গ0 অসমীয়া ব্যাক আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব How Sapu composed his lyric, Prahlad Caritra, taking the plot from the Vamana Purana. He introduces himself and his subject in his book in the following verse:- Kamata Mandala Durlabh Narayana | Nrpabara anupam. Tahan rajyata Rudra Sarasvati | Devayani Kanya nam. Tahan tanaya | Hema Sarasvati | Dhrubara aruja bhai. Pada bandhe tehoi Pragara karia | Vamana Purana jai. The poet here inculcates the doctrine of Bhakti (faith) setting forth, by way of example, the triumph of Prahlad through the ordeals of torture inflicted on him by his father, Hiranya Kasipu, for worshipping Narayana.. This is the first Assamese book on Vaisnavism.. Harih Vipro the contemporary of Hem Sarasvati, translated Asvamedha Parva of the Mahabharata in the kingdom of Kamatpur during the reign of Durlabh Narayana, This poet appears to be a follower of Gauri (or Sakti). | The next poet was kaviratna Saraswati, a kayastha of Chota-Silk in the kingdom of Kamatapur then ruled by King Indra Narayana, son of Durlabh Narayana. This Chota sila is probably the sila village in the Barpet Sub-division. He translated the chapters on Jayadratha Badh in the Dona Parva of the Mahabharata. His time was probably the later part of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century A.D. | The fourth poet of this age is Madhava Kandali who tran- slated the whole of the Ramayana under orders of king Maha-Manikya of Tripura. He flourished in the middle of the fourteenth century as stated above. Only the 2nd to 6th kandas of his Ramayana are now extent. He was a poet of exceptional force and brevity and he wrote in an easy and simple but sublime style never deviating an inch from the original. For this Sri Sankar Deva paid a high tribute to him. He composed another work entitled Devajit wherein he attempted to prove the superio- rity of Visnu over other gods. He was a Vaisnava poet. The archaic forms in his works. at once prove him to be a poet of this age | The name of Dut the Master Teacher, may be mentioned next in point of time. The tradition is that the aphorisms of Dak were handed down orally for generations and only in recent years reduced to writing in what is known as the Dak Bharia. | Srijut D. N, Bezbarua in his Assamese Language and History of Assamese Literature has taken Dak as the first known Assamese poet 1See Introduction to my Prahlad Caritra for full description. ? See History of Assamese Literature by Srijut D. N. Bezbarua,
