536 Analysis of the Bengali Poem Raj Mala, [No. 7- 



Brahmans, is the cause why we have so few works in Bengali of an 

 ancient date ; Kirtibas's translation of the Ramayana, made two cen- 

 turies ago, and the works relating to Chaitanya, are almost the only 

 " fragments from the wreck of time" handed down to us. 



That Noble Institution Fort William College, — though now shorn 

 of its splendour, through the mercenary utilitarian policy of men who 

 in the pride of "Western assumption have frowned on such efforts to cul- 

 tivate the classic tongues of the East, — -fostered a few works treating of 

 the history of this country : Rama Lochan published his beautiful little 

 work, a model for Bengali style, the history of Raja Krishna Chandra 

 Ray a of Nadiya, which presents various interesting sketches of Bengal 

 at the period of the battle of Plassey. The history of Raja Pratapaditya 

 of Jessore, compiled by another pandit of the same College, also gives 

 us details respecting the Eastern part of Bengal two centuries ago, and 

 of the large settlement and colony formed by Raja Pratapaditya in a 

 Sunderbund district to the South of Kalna. The Assam Buranji is 

 also of some use for historic purposes. 



These are composed in Bengali, but there is one work translated into 

 English from the Persian which gives us more information respecting 

 the state of Bengal in the last century than any book that has been 

 published yet, the Seir Mutdkharin, which admits us behind the scenes 

 in the Murshidabad Durbar, and paints to the life the manners and 

 customs of the Bengal Moslems of that period ; it was written by 

 an eye witness, who, like the compilers of the Raj Tarangini or Chro- 

 nicles of Kashmir, has not shunned to point out the vices of men 

 in high station. 



The Raj Mala is a curiosity as presenting us with the oldest specimen 

 of Bengali composition extant, the first part of it having been com- 

 piled in the beginning of the 15th century, the subsequent portions 

 were composed at a more recent date. We may consider this then as 

 the most ancient work in Bengali that has come down to us, as the 

 Chaitanya Charitdmrita was not written before 1557, and Kirtibas 

 subsequently translated the Ramayana. 



The first part of this Raj Mala treats of the Traditional Period 

 of the Tripura Kings, which is mixed up with various mytho- 

 logical accounts ; it informs us that the ancient name of Tripura was 

 Kirat (the Hunter) from a person of that name of the Lunar or Indo- 



