INTRODUCTION. 19 7. Bhāgavata by Achyuta Dās ... ... 17th century. .8. „ . „ Rājarāma Datta — 22 zz 9. zz „ Gangādhara Dās - - - 22. 32 10. 3.2 „ Parasurāma ... - - - 2x ox 11. *x „ Sankara Dās ... ... 18th century. 12. 22 „ Jīvana Chakravartī — 22 2x 13. >>,, Bhabānanda Sen — 2x 22. 14. 2x „, Uddhabánanda — xx 23. 15. 2x „ Rādhāmādhava Ghosh ... 22 >> 16. 23. „ Ishwar Sarkār ... Earlier part of the 19th century. 17. joy „ Rādhākrişņa Dās - - - 22 22 Mukudarāma's Chandi Kāvya (translated by the late Prof. E. B. Cowell into English verse) is the only work with which Battala has made our people familiar. Twelve authors of Chandi are mentioned in my History of Bengali Language and Literature. I have given here extracts from the following poems:– Chandī Kāvyas. 1. Chandī by Mānik Datta - - - ... 13th century. 2.,,,, Harirāma - - - ... 16th century. 3. „ „ Māhhavāchārya ... 1579 A.D. 4. „ „ Kavikankaņa Mukundarāma ... 1589 A.D. 5.,,,, Kamalalochana ... ... 1609–1630 A.D. 6. „ „ Јayanārayana — ... About 1752 A.D. Regarding a large variety of other subjects treated in old Bengali works I refer my readers to the Table of Contents. I have given extracts from the works of about three hundred authors. It should be stated here that the age ascribed to the early poets of each of these groups does not generally indicate when a particular section of our literature was first composed. The earliest authors in most cases have not yet been recovered. But a vigorous search for old MSS. may ere long unearth at least some of them. 6. The earliest Bengali poems had a circulation all over India. The historical and other questions involved in them. It is, however, almost certain that some of the earliest Bengali ballads and songs used to be sung throughout a large part of the Åryāvarta and even in the Maharatta country in the 10th and 11th centuries. The song of Behulā, the bride of Laksmindra, is still sung in Bhagalpur and the
