626 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE [ Chap. couplets like a Pandit, to serve as texts for the theological matter introduced in his book. The Moslem poet is profuse in his eulogies of Civa the Hindu God, and all through the work writes in the spirit and strain of a devout Hindu. Curiously enough his work has been preserved in Chittagong by Mahomedan readers. The manuscripts of Padma- vati hitherto obtained, all belong to the border-lands of Aracan in the back-woods of Chittagong, copied in Persian characters and preserved by the rural Mahomedan folk of those localities. No Hindu has ever yet cared to read them. This goes to prove how far the taste of the Mahomedans was imbued with Hindu culture. This book, that we His work read should have thought, could be interesting only to admired and pre- served by টিক | অক, র ক্র tions on theology and Sanskrit rhetoric, has been ans. strangely preserved, ever since Aurungjeb’s time, Hindu readers, on account of its lengthy disquisi- by Moslems, for whom it could apparently have no attraction, nay to whom it might even seem posi-
tively repellent. From the time of Magana Thakura the Mahomedan minister, till the time of Shaik Hamidulla of Chittagong who published it in 1893— covering a period of nearly 250 years, this book was copied, read, and admired by the Mahomedans of Chittagong exclusively. What surprises us most is the interest taken by the rustic folk in its high- flown Sanskritic Bengali. The Province of Chitta- gong must have been once a nucleus of Sanskrit- learning to have disseminated so deep a liking for the classic tongue of the Hindus among the lowest The Sans- : kritic strata of society, and specially amongst Mahomed- culture of a ans W might have been expecte have the 01110198016 1১ who mig ive been expected to have t people. least aptitude for this.
