Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/934

 890 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [ Chap. of the book as corrupted by an admixture of Per- sian, but this estimate, I must say, is not just, for in the descriptions of wars; and court-affairs the language could not in those days avoid a mixture of Persian in which all court affairs were managed even in the States under the control of Hindu Rajas. The great Sanskrit scholar and _ poet Bharata Chandra himself, who introduced some of the choicest Sanskrit metres in Bengali, could not describe war or court scenes without having re- course to Persian words. In describing domestic or religious matters Rama Vasu generally avoided Persian and Arabic words. His style is quaint and affected; at any rate as one of the earliest speci- mens of modern Bengali prose we may often ex- cuse his faults, and be prepared to admit that he wrote a connected story in an interesting and lively manner. The other works by Rama Vasu were his (1) Lipimala, or a guide to letter-writing contain- ing a number of models for letters. This treats also of business, religion, and Arithmetic,—print- ed at the Cri Ramapur Press in 1802. (2) Attack on Brahmins. Rama Vasu was a friend of Raja Rama Mohana Roy who had kindly revised the Ms. of Pratapaditya Charita before it was published. From some of his writings it appears that he favoured the views of his enlightened friend. Two other works written by Pundits of the Chandi. charana ort William College respectively are .1) Tota ০৭ Itthasa by Chandi. Charan Munsi which appeared in 1826, (2) Krisna Chandra Charita by Rajiva Lochana Mukhopadhaya, which came out in 1805. The style of both these works is elegant. We