OTHER LITERATURE OF THE SAME PERIOD

The search for ancient Bengali manuscripts started in 1878 when Sir Grierson published the Ballad of King Manikchandra in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in Dev-Nagari characters with notes and an English translation by Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen. Dr. Sen also acquired an ancient manuscript of the poem Mrgalubdha by the poet Rati Deva of Chakrasala in Chittagong, Bangladesh. On this occasion, Dr. D.C. Sen wrote : 'By the year 1847 I was in possession of quite an unexpected treasure of old manuscripts collected from various parts of Bengal, mostly from East-Bengal. The existence of these was absolutely unknown to the educated people of the present generation.¹ In the Calcutta collection of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, some of the ancient manuscript go as far back as the ninth century A.D. They are written on various materials - paper, palm-left, birch-bark and the bark of other trees. Some of the paper manuscripts may go back centuries to the time of the introduction of papers into India by the Muslims. Besides these unique manuscript which open new areas of research into the history and religion of ancient India, complete literary works on Vajrayana, Mantrayana and Kalacakraya, are also to be found. Another interesting finding is that of Laghukalacakra with tika by Vimala Praha. This is a manuscript in palm-leaf (221/2'x21/2' Folia 222) in Bengali with 12,000 slokas. The verses attribute the original tantra to Monzuvajra Bodhisattva who received it from Paranadi Buddha. The manuscript was copied on the twenty-ninth of Asadha in the thirty-ninth year of Harivarmadeva. King of Bengal, who is believed to have reigned during the last half of the tenth century A.D. In a later hand it seems to indicate that the manuscript was recited on the banks of the river Veng in Jessore, Bangladesh.

Other remains of proto or old Bengali poems include a few couplets in Prakrita-Paingal composed during 900-1400 A.D., written in Apabhramsa. Two poems by jayadeva, a great Bengali poet of the twelfth century, are preserved in the Sikh holy book Adi Granth (Sunitikumar Chatterji, p. 125) Which is a sixteenth century collection of devotional hymns composed by Sikh Gurus and saints. Jayadave was well-known in North India as a Bengali Vaisnav poet. The Gita Govinda of Jayadeva was written in Aoabhramsa but the use of the 'matra-vrtta' metre and verbal poems similar to Jayadeva's by hymns are found in Prakrita-Paingala. Since the Pundits abhorred anything composed in the vulgar tongue or vernacular, Jayadeva, who was a Vaisnava of the Shahajia sect, may have written in the vernacular but the Pundits, charmed by the poems, later Sanskritised them. The style of Gita-govinda had great influence on Bengali lyrics.

Another literary work though composed in Sanskrit in 1205 during the reign of Lakshmanasena, who was contemporary of Jayadeva, is a remarkable collection of verse called Saduktikarnamrita. The anthology was compiled by a Bengali, Sridharadasa. Most of the poets were Bengali and the verses retain a distinct Bengali flavor.

It is sometimes difficult to locate Bengali manuscripts because in addition to the Bengali alphabets, Oryia, Maithili, Devnagari, Newari, Sylheti, and nagari alphabets were also used. Later on Arabic and Persian were also acceptable as a medium of expression in Bengal. Weather conditions are also very unkind to old manuscripts.

The Bengali manuscripts known as the Pundits were generally on 'tulat' or stained paper. The majority of the existing Puthis belong to the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The cayyas composed between the seventh and twelfth centuries and the Sri-Krishna-kirtan of the fifteenth century are the oldest.

Although a systematic and continuos search has never been conducted, it is believed that Bengali manuscript may be found in different libraries, temples and private collections in many countries including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Bhutan and China.

In Bangladesh the following places have valuable manuscripts but some of them are lying in total neglect are in danger of being destroyed by fire, dust and time :

1. Ramamala Library, Comilla.
2. Kaiballadham Ashram, Pahartali, Chittagong.
3. Vatendra Research Society, University of Rajshahi, Rajshahi.
4. Dhaka University Library, Manuscript and Rare Books Section, Dhaka.
5. National Museum, Dhaka.
6. Bangla Academy, Dhaka.

The following places contain the most important manuscript collections in this region :

In Calcutta, India :

1. Asiatic Society of Bengal.
2. Vangiya Sahitya Parishat.

In Nepal :

1. Royal Archives for manuscripts, Kathmundu.
2. Asha Archive - private collection, Mostly in Newari, Kathmundu.
3. Library of Newari, Newari University, Kathmundu.

In Bhutan :

1. National Library, Thimhu. It contains 6100 Tibetan, Bhutanese and other books both manuscripts and xylographs, and a collection of 9000 printing boards.