Final
Part
Manjhan’s
‘Madhumalati’ (15th century) influenced the Bengali
poets : (1) Muhammad Kabir (1588), (2) Syed Hamja (18th
century), (3) Shaker (18th century), (4) Gopinath Das (19th
century) and (5) Chuhar (19th century). The Bengali versions of ‘Madhumalati’ are
free adaptations with more emphasis on the narration of fables.
In doing so, the Bengali poets did not put emphasis on
Maniar’s symbolic luster. Of them Syed Hamza
was a distinguished poet. Muhammad Kabir in his Madhumalati
categorically said that he has translated the verse from
Persian, 'Achehila
Farsi chhanda sachila panchlali'
Scholars could not ascertain as to whose masnavi
particularly unspered Kabir to render ‘Madhumalati’ into
Bengali; Different versions of Madhumalati composed by Sakh Noor
Mohammad (1949) Meer Arkari (1654), Nasir Ali (1696), Noosrati
(1659) are found in Persian literature.
The story of Kutuban’s ‘Mrigabati’ was also
rendered into Bengali by several poets, such as (i) Dwija
Pashupati (Chandrabali –c. 18th century), (ii) Dwija
Rama (Mrigabati Charita – c. 19th century), (iii)
Muhammad Khater (Mrigabati-Jamini Bhanu – 19th century), (iv)
Karimullah (Jamini Bhanu- 19th century) (v)
Ebadullah (Kuranga Bhanu – 19th century)and Khalil (Chandrabali). These
narration’s were not free adaptations, but the stories were
retold. The Bengali poets even changed the names of the
characters of the work.
In medieval Bengali romantic poetry, the Persian and
Hindi-Afadhi influences were processed through various ways; (a)
Translated versions like Padmavati of ‘Alaol’ (b)
Composite versions like Sagir’s Yusuf Zulekha and
Dowlat Quazi’s Sati-Maina Loza Chandrani, (c) Free
adaptation like Lailee-Majnu, Madhumalati, Yusuf
Zulekha, (d) Stories retold like Chandravali of Dwija
Pahupati.
Common
elements emanating from Persian and Hindi-Abadhi sources could
also be traced in many works composed by the medieval Bengali
poets. Some of the mentionable features in these works were (a) the love between a man and a fairy,
(b) Transformation of
a human being into a bird, (c) Encountering a demon to free the
captured heroine from the captor and in the process killing the
Demon.
The general characteristics in these Bengali romantic
narratives were primarily the tone of love and passion. This
human interest had a great appeal to the poets of that age which
added a new dimension to the Medieval Bengali literature.
It has been observed that the stories with happy-ending
were most popular among the readers. On the contrary, tragedies
like Laila-Majnu, the stories like Padmavati on ending with the self
immolation of the life on the burring Chita along
with the deceased husband were not very popular and so the poets
did not feel encouraged to write their poems on that line.
People of medieval Bengal had a keen liking for fables.
That is why most of the romantic
poems within the medieval period had a flavor of fable. On the
other had these stories also exerted indirect influence on the
traditional Bengali folk-tales. Madhumala, a popular
Bengali folk-tale was the folk-version of Manohar-Madhumalati.
So far we have only discussed the thematic aspect of the
Persian and Hindi-Afadhi influence on Bengali literature.
In conclusion, I would like to stress on this point that
there is a vast untrodden field of comparative study for
scholars who would like to traverse on that line to determine
the extent of affinity lying in different spheres of medieval
literature of Bengali and Hindi.
