Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/77

II.]

The authors of Dharmamangal-poems, written in honour of the god Dharma, unanimously agree in declaring Mayura Bhatta to be the earliest writer on the subject. The poem which is said to have furnished inspiration to the succeeding poets of the Dhurma-cult was called the Hākanda Purāṅa. Babu Nagendranath Vasu considers the Çunya Purāṅa by Rāmāi Pandit to be identical with the Hākanda Purāṅa. But we do not agree with this theory, as the subject treated in most of the Dharmamangal-poems is quite different from what we find in the Çunya Purāṅa. Besides. the name Hākanda Purāṅa, is evidently associated with the superhuman sacrifices of Lāu Sen at Hākanda, and of this song Rāmāi Pandit was not certainly the apostle.

Mayura Bhatta's time is not exactly known. In all probability he flourished a little before the Mahammadan conquest. Sītā Rām, the author of