CHAPTER III সপ EARLIEST EUROPEAN WRITERS. It is not before the firm establishment of the British rule in Bengal, in the beginning of the 19th century, that the early European settlers came in touch with Bengali language and literature. Before this, there is no trace of systematic effort in this direction, although several works have been discovered which belong to a period earlier than 1800. Of these works, it is not easy, however, to determine with certainty what Anglo-Bengali writing can claim the distinction of being the first publication by a European writer. Grierson in two papers in the Journad and Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Early publications by = Beneal,! holds that the so-called European writers. Bengali rendering of the Lord’s Prayer in Chamberlayne’s Sy//oge, published in 1715, is perhaps the earliest extant attempt at Bengali composition by a European writer. This Sy//oge is a collection of translations of the Lord’s Prayer into various languages, prepared by John Chamberlayne and David Wilkins. This work actually contains a plate purporting to represent Early isolated attem- an a translation in Bengali which is head- ed “Bengalica.” But it has been shown ০ পাশ ্্্্ার্টা শী ীশীশীরীঁঁ কী ॥ ১1016778010] the Asiatic Society of Bengal, vol. xlii, 1893, p. 42ff. and Proceedings of the same Society, 1895, p. 89. The plate is given in the Proceedings, See also Grierson, Linguistic Survey, vol. v, pt. i, p. 238. The characters are hardly Bengali. 9
