Maharaja Harendra Narayan and his Literary works
KochBihar State / Coochbehar State
The reign of Maharaja Harendranarayan was called the golden age of Kamta literature. The state of Koch Bihar was separate from Bengal at that time. From the sixteenth century Kamta literature was practiced in Koch Bihar palace. From the end of the eighteenth century to the first half of the nineteenth century, the Raj Sabha of Maharaja Harendranarayan was essentially a scholars meeting. It is estimated that such a large-scale scholarly meeting has probably never been seen in any other Raj Sabha in history. It is not known whether the original composition, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata, Purana, UpaPuranadi have been translated in such large quantities in any other Raj Sabha Bengal or Assam. In the Raj Sabha of Maharaja Harendranarayan alone, the 25 legend scholars were present, whose centre point was the Maharaja himself. Some of them compared Maharaja Harendranarayan with Joydev and Kalidas. All of them had penned some manuscripts alone and some manuscripts were composed jointly. There is also reason to speculate that several manuscripts were written outside the Raj Sabha. Some of the manuscripts that are scattered outside the Raj Sabha during that period are also seen in different libraries. The best example is the “Gosanimangal” by Radhakrishna Das Bairaragi which was written in 1823 AD. A detailed list of the scholars can be made from the manuscripts/books kept in various libraries of the Raj Sabha of Maharaja Harendranarayan.
Maharaja Harendranarayan:
Geetabali, Rajputra Upakhyan, Upakotha (Part I and II), Mahabharata Shantipraba, Sundarakand Ramayana, Mahabharata Shallya Parba, Mahabharata Oishik Parba, Mahabharata Sobhaparba, Mahabharata Khandabdahan, Brihoddhormopurana Madhyamkhanda, Brihoddhormopurana Uttarakhand, Skandhapuarana Brahmatarakhanda, Skandhapuarana Kashikhanda, Kriyajogsara, Harabhaktitaranga. In “ Catalogus Catalogram” book, Professor Jatindramohan Bhatyacharya mentioned that 3rd, 4th and 5th part of Maharaja Harendra Narayn’s compositions kept in Rangpur (Bangladesh) Sahitya Parisad library with paper binding. But he did not mention what were the subject matters of those compositions.
KashinathSharma:
Kashinath Sharma Lahiri was the prime minister of Maharaja Harendranarayan, and supervised the civil and criminal courts. Maharaja Harendranarayan described him as “Bohudorshi and Bohubetta”. The Maharaja says that “Khasnabis has listened to all Puranas”. He also used to explain the scriptures in the royal court at the request of the king. Dwija Paramananda in his “Mahabharata Banapraba” script expressed a lot of praises about the Kashinath minister in several sentences. But none of his books were found in the Bengali Book Collection.
ShivnarayanNayalankar:
In 1797, Shivnarayan Nayalankar was appointed as a criminal judge in the Raj Sabha of Maharaja Harendranarayan. Saradananda and Satyananda have paid tribute to him in Ramayana Uttarakhanda as one of best poet. But no manuscript by him was found.
DwijaBrajandan Mustafi:
DwijaBrajandan was one step ahead in Raj Sabha among other prominent and respectedscholars as mentioned in Kashi Khanda by Sardananda who could explain easilyKashi khanda. He was the youngest son of Minister of State Sachinandan Mustafi.But no manuscript has been found even today.
(The next chapter will discuss the literary work of the other scholars in Raj Sabha of Maharaja Harendra Narayan.)
To read Part – 2 click below Link
Reference:kochbiharer Rajdorobarer Sahityacharcha/ S. Roy