa and Dolotsava—displayed a religious enthusiasm which equalled their own, while celebrating the Maharam, Id. Sabebarāt and other festivals. The Emperors heard of the far-reaching fame of the Sanskrit epics, the Rāmāyaṅa and the Mahābhārata, and observed the