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Head lines by Dr. Karunamaya Goswami, The Independent (Contd. from last week) THE medieval Bengali poetry and music was very greatly enriched by the liberal patronage extended to it by the royal court in Arakan. Alaol, a great medieval Bengali poet and composer was the brightest product of the Arakan connection. A close cultural contact between Bengal and Arakan, the neighbouring province of lower Burma was first made early in the fifteenth century when Narameikhla, the king of Arakan, dispossessed by the King of Burma, came to Bengal and took refuge in the court of Gour (1404). After a sojourn of many years he was helped by Jalaluddin, the Bengal Sultan, to regain his throne (1430). We can reasonably assume that the king had acquainted some liking for Bengali song and music, among other things, during his stay in Bengal and introduced them in his own country after he had returned home and to power. But there is no evidence to show how far this engrafting of Bengali culture in the Arakan court was enduring, in spite of the fact that Arakan continued to be dominated politically by Bengal and its external affairs controlled by the Sultan's governors in Chittagong. The position was however reversed for some years, at least in the third quarter of the century when the Arakan power annexed Chittagong and kept it under control until in the first decade of the sixteenth century, it was recovered by Nusrat Khan, a general of Husain Shah. During the years Chittagong was in occupation by the Arakanese, it appears that some cultural contact between Bengal (and the rest of India) and Arakan was established. From this time Bengali was accepted at the Arakan court as the chief cultural language, mainly because many of the high officials of Arakan came from Chittagong, and the other neighbouring territories whose mother-tongue was Bengali. After the overthrow of the dynasty of Husain Shah, Arakan seems to have regained its full political independence. But the influence of the Bengali language did not suffer, on the contrary, it grew. The kings of Arakan now adopted also Bengali names for themselves, and sometimes it was, as in the case of Thiri Thu Dhamma (Arakanese pronunciation of Shrisudharma), the only name known to history. The Bengali immigrants or sojourners in Arakan were almost all Muslims, and the officials and ministers were mostly Bengali Muslims. Muslim influence in the Arakan court was therefore potent, and as happened quite often in the seventeenth century, the kings took Muslim names as well. The literary tradition which Paragal Khan and his son Nusrat Khan had started in South-East Bengal reached the court of Arakan by the end of the sixteenth century. So far we know, the first Bengali poet to write under the aegis of the Arakan court was Daulat Kazi. His patron Ashraf Khan was a commanding officer of king Shrisudharma who ruled between 1622 and 1638. Ashraf was a Sufi and so presumably was Daulat Kazi. To popularise the romantic tales current in West Indian poetry (Rajasthani, Gujrati, Hindi, Avadhi and Bhojpuri), Ashraf had asked Daulat to render the story of Lor, Chandrani and Mayana into Bengali narrative verse (Panchali) . . .. Daulat Kazi took it from the old Rajasthani poet by Sadhan, manuscripts of which have come to light recently. Daulat Kazi died before he could finish his poem. It was completed years later by Alaol (1659), another Bengali poet from Arakan. It is widely believed that Alaol was born in Jalalpur under the district of Faridpur in Bangladesh in the early years of the seventeenth century probably in 1607. His father was a courtier of Majlish Kutub, ruler of Jalalpur who was in power from 1576 to 1611. Alaol must have been born in this period, and not after this. There is also an opinion that he was born in a village called Jobra in the district of Chittagong. But he passed most of his early life in Faridpur. Once Alaol was going with his father to Chittagong by boat. On the way they were attacked by Portuguese pirates. Alaol's father died in the scuffle and on a lucky escape he managed to arrive at Arakan where he was recruited for the army and taken in the cavalry section. But at a short period of time Alaol's reputation as a scholar and musician spread around and reached the ears of Magan Thakur, an influential member of the Arakan royal court. It was about 1645 that Alaol was taken into the good book of Magan. Magan himself was a great admirer of art and poetry. At his instance Alaol left the army and joined the court as a poet and musician. He wrote two of his poems including his best one: Padmavati, under Magan's patronage. Magan was inclined towards sufism and was an admirer of Jaisi's poetry. He requested Alaol to render Jaisi's Padmavati into Bengali verse so that it might be appreciated by the people of Arakan. Alaol agreed to do it and completed the task sometime between 1645 and 1652. Magan died in 1659. Sulaiman, an Arakanese minister then extended his patronage to Alaol and at his instance wrote the sequel to the unfinished poem of Daulat Kazi in 1659. In 1660, Alaol being urged by the Arakanese commander Syed Muhammad, translated a Persian poem titled Haptapaykar. In the same year Alaol was put behind the bars for fifty days on the charge of treason and his property was confiscated. But the charge being disproved and he was set free but his poverty lingered on. Even then he was undaunted. Alaol began to translate the religious treatise Tuhfa from Persian and came to an end of it in 1665. Alaol received some assistance from his previous master Sulaiman. In 1669 Alaol completed his work Saifulmulk Badiuzzamal which he had begun a little earlier. From 1671 on Alaol was again restored to courtly patronage bringing an end to his sufferings. He then paid attention to translating a big volume of a Persian poem called Iskandarnama. Alaol's colourful life through dramatic ups and downs came to end perhaps in the year 1673 or 1674. To-day he is best known for his work Padmavati. Alaol appears to be the first Bengali writer to translate from Persian poetry. His good knowledge of several languages such as Sanskrit, Bengali, Persian and Avadhi gave a distinction to his style and made his access to the realms of art and poetry exceptionally wide. Alaol was a poet, musicologist, composer and performer of a very high order. The basic musical pattern he followed in Padmavati is panchali. Panchali is a form of medieval classical music which was described in the authentic books on music as panchataleshwar prabandha. We do not know what its musical form exactly was. But it was found to be employed in long narrative poems. The mangala songs in Bengali followed the panchali scheme of music. It was in a raga form. The name of raga was usually mentioned at the top of the poem or in a section of the narrative and the characteristic recitative pattern of the form was executed by the performer in some pre-ordained melody frame that moved along the simple notational structure of the raga. But what is all the more important about Alaol is that much before Bharatchandra Ray, he intersected the narrative poem with the inclusion of independently composed songs of highly lyrical nature. There was precedence of Vishnupada of mangala narratives. But his songs were more varied than the Vishnupadas. We come across thirteen such compositions in the narrative frame of Padmavati. The songs are composed in ragas like Kedar, Bhatial, Shrigandhar, Karnat, Shri, Vasant, Bhatial, Suhi, Shrigandhar, Suhi, Mallar, Bhairabi and Ashavari. The songs provided welcome relief with their varied improvisation in the midst of monotonous repetition of recitative panchali-pattern. Alaol was also well versed in musicology and music history. At least in two places in Padmavati, Alaol spoke about music and dance which proved of his musical scholarship. It appears that he was thoroughly known to the theoritical discussions presented in some of the very important books which are referred to even to-day. Alaol had his own approach to musical theories. In some places he differed with the celebrated musicologists of the past. Alaol's contribution towards enriching the medieval Bengali music has not yet been properly investigated into. But it appears from an ordinary survey that he wanted to give Bengali music a new direction which achieved further maturity decades after in the compositions of Baratchandra Ray (1712 - 1760). J.C. Ghosh calls Alaol "the pioneer of the neo-classicism perfected by Bharatchandra Ray in the eighteenth century."
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