Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/85

II.] Mayura Bhatta, as we said, was the earliest writer of Dharmamangal and probably lived in the twelfth century. After him, came Khelārām, Mānik Gāngulī, Ruprām, RāmachanadraRāmachandra [sic], Çyām Pandit, Rāmdās Ādaka, Sahadeva Chakravartī, Ghanarām and other writers, who gradually Hinduised the Buddhistic tales originally written to glorify Dharmaṭhākur. We shall notice their works in a subsequent chapter.

In Chaitanya Bhāgabata, a Bengali work of great authority with the Vaiṣṅavas, the author Vrindāvan Dās (born 1507 A.D.) refers to the great favour in which the ballads in praise of some of the Pāl Kings were held in Bengal. The copperplate-inscription of Madan Pāl corroborates the truth of this statement so far as Mahīpāl was concerned. The inscription says that the valourous and chivalric career of Mahīpāl, who was like a second Çiva, formed a favourite theme for popular songs in Bengal. We have an old Bengali saying "For the husking of rice in the mortar, the songs of Mahīpāl!" Later, when Çaivaite ideas became fashionable, the name of Çiva was substituted for that of Mahīpāl. All these things go to show that the Buddhistic monarchs of Bengal, about whom no chronicler came forward to write biographical or historical accounts,—whom the Brāhmanic school, while eulogising a Ballāla Sen or a Lakṣmaṅa Sen beyond all measure, completely ignored,—must have left indelible marks on the popular mind by the greatness of their character and public works. Immense tanks, for instance, in the Districts of