Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/694

 654 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. | 1595 A. D. The poet was born at Deogram The story in Chittagong and belonged to the Atriya: Gotra, 91 and to the line of Naradas who was probably a Kayastha. It appears that there had been previous poems on Vidya Sundara from which our author drew his materials. We find in the Brahma khanda of the Bhavisya Purana* the story of Vidya Sundara described at some length in racy Sanskrit verses. It is wrong to suppose that Bharata Chandra was the first to connect the story with the Burdwan Raj- family and that he did so to satisfy a private grudge. In the Brahma khanda we find mention not only of Burdwan as the place of occurrence of its incidents but also of Raja Vira Sinha; and Rama Prasada whose Vidya Sundara is earlier, as_ well places the scene in Burdwan. Besides these, in the Padmavati by Alaol we find a reference to the under- ground passage dug by Sundara which proves that the tradition of the story had existed in the country for a long time. The mould in which it was subse- quently cast by Bharata Chandra and other poets of his school bears the mark of Mahomedan influence. Govinda Das’s poem was free from those vulgarities আত which are now associated with the story, owing to gy ১ the way in which Bharata Chandra dealt witly it. 2 But Govinda Das wrote in a highly Sanskritised style and in this respect had affinities with subse- quent schools of poets. The following passage shows the sort of style which now came gradually into favour and from which it is so hard to translate, owing to the fact that its merits lie wholly in its literary art :— after 1550 A.D. See Indian Antiquary vol. XX P 419 (1891).
 * According to Wilson, Brahma Khanda was composed shortly