Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/376

352 BENGALI LITERATURE composed music: but on this point, it is not possible to make any definite statement. Even Isvar Gupta ! says, উক্ত উভয় সহোদরের মধ্যে কোন ব্যক্তি গীত ও সুর রচনায় নিপুণ ছিলেন তদ্দিবয়ে আমরা কিছুই জানিতে পারি নাই। Rasu and Nrsimha, though not of obseure origin like the greater number of their fellow-poets, yet afford no exception to the general rule in the obscurity that surrounds their lives. Rasu was born in 1734 (1141 B.S.) and Nrsimha in 1738 (1144 B.S.) at Gondalpada near French Chandannagar of a good Kayasthafamily.? Their father, Anandinath Ray was a clerk in the military department of the French Government and earned a good deal besides his nominal salary. The two boys were sent to the local village-school and then to their maternal uncle’s house at Chinsurah where the missionaries had established a Bengali School (before May’s school founded in 1814), They did not do much at school and so ultimately were sent back to their father after a year. Anandinath died soon after this, and thus left to themselves, the boys had freedom enough to live as they liked. They attached themselves to the party of Raghunath the Kabiwala who was the master of Harv Thakur; but, having gained some knowledge of the art they formed a party of their own which soon became popular. They were greatly patronised by Indranarayan Chaudhuri, Dewan of the French Government; and Chandannagar soon became a centre of Kabi-song through their influence. Rasu died at the good old age of seventy- two or seventy-three in 1807; Nrsitmha survived him for a few years more. | Sambad Prabhakar, Magh 1261, quoted in Janma-bhtimi,1302, p. 227. 2 These biographical details are taken from Sambad Prabhakar, loc. cit.; Nabyabharat, 1311, p.645 et seq.; Kabioyaladiger Git, pp. 97-98 ; Janma-bhumi loc. cit. etc.