Epic
সতী ময়না ও লোরচন্দ্রাণী
Not translated into English
Daulat Qazi · 1625
Synopsis
Chandrani, a king's daughter, has been married by misfortune to the Bamon, a feared but impotent warrior. Far away, King Lor lives happily with his wife Mayna, until the day a yogi, met while hunting, tells him of the beauty of Chandrani. Lor sets out to join her, the two lovers meet again in a temple, and the Bamon bars their way. Left alone, Mayna sees the months of the year pass, and a go-between comes to bring her the advances of a certain Chhatan.
Context
Ashraf Khan wanted to hear the story of Sati Mayna, which the poet Miyan Sadhan had put into verse in the Thet Gohari dialect, which few at court understood; Daulat Qazi told it to him in Bengali, in the metre of the panchali, and received the commission for the poem. He is also said to have drawn on Mulla Daud's Chandain, but without keeping its spiritual dimension. He died before finishing it; Alaol wrote the ending in 1659. The date of composition is not known: it is placed between 1622 and 1638.
Who it is for
A long narrative poem of the seventeenth century, in Old Bengali; a scholarly edition, such as Mahua Shannigrahi's, helps in reading it.
Prizes and reception
Its author is regarded as the pioneer of the secular love story in Bengali poetry; a modern critic sees in it almost a love novel in verse.