[ m ] KALI PRASANNA SINHA The name of Kali Prasanna Sinha stands very high among the makers of the Bengali literature. His family was very rich and well- known in Calcutta. From his early years Kali Prasanna was a de- voted student and his knowledge of English and Sanskrit was far above the ordinary. But not to remain a student only but also to be a worker in the field of letters was his aim from early life. His satirical production, Huttum Penchar Naksha is well-known, but " it is as the Bengali translator of the Mahabharata that he stands so high. That immortal epic was so long known to Bengal only through the poetical adaptation of Kasiram Dass, but a faithful literal transla- tion was a desideratum. The task was exceedingly difficult when we take into consideration the immense length of the -poem and the diffi- culty of keeping the spirit of the original intact in the translation. Kali Prasanna employed a large number of Sanskrit scholars in the task of elucidating the text and he went on putting the whole thing into chaste, vigorous and well-expressed Bengali. His transla- tion is as faithful in spirit to the original as possible. It remains to-day as a monumental work and will go down to posterity as such. Kali Prasanna was rather extravagant in his expenses, but it must be said to his credit that he did not spend his money in an unbe- coming way. This failing of his leaned to virtue's side and his purse-strings were always loose to help the needy, and to feed and clothe the poor. But his recklessness in this respect stranded him at last in straitened circumstances. He was over head and ears in debt and he might easily have saved himself as is usually done, by privately transferring his property to another person and himself taking the protection of the insolvency court But Kali Prasanna was not the man to cheat any body. He determined to pay off his
