xli
Megha Mukdum under the orders of King Naranarayan
of Cooch-Behat. The King was a reputed patron pt
scholars, poets and saints; and his commissioning of the
erudite pandits of the land to translate Sanskrit master
pieges into Assamese for the odification of Sudras and
females and of Brahmans at & later age". has its counter
part in a similar attempt made by his great contempo-
rary Akbar. King Naranarayan summoned all the scholars
of Gauda and Kamarupa and commanded them to compile
new treatises or translate specif classics. Purushottam
Vidyavagis was entrusted with the compilation of a grammar
entitled Batamala-ayakaran; Rama Saraswati was to translate
the entire Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the eighteen
Purana৪; Sankar Deva was asked to translate the twelve
gantos of the Bhagavata; Sridhara gompiled a popular treatise
on astronomy; and Bakul kayastha was to render atava
into Assamese. The description of the above attempt of the King for the cultural regeneration of his countrymen is not an artistic device to bring in all the poets and scholars of Narch- narayan's time together in one canvas, It is a historical
fact and has been corroborated by the independent testimony
of the writers themselves who have all acknowledged their
gratitude to the royal patron in the colophons of their respe
tive works. This measure of Ring Naranarayan places him
on the same line with Alfred, Akbar and Sir Asutosh
Mookerjee. The Daragaj- 8&pali has been an in-
valuable source-book for all studies connected with the early
history of the Koch rulers,
Ratha-Gita.⸺This is a prose rendering of the Gita by
Baikunthanath Kaviratna Bhagavata-Bhattacharyya com-
monly known as Bhattadeva, a contemporary of Sankar Deva
and a learned exponent of the Vaisnava cult. His descen-
dants are still holding charge of two notable monasteries of Kamrup, Patbaus tra and Blahkuchi Satra, Bhattada was also the author of the Assamese prose translation of the
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