History of Bengali Language and Literature c5.36

c5.36

The Pāthāns occupied Bengal early in the thirteenth century. They came from a far distance—from Bulkh, Oxus or Transoxina, but they settled in the plains of Bengal and had no mind to return to their mountainous home. The Pāthān Emperors learned Bengali and lived in close touch with the teeming Hindu population whom they were called upon to rule. The minarets and cupolas of their Mosques rose to the sky, adjoining the spires and tridents of the Hindu temples. The sounds of the conch-shells and bells emanating from the latter, were heard while the new-comers assembled in the Mosques to say their evening prayers. The pompous processions and the religious rites of the Hindus—their Durgāpujā, Rāsa and Dolotsava—displayed a religious enthusiasm which equalled their own, while celebrating the Maharam, Id, Sabebarāt and other festivals. The Emperors heard of the far-reaching fame of the Sanskrit epics, the Rāmāyaṇa and the Mahābhārata, and observed the wonderful influence which they exercised in moulding the religious and domestic life of the Hindus, and they naturally felt a desire to be acquainted with the contents of those poems. The Pāthān Emperors and Chiefs could not have the great patience of the Hindu Kings who were inspired by a religious zeal to hear the Brahmin scholars recite Sanskrit texts and their learned annotations, step by step, requiring the listeners many long years to complete a course of lectures on the Rāmāyaṇa or the Mahābhārata. They appointed scholars to translate the works into Bengali which they now spoke and understood. The first Bengali translation of the Mahābhārata of which we hear, was undertaken at the order of Nasirā Sāh, the Emperor of Gauḍa who ruled for 40 years till 1325 A.D. This translation has not yet been recovered, but we find mention of it, in another translation of the epic made by Kavindra Parameçwara, at the command of Parāgal Khān, the governor of Chittagong. Nasira Shāh was a great patron of the Vernacular of this country. The poet Vidyāpati dedicates one of his songs to this monarch* and in another, speaks with high respect of Sultan Guisuddin.†