IV. ]> BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. 177 loving disposition, and very popular.” The court, referred to in the autobiographical account, was in all probability that of Karnsa Narayana of Tahirpur. po দা Jagadananda, the minister referred to by the poet, was a nephew of the Raja. Mukunda, the chief Pandit of the court, was probably Mukunda Bhaduri whose son Crikrisha was the prime minis- ter, and whose grandson Jagadananda was a minis-
ter of the court. They were all Varendra Brahmins. The title Khan affixed to the name of a courtier named Kedar shews the court of this King to have been already subjected to. Mahammadan influence. In a ‘manuscript-copy of the Aranyakanda of the Ramayana, we find Krittivasa lamenting over his failing health and his sufferings. | The Ramayana by Krittivasa, as we find it in The inter- Soot ap og polations print, is not at all the book that Krittivasa &changes wrote. In Bengal, where the vernacular was adopt- a ed as a means of popular teaching, all good works used to be recast by those who copied them at subsequent periods. The words which grew obsolete, and forms of expressions that became unfashionable, in course of time, were changed by copyists. There were also interpolations and omissions on a large scale, by reason of which after afew centuries the whole work would present a form in many points different from the original. But the general tone was as a rule preserved, and those who made changes, or otherwise added to the poem, adapted themselves more or less to its style. Krittivasa and Chaucer were nearly contemporary. But what a difference between them! The Rama- yana of Krittivasa, passing through constant changes to suit the tastes of the moderns, is even now 23
