History of Bengali Language and Literature c10.37

c10.37

Ālāol was the son of a minister of Samser Kutub, the Nawab of Jālālpur (in the district of Faridpur). When a youngman, he undertook a sea-voyage in the company of his father. The crew were attacked by Portuguese pirates, known in the country as Hermadas (from Armada). We have a line in the Chandi Kāvya by Mukunda Rāma describing the great fear in which sailors held these Hermadas. "Night and day the merchant plied his oars in fear of being overtaken by the Hermadas."* The father of Ālāol was killed in a hand-to-hand fight with the marauders and our poet narrowly escaped a similar fate, and fled to Arācān where Māgana Thakur, the Moslem Prime minister of the ruling Chief of the place, received him hospi-