Y1 
Preface. 
among Indian poets, and his work thus occupies a place which is 
entirely its own. 
“ Quidquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, 
Gaudia, discursus, nostri est farrago libelli ” ; 
and hence the poem forms in itself a storehouse of materials for the 
social history of the people as apart from their rulers. Wherever 
he may place his scenes—in Qiva’s heaven, or India, or Ceylon— 
Mukunda Ram never loses sight of Bengal; he carries with him every¬ 
where the village life of his own early days. All family or village 
customs are dear to him, and his work is therefore a mine of curious 
local and social information ; and his various characters, though 
they may appear as only passing interlocutors in the scene, always 
have a real life and personality of their own. In fact, Bengal 
was to our poet what Scotland was to Sir Walter Scott; he drew 
a direct inspiration from the village life which he so loved to 
remember. 
I subjoin a translation of the passage at the beginning of the 
poem where the poet gives an account of his early career, and how he 
was forced to leave the obscurity of his native place and find a new 
home and a poet’s fame in the court of a neighbouring zemindar. 
u Hear, neighbours, how this song of mine first into conscious utterance 
leapt: 
Candi* came down in mortal form beside my pillow as I slept. 
Good Gopinath, the talukdar, lived honoured in Sellmabad; 
Bor generations seven his race the same estates and home had had. 
Daminya village was their home, far from the world a safe retreat, 
Until Mansinh came to Bengal, that bee of Yishnu’s lotus-feet. 
And in his days Mahmud Sharif over the district stretched his hand; 
A local governor sent by heaven to scourge the vices of the land. 
Under his rule the traders groaned, his hand lay heavy everywhere, 
Brahmans and Yaishnavas alike stood helpless in their blank despair. 
* Candi (pronounced in English Chundi ) is one of the forms of the goddess Uma or 
Durga (the wife of Civa), who is especially worshipped in Bengal. 
