534 Analysis of the Bengali Poem Raj Mtild, [No. 7. 



Raghu Vansa, &c. "The Shah Nama, like Homer, when stript of the 

 machinery of supernatural beings, contains much of true history, and a 

 most undoubted picture of the superstition and manners of the times." 

 In all the great historians of antiquity we have facts mixed up with 

 fable, yet we do not reject Roman History notwithstanding the fictions 

 connected with its early history, nor European history on account of the 

 tales told of Charlemagne under the name of Turpin, — why should we 

 not make the same concession with respect to the events connected 

 with Rama Chandra, the Peter the Great of his day ? Rama's invasion of 

 the South is as firmly established a point as the Norman conquest, and 

 his invasion of Ceylon is as authentic a fact as the siege of Troy. In 

 truth the career of Rama was one of far greater interest and import- 

 ance to masses of mankind, than the foray of petty Grecian kings, 

 though dressed up by the magic pen of Homer. 



The professedly historical documents of the Hindus are few and 

 meagre. It is chiefly by the clues given in such works as the Ramayana 

 and Mahabharata, where fact is blended with fable, as in the novels and 

 poems of Sir W. Scott, that we can grope our way. Yet important 

 data may be elicited even from such writings as these by careful 

 investigation, as was effected by Todd in his Rajasthan, who obtained 

 such useful materials from the poems of Chand and other bards of Raj- 

 putana. Lassen in his valuable work, the Indische Alterthumskunde, has 

 poured a flood of light on the ancient history and geography of India, 

 derived from the references in the Mahabharata ; he has by a skilful 

 analysis extracted, from a large mass of beautiful and interesting poetry, 

 references which will be of great use to the historians of India, and has 

 thus shown that Sanskrita poetry is not that aggregate of absurd and 

 monstrous fiction that some would consider it to be ; for instance the 

 Ramayana has for its basis the expedition of Rama to the South, who 

 was the pioneer of civilization to the barbarous aborigines of theDekhan. 

 Like Peter the Great of Russia, he was obliged to use rough means with 

 a rude people, in order to raise them to a higher status in society ; Rama 

 played as important and useful a part on the world's theatre as either 

 iEneas or Agamemnon, the familiar heroes of College reading. 



The Raj Mida or annals of Tripura were compiled by Brahmans or 

 the pradhdn mantris of the Court of Tripura. Though many of the 

 Rajas despised writing as being what they considered a mere mecha- 



