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184
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
When we notice that this poem was written in Sanskrit, it must be considered that up to this time Bangali was held in little esteem; and in fact this was the case; the learned men of the country despised the local dialect, and were averse to using it. Lakshmana Sêna ruled in the twelfth century after Christ, at a time when Eastern India was blessed with peace. His kingdom had no need for preparations for battle, nor was it necessary to excite his subjects by the stirring strains of war-songs in the homely Doric of the people. He who sought for knowledge had leisure to study the abstruse technicalities of Sanskrit; nor was his mind distracted by the necessity of protecting his independence, his religion, or his land.
From the time of Lakshmana the garden of Bangali song commenced to wither, and in the reign of his grandson the two sisters, Prosperity and Poetry disappeared from the land. The same bigoted barbarians who set fire to the library of Alexandria, became masters of India; and with India's freedom, disappeared her Sanskrit civilization, and her collections of Sanskrit works. The thirst after knowledge which had existed in Bengal, the undying glory of Central India, the devotion paid to Sanskrit literature at the
Indian poets which he inserts in his epic [Chand, Prithi Raj Risau, Vol. I. p. 5.
जयदेव अठं कवो कम्बिराय ।
जिने केवल कित्तो गोविन्द गायं ॥ [G. A.G.]
mentions the name of Jayadeva the author of the Gita. Gvinda, and hence we must conclude that Jayadeva was anterior to Chand. Chand was contemporary with Prithvi Raj of Dehli, and was a courtier in attendance on Samarsi Raj of Chittor. Prithvi Raj and Samarat were overthrown in battle in 1193 A.D., and Chand's epic was written in the commencement of the 13th century. We must hence place Jayadeva early in the 12th century.
According to the Atn-i-Akbart, Lakshmans Sêna's father, the founder of the family, Ballala Sena, came to the throne in 1066 A.D., and according to the author of the Samaya-Prakasa this same Ballála Séna had a book written called the Dana-Sagara, in the Saka year 1011A.D. 1089. Ballála Séna lived for three years after this, and was succeeded by his son Lakshmana Sena, who therefore came to the throne in A.D. 1101. According to the Brahmana-Sarvasva, work written by Halayudha, the minister of Laksh mana Sena, this king appears to have reigned certainly more than five years. As stated by Abu'l-Fasl.-G.A.G.] -Halayudha states that Lakshmana Sena made him Court Pandit when he was a boy, that when he became a youth he was made prime minister, and that when he ceased to be a youth he was made Dharmadhikára, or Chief Justice. Such a series of events could only occur in a long series of years, and hence it is most unlikely that Lakshmana Sena could only have lived for five years. The compiler of these facts therefore prefers to doubt Abu'l Farl, and to fix the reign of Lakshmana Sena between the years 1101 and 1121 A.D.
[JULY, 1885.
court of king Bhôja, disappeared like a flash. of lightning.
Nearly all the polished works of the Pandits of the courts of Lakshmana Sêna and king Bhôja have been devoured by the fires lighted by the Musalmâns. Only here and there a famous book, which had spread abroad in many copies, was preserved from their hands, but the garden, which had been planted and tended for many thousand years, was devastated root and branch.
It is probable that not very long after this catastrophe, the Sanskrit-founded vernaculars of Northern India became a general means of communication, and hence we may fix their rise into importance as occurring in the thirteenth century after Christ. Similarly we see everywhere that the destruction of a nation. causes the uprisal of a new national language. The Vandals, Franks, and other barbarian races conquered Rome, and then, and not till then, do we find the Latin language abandoned, and its place taken by Italian and other modern languages. The Muhammadans conquered Persia, and since then the modern Persian has taken the place of Zend: and since the fall of ancient Turkey and Constantinople, we have only the modern Greek or Romaic language. So also in the place of our sacred tongue, Bangali,
Minhaju'ddin, the Musalman historian, states that in the year A.D. 1203 Bakhtiyar Khiljf conquered Bengal, At that time a king of the Sena dynasty, eighty years of age, entitled Lakshmaniya, sat upon the throne of Navadvipa. Who was this Lakshmaniya? It is diffi cult to decide the matter. Dr. Rajendra Lala Mitra maintains that "Lakshmaniya" is a corruption of the word Lakshmaneya [or Lakshmanêya, G. A. G.]-This would represent a king whose real name was Asoka Sêna, or Su Sêna, the son of Kava Séna, the son of Lakshmana Sina. In Dr. Mitra's opinion, Lakshmaniyå is formed by adding the patronymic affix -éya (s) to the word Lakshmana. On this point we are not able to give a decided opinion, but the affix -fya (s) cannot follow Lakshmana according to the rules of Sanskrit grammar. [See Mugdhabodha, 415. द्यतो ऽत्र्याबादेगंर्गादेर्नडादेः पितृष्वत्रादेरेवत्यादेः शेषाशिवादेः ष्णि ष्णेय ष्ण्य ष्णायन णीय ष्णिक ष्णा अपत्ये || The ण of
indicates vriddhi of the first syllable, hence we should expect Lakshmaneys and not Lakshmanya. According to Panini this suffix is called dhak (PA., 4, 1. 120-125. Siddh. Kau., Vol I. p. 506.)-G. A. G.] [This is the invariable tradition also in North-West India.-ED.]
King Bhôja reigned in Ujjayant in the middle part of the twelfth century. He endeavoured to follow in the steps of another famous king of Ujjayant, VikramAditya, and received in his court a multitude of learned men. Everyone knows how the Batrisa-Simhasana describes his efforts.
[Or rather Pahlavi.-G. A. G.]
