1865.] On the Sena Rdjds of Bengal. 131 
his son Ballila. ‘‘ This prince,” to quote the words of an able writer 
in the Calcutta Review, “was held in such high estimation all over 
Bengal, that the most extravagant fancies have been indulged and the 
wildest tales invented in order to connect his memory with the mar- 
vellous and the sublime.” The same writer continues; ‘ Poets have 
invested him with the dignity of a divine original and described 
his infantile precocity in the most glowing colours. He has been 
represented as the son of the fluvial god Brahmaputra, who had 
deceived his mother by assuming the form of her own hus- 
band. His nativity is said to have taken place in the solitude of a 
thick forest, where his mother had been banished, a few months before 
her parturition through the jealousy and treachery of his father’s two 


























other wives. In these sylvan shades and under the especial protection 
of heaven he passed his infantile days, undisturbed by the noise and 
distractions of towns and cities, and uncontaminated by the pleasures 
and irregularities of riotous society. His divine parent, ‘‘ the uxorious 
Amnis,” as Horace would perhaps call him, instructed him in the 
different branches of a Hindu’s education, and in the tactics of war 
and diplomatic policy. While yet a boy he is said to have exhibited 
extraordinary proofs of heroism and strength. He had discomfited 
unassisted and alone a whole host of disciplined troops commanded by 
princes and veteran captains, and armed with all the weapons of native 
warfare.” The whole of this statement, however, is founded upon vague 
traditions or modern records of doubtful authority. We may dismiss 
it, therefore, without a remark. The Bakerganj inscription of Ballala’s 
grandson does not allude to the facts noted in it with sufficient circum- 
stantiality to give them any prominence. From what it says, we may take 
for granted, however, that he was a great patron of learning and himself 
an author of some pretension.—Vedartha smriti safigrahddi purusha, 
‘The treatise on gifts alluded to above shews that his reading was 
extensive and his knowledge of the s’dstras respectable.* He is, 
_* The prominent mention made in the work of the author's tutor, Anirudha, 
mld waken a suspicion that, like many other crowned heads in India and Europe, 
allila had assumed to himself a credit which rightly belonged to another. How- 
had that be, the authenticity of the work is undoubted. It has been quoted by the 
author of the Samaya Prakasa who lived several hundred years ago, and Raehu- 
_ nandana who flourished at the end of the 15th century, alludes to it in two places 
in his Suddhitattva: Wa ST ATRAL VTA SAI gailatita SAA aAT: 
Serampore edition, p, 194, Again : BAHT wryitz faaaia,sraraifeaa- 
17 
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