পাতা:মাইকেল মধুসূদন দত্তের জীবন-চরিত - যোগীন্দ্রনাথ বসু.pdf/১৭৬

d8 R औदन-bब्रिड । ally known in India, and, if I mistake not, noticed by some European writers. A little before the famous Indian expeditions of Mahommed of Ghizni, the King of Kanoje celebrated tha Rajshooya Jujnum' or, as I have translated it in the text, the “Feast of Victory'. Almost all the contemporary Princes, being unable to resist his power, attended it, with the exception of the King of Delhi, who, being a lineal discendant of the great Pandu Princesthe heroes of the far-famed "Mahabharut' of Vyasa-refused to sanction by his presence the assumption of a dignity-for the celebration of this Festival was a universal assertion of claims to be ing conidered as the lord-paramount" over the whole country-- which by right of descent belonged to his family alone. The King of Kanoje, highly incensed at this refusal, had an image of gold made to represent the absent chief. On the last day of the Feast, the King of Delhi, having. with a few chosen followers, entered the palace in disguise, carried off this image, together, as some say, with one of the princesses Royal whose hand he had once solicited but in vain, owing to his obstinate maintenance of the rights of his ancient house. The fair Princess, however, was retaken and sent to a solita y castle to be out of the way of her pugnacious lover, who, eventuallv effect.cd her escape in the disguise of a Bhat or Indian Troubadour. The King of Kanoje never forgave this insult, and, when Mahommed invaded the Kingdom of Delhi, sternly refused to aid his son-in-law in expelling a foe, who soon after crushed him also. I have slightly deviated from the above story in representing my heroine as sent to confinement before the celebration of the “Feast of Victory.' I have, I am afraid, many reasons to apologise to the public for the imperfections which have crept into the following Poem, it was originally composed in great haste for the columns of a Local journal, -"The Madras Circular and General Chronicle"-in the midst of scenes where it required a more than ordinary effort to abs stract one's thoughts from the ugly realities of life. Want and Poverty with the "battalions' of "Sorrows" which they bring, leave but little inspiration for their victim