48
BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE.
[Chap.
a Dharmamangal, who lived early in the fifteenth Century, refers to Mayur Bhatta's songs, as already having grown obsolete and partially lost by lapse of years, in his time. Mayura Bhatta who was admittedly the pioneer in the field and deservedly very popular, preceded Sitā Rām by at least 3 or 4 centuries. We learn from an account given in Mānik Gāṅgulī's poem that Mayura Bhatta belonged to a respectable Brāhman family of Bengal.
These poems were originally Buddhistic in spirit but they passed through great changes in the hands of the Hindu priests. Most of the Dharmamangal-poems give a description of the heroic achievements of Lāu Sen, the King of Maina who flourished in the 11th century. I briefly summarise the tale below:—
The story of Dharmamangal.In the reign of Gauḍeçvara, son of Dharmapal II, King of Gauḍa, there lived one Soma Ghoṣa, who was originally a menial servant in his palace. He ingratiated himself into the confidence of the Emperor and secured for himself a landed property at Dhākur on the river Ajay. The son of Soma Ghoṣa was Ichāi Ghoṣa who was a great warrior and a devout worshipper of the Goddess Kālī. He gradually asserted his independence and inspite of all remonstrance offered by his father, declared war against the Emperor of Gauḍa. The Emperor sent several expeditions to put down the revolt but all failed. Karṅa Sen, King of Maināgaḍa, a feudatory chief, was summoned to help the Emperor in this crisis. Karṅa Sen, accompanied by his four sons, went to the battle field, but was vanquished in war and all his sons were killed.
