Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/838

 799 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. | [ Chap. i 1 ] { i “another side of their lovable nature, and my “heart goes out to them in gratefulness and “fraternal love.” The Mahomedans of Rajshahi have the mono- poly of hasan gan or songs on Manasa Devi. In Chittagong this fusion of ideas and_ inter- change of customs and usages seems to have reached its highest point. In a Bengali poem called the Bheluaé Sundari, written by Hamidulla of Chittagong, we read that the Brahmins who had assembled to find out an auspicious day for the hero’s journey abroad, consulted the Koran for the pur- pose. The hero, who was the son of an orthodox Hindu merchant, obeyed the injunctions ‘as if they were laid down in the Vedas’ and started on his voyage, ‘praying to Allah’ for his safety! Even at the present time the lower clases of Hindus in | Chittagong use the expression Adlar hukum (com- mand; in the same sense as ‘ Deo volente. Aptav- uddin, another Mahomedan poet of Chittagong who wrote a poem called the Jamil Dilaram in 1750, writes that his hero, who was a Mahomedan, went to the nether worlds to seek a boon from the Saptarsies or the seven sages of the Hindus. When the two communities mixed so closely, and were so greatly influenced by one another, the result was that a common God was called into existence, worshipped by Hindus and Mahomedans A common oy alike. aa His name was formed by compounding an Arabic word with a Sanskrit word. He was’ called Satya:Pir. There are many poems on Satya Pir in old Bengali, some of which are noted below :— Satya Pir. . : inhabitant of Guchia in Chittagong, written in 1734.
 * 1. Satya Pirer Panchali by Fakir Chand, an