History of Bengali Language and Literature c10.40

c10.40

tably, being pleased with the great scholarship of the youngman. He resided at this place for many years and when he was verging on forty, he was ordered by Māgana Thakur to translate the Hindi poem Padmāvat into Bengali and he did so to please his patron and master. Some years passed in this high and agreeable company, and our poet seems to have tasted during this time the sweets of life after the woes that had befallen him in the early part of his career. He was again ordered by Māgana Thākur to translate a Persian work named Saiful Mulluk and Badiujjamāl into Bengali. But he had now declined ‘in the vale of years’ and when a few chapters of this book were written, Māgana Thākur, the poet's friend and patron, met with an unexpected death, and Alāol in great disappointment left the half-finished poem and retired into a life of rest. But it was yet reserved for him to be subjected to further vicissitudes in life; and greater sorrows than those hitherto experienced were still in store for him. Sujā, brother of Aurangzeb, had come to Arācān about this period and a fight ensued between the unfortunate prince and the Arācān Chief,—the former being completely defeated. A wicked man named Mirzā gave evidence against Alāol, to satisfy a private grudge implicating him as a party to Sujā's action against the Chief of Arācān. Alāol was thrown into prison, where he spent a few years, subjected to all sorts of cruel treatment. He was, however, released and spent 9 years of his life in close retirement. Syed Musā, a rich nobleman of Arācān, took some interest in the poet during these evil days and at his request he completed his translation of Saifulmulluk and His poetry halts, Badiujjamāl. Alāol had grown old by this time and had lost his wonted spirit—the spring of all his noble poetry. In the last part of this translation we miss his characteristic genial flow and sweetness of expression. Besides the above two works he wrote sequels to the stories of Lora Chandrāni and Sati Mainā—poems written by Doulat Kāzi in Bengali. The latter works were undertaken by our poet at the command of Solamān, another minister of the Arācān Chief. At the request of an influential man of the court named Syed Mahamed Khan, Alāol translated the Persian poem Hastapaikār by Nizāmi Gaznavi. Besides these, Alāol wrote several poems on Rādhā and Kriṣṇa, some of which display exquisite poetic touches. Alāol was born about the year 1618; was thrown into prison in 1658; and being released lived to a good old age, till the close of the 17th century.