INTRODUCTION. 73 ধারি ধীরি করে হাতটি ধরিয়া মোরে উঠাইয়া লণ্ড। চরণ সরোজে, রহিনু লাগিয়া চণ্ডিদাসে যাহা কও ৷ This reading omits some good lines to be found in the one quoted on p. 995, and gives some new and excellent lines instead. One of the most facinating padas, popularly known as Vidyapati's, riz: “sas &afä হাম ão Castfää, äää as forfers co’ &c., is attributed to “Kavi Vallava' in Jyotish Babu’s collection. This pada was not, so far as we know, found in the exhaustive collection of Vidyāpati’s songs, made by Babu Nagendranath Gupta from Durbhanga—the native district of Vidyāpati. Nagendra Babu gave it in his edition of Vidyāpati because its authorship is ascribed to that poet in some of the Bengali anthologies of Vaisnava songs. But we cannot say with confidence whether ‘Kavivallava’ is to be identified with Vidyāpati. We are, on the other hand, in possession of certain facts which make the question a doubtful one. 15. Folk-songs. I have given extracts from some of our folk-songs, an interesting specimen of which is the tale of Sakhi Sená or Sashi Sená, as sometimes she is called,—described by the poet Phakirrāma Kavi Bhūsana about three hundred years ago. The existence of this song was only recently known, but at one time like the touching story of Madhumālā the tale had caught the fancy of the rustic folk and many versions of it were extant in our old literature. It is a noteworthy fact that this tale was based upon some historical facts to which popular imagination gave a poetic shape. About two miles to the north of Dantan, which some of our historians have identified with the ancient Dantapur of Orissa, lies the village of Moghulmari where in olden times a king named Vikramajit reigned. Sakhi Sená was his only child. A portion of this romantic story has been quoted on pp. 1352–1865 of which I subjoin below an English translation. I had only two old manuscripts of this poem, one copied about the middle of the 17th and the other in the 18th century. But both these MSS. are generally illegible towards the latter part. Hence I could not give greater extracts from the poem. I have, however, followed the narrative to the end. Sakhi Sená and her lover Kumāra, after where the narrative breaks in the followThe sequel of the ing extracts, were overtaken by seven robbers. Kumara story. (Kotorcăl’s son) killed six of them but as the seventh implored pardon in a piteous manner, our hero granted him life. The robber only sought an opportunity of wreaking vengeance on Kumara 10
