Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/657

 VI, ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 617 of the English into the head of Mirzafar and other influential men engaged in conspiracy against the Nowab. Krisma Chandra was himself a scholar of no mean order. He could discuss knotty problems of logic with Hari Rama Tarka Sidhanta and in theology he was a match for the far-famed Rama- nanda Vachaspati. He was well-versed in the doctrines of the six schools of Hindu philosophy, and made endowment of lands to the great expo- nents of that learning of the period—Civa Rama Vachaspati and Viregwara Nyaya Panchanana. He could compose extempore verses in Sanskrit and competed personally in public with ৬৪10০0৮৮212, Vidyalankara—the famous Sanskrit poet of his court. Besides all these Raja Krishna Chandra was the great patron of Bengali literature of the 18th century. Poetry under such patronage became the crea- tion of schoolmen and courtiers. It no longer aimed at offering its tribute to God but tried to please the fancy of a Raja; the poets found the gates of the palace open to receive them and cared not if the doors of heaven were shut. For models of Bengali court-poetry, we shall quote here a passage translated from the Naisadha Charita—a Sanskrit poem held in great admiration by the scholars of the period. ‘““How shall I describe, O, King, the profuse hair on Damayanti’s head! They compare it to the hair of a chamari (a species of deer). But it is foolish to compare Damayanti’s hair to what that animal hides behind him as a mark of shame. They say her eyes are as beautiful as. those of the 78 The great patron of Bengali. The ove drawn Ssimiles of Sanskrit and Persian models.