IV.] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 37 Vasu is 300 years old, so this poet also probably lived at the time when Khela4ram and Sitaram were writing their poems. Manik Ganguli’s poem has lately been pulished = Manik by the Vangiya Sahitya Parisat of Calcutta. He পালা 59605 6০ 18৮০ 06610 616 11756 90090556 1691১60০69016 Brahmins who undertook to write a poem in honour of Dharma-Thakur. As the subject was Buddhistic, he was naturally averse to taking it up, and in the preliminary account of himself, he speaks of the undertaking with evident diffidence and misgivings. Manik Ganguli finished his work in 1547. His poem is a long one, being twice the size of ‘ Paradise Lost.’ We come next to the Dharma Mangal by Dwija Other Ramachandra and Cyama Das. But by far the ee most popular writer of Dharmamangal was Chakra- ao varti Ghanaram who wrote in 1713 A.D. by order i of Krisna Chandra, Raja of Krisnapur. The poet’s father’s name was Gauri Kantha and his mother’s Sita. The poem was published by Vanga- vashi Press of Calcutta, some years ago. The poems known as Dharmamangal are as a tule full. of historical accounts which though dis- torted, throw light on some of the darker pages of our history before Muhammedan rule began. They have this interest, though we fail to see in most of them any great literary merit. Ghanaram was not, however, altogether without talents; occasionally only we come across vivid description of warfare, of the Darbar of Hindu kings, and of the wily strata- gems of Mahudiya which while suggesting inci- dents of the past history-are, at the same time, full
