Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/84

54 these twelve lords became so powerful as to assert their independence and cause considerable trouble to the State. The Custom of appointing twelve chiefs attached to the Darbār is even now prevalent in various States in Rājputnā, and this is also the practice in the court of the Mahārāja of Hill Tipperā, which retains some of the most ancient usages of early Hindu Kings. In all the ballads of Dharmamangal we find frequent mention of these twelve lords, who are described as discharging important political functions in the court of the emperors of Gauḍa. They would appear to have been the pillars of the state, and in the confidence and honour with which they were treated at court, seem to have been second only to the Prime minister and to the feudatory chiefs. Certain functions were theirs which no one else could perform. At the time of the king's coronation, for instance, it was their privilege to pour on his head the sacramental water of the abhiseka. At the time of marriage of the emperor or his eldest son, they had the right of garlanding the newly-married couple.

The descriptions of the royal courts, with which these poems abound, give us glimpses of important administrative forms prevalent during the Hindu period of Indian history, though subsequent writers did not fail to introduce some features of the Mahammadan Durbâr in their descriptions.