Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/702

 662 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. villages of Bengal. There is no rustic, no old man, and no woman in Bengal who has not drawn a truly inspired consolation from them in hours when the wrongs and sorrows of the world were like to bruise the heart and make it heavy-laden. Oo (০) Bharata Chandra Rai Gunakara—the great poet of the Eighteenth Century. A short time after Rama Prasada’s Vidya Sundara was composed, Bharata Chandra described the same story in his poem, called the Annada Mangala, which at once rose to the highest point of fame and popularity, throwing into the shade all the earlier works on the subject. Bharat Chandra Rai was born in the year 1722. A. D., at Peron Basantapur in the district of His life, Hughly. His father Narendra Narayana Rai was a Zeminder of the place and had obtained the title of Raja from the Nawab of Mursidabad. There arose a dispute between Narendra Rai and the Raja of Burdwan on a boundary-question and the former is said to have given offence to the independent chief by a public mention of Visnu Kumari, his queen. Two Rajput soldiers named Alam Chandra and Ksema Chandra were sent by the angry Raja to chastise Narendra Rai. They were accompanied by a number of armed men who took all the lands belonging to Raja Narendra Narayana by force and ousted him from his possessions, allowing him to retain his hold on his homestead only. Narendra Rai was, as may be understood, reduced to great poverty after this event. His son Bharata Chandra stayed with his maternal uncles at Noapara and pro- secuted his studies in a Sanskrit ¢o/ at Tajpur. When