The Dynastic History of Northern India (Early Mediaeval Period) v1.c16.349

v1.c16.349

(4) *The Rāmacarita of Sandhyākara Nandī (Nandi-kula-kumuda-kānana-purṇendu).*—This *Kāvya* is divided into four cantos and is "written throughout in double *en tendre*. It is written in imitation of the *Rāghavapāṇḍavīya*. Read one way it gives the story of the *Rāmāyaṇa*. Read another way it gives the history of Rāmapāladeva of the Pāla dynasty of Bengal." The work is called *Kaliyuga-Rāmāyaṇa* and the author *Kalikāla-Vālmīki*. But the text is so difficult that it is more or less unintelligible except canto 1 and 36 verses of canto 2, for which we have a commentary. The author's ancestral home was at Vṛhadvatu which was attached to Pauṇḍravardhanapura in Varendrī, and his father Prajāpati Nandī who is described as *Karaṇyānām-agraṇī* was the *Sāndhivigrahika* of Rāmapāla. The work was completed probably in the reign of Madanapāla, as he ends his work with a wish for the long reign of that prince (IV. 48).¹