পাতা:আশুতোষ স্মৃতিকথা -দীনেশচন্দ্র সেন.pdf/২১৬

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s ) contains the results of patient and phenomenal studies extending over many years; and the pioneer historian of Bengali literature now appears before the public as the pioneer historian of the Bengali people with his old reputation not only fully sustained but also heightened in his latter role. The facility and ease with which he has carried out his plan must have come to him in a manner which only a veteran scholar can aspire to command. It must be admitted, however, that it would have been impossible for the author to have conceived and executed his work on such a portentious scale in the absence of a large body of material which has already accumulated through the labours of other writers and scholars. Dr. Sen himself had been an explorer and interpreter of valuable treasures of Bengali literature for nearly forty years before be set himself to the task of taking this comprehensive survey. Dr. Sen's 'Brihat Vanga' is complete in two volumes of 25 pages royal 8vo size, including a carefully prepared Word-index, a list of illustrations with a table of contents and an introduction covering nearly fifty pages. The first Volume contains fifteen chapters divided into several sections, bringing the account to the end of Hindu rule, and the Subsequent history till the Battle of Plassey is treated of in the Second volume which is, again, divided into 18 chapters with miany sections. The last chapter in this volume is the longest in the whole work, a considerable part of which is devoted to local and provincial history, such as the accounts of Tipperah, Cooch Behár, Cachar, Sylhet, Mani pore, Midnapore, Vishnupur, 'agyotishpur, Sundarban (the history of this region was compiled for "the author by Mr. Kalidas Datta), etc. 'Tlhe author is definitely of opinion that, culturally speaking; Bengal denotes a far wider region than is officially recognised under the present British Administration, justifying him in giving the title 'Brihat R