282 BENGALI LITERATURE This lengthy extract is quoted not only to show the pre- ponderance of Persian words and forms but it will also be noticed from the descriptions contained here that Bengal, then divided into Taluks, was governed by officers like Vv.ir, Kotal, Sarkar, Dihidir, Jamadar, ete. ; that Hindu cities or villages have already taken Moham- medan names; that people are Mohammedan Bengal. : এ getting /shelats as a sien of royal favour; that men like Srimanta or Gambhira had been adorned with Mohammedan titles of distinction ; and that, on the whole, Mohammedan ideas and customs had penetrated into the very fabrie of native society. It is not surprising therefore that in the age of Raja 3175 Kranachapara, Bharat-chandra Ray, himself a man of sound culture possessing considerable knowledge of Sanscrit, could not escape the fascination of a mixed language and the influence of Persian ideas.t We find him saying, therefore, while describing a conversation between Emperor Jahangir and Raja Manasi:isha— মানসিংহ পাতসাঁর হইল যে বাণী উচিত সে পারশী আরবী হিন্দৃস্থানী ॥ পড়িয়াছি যেই মত বর্ণিবারে পারি কিন্ত সে সকল লোক বুঝিবারে ভারি ॥ না রবে প্রসাদগুণ না হবে রসাল অতএব কহি ভাষা যবনী মিশাল ॥ It is not unusual therefore that writing in 1778, Halhed in the Preface to his Grammar says : “At present those persons are thought to speak this compound idiom (Bengali) with the greatest elegance Halhed’s remarks. ‘ : : who mix with’ pure Indian verbs
1 Tt igs well-known, for instance, that much of the famous discrip- tion of his heroine’s beauty is derived from Persian sources,
