546 Analysis of the Bengali Poem Raj Mdld, [No. 7. 



One thousand Pathan horsemen revolted from the Raja, owing to the 

 arrears of wages not being paid up ; they were on their march to Chitta- 

 gong, and attempted to kill the Raja and take Rangamati, but were 

 secured and the greater part were offered up as sacrifices to the fourteen 

 gods. The king of Gaur sent 3,000 horse and 10,000 foot to Chitta- 

 gong, the war lasted eight months. In one engagement the Tripura troops 

 lost their general, Mohammed Khan the general of the king of Gaur was 

 however taken prisoner confined in an iron cage and at the instigation 

 of the head Brahman priest, was sacrificed to the fourteen gods. 



At this time Bijaya Raja of Tripura marched to Bengal with an army 

 composed of 26,000 infantry, and 5,000 horse besides artillery ; he went 

 by 5,000 boats along the streams Brahmaputra and Lakhi to the Padma ; 

 at Sonargan, where he spent several days revelling in licentiousness, 

 he took into his seraglio many beautiful young women ; he crossed the 

 Brahmaputra by a bridge of boats and invaded Sylhet, where he dug 

 several tanks, but his soldiers were very fond of plundering the people 

 and one day they destroyed a village, the natives all fled, with the 

 exception of a woman who caught one of the plunderers by the leg, 

 he tied her by her hair to a post so that she could not move, on 

 her husband returning in his indignation he beat the trooper so se- 

 verely that he died ; the Raja ordered all the natives of that village 

 to be punished ; after making presents to the Brahmans he returned 

 to his capital Rangamati where he devoted one day to distributing gifts 

 called Kalpa-taru,* i. e. whatever request any one makes to the Raja 

 he is to obtain it, but this is limited to one day and only a select 

 number are admitted into the palace to make application. The astro- 

 loger having declared that his youngest son Ananta would succeed 

 to the throne, the Raja sent his eldest son on a pilgrimage to Orissa. 

 Ananta married the daughter of Gupi Prasad, the commander-in-chief ;f 



* The Kalpa-taru or Kalpa-briJcshya was one of the fabled trees of India's 

 heaven, eating the fruit of which would effect the accomplishment of any wish, like 

 the Kdmadhenu or cow of plenty mentioned in the Raghu Vansa. The English 

 fairy tales give us a similar object in Fortunatus' wishing cap, while the Arabian 

 Nights abound with references to this. Probably some floating traditions respect- 

 ing the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden may have given rise to this 

 notion of the Kalpa-brikshya. 



f This man's life shews how men of low origin often rise to power. In these 

 times Gupi was originally the Raja's Gomastha, at Dharmanagar, while there he 



