Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/818

Supplementary Notes, TO CHAPTER VI. I. Miscellaneous Poems, il. Mainly on style, literary tastes, and language. III. Early prose-literature. We must remember that during that period when the Bengali language was being most rapidly developed and its literature was growing, the Hin- dus had already lost their political supremacy. By far the larger section of the Hindus lived in villages, and for them henceforth history lay almost entirely in the story of their social changes. Descriptions of society and its revolutions are found in many works of the Vaisnavas. We have also, however, a small number of works on political history. Some of those written in poetry are noticed below. We reserve our treatment of the historical works written in prose for our account of Bengali prose, upon which we have not yet touched. 1, Miscellaneous Poems. (a) Historical poems. 1. Rajamala, a history of the Rajas of Hill Tippera. This work was undertaken at the com- mand of Maharaja Cri Dharma Manikya (1407— 1439 A.D.) by two Brahmin scholars of his court— Cukre¢vara and Vanecvara who were inhabitants of Assam. Durlabha Chandai a hoary headed old man, a courtier and the leader of the Chandai community at the time, had much information about the early history of Tippera ; and Cukrecvara and Vanegcvara