Epic
Padmavati
পদ্মাবতী
Syed Alaol · 1651
Synopsis
A talking parrot praises to King Ratnasen, master of the citadel of Chittor, the beauty of Padmavati, princess of Ceylon. The king sets out to find her, goes through the trials of a long quest, marries her and brings her back to Chittor. But the account of her beauty reaches the sultan of Delhi, Ala ud-din Khalji, who raises an army and marches on Chittor to take her.
Context
Magan Thakur had heard the story of Padmavati recited in his assembly; as the people of the court did not understand the language of the tale, he commissioned a Bengali version. The poet started from the Padmavat that Malik Muhammad Jayasi had composed in Awadhi around 1540 and translated it freely, putting his own learning into it; his version gives more room to profane love and less to Sufism. The date of composition varies according to the sources: 1648, 1651 or 1652.
Who it is for
A long narrative poem of the seventeenth century, in Old Bengali; a scholarly edition, such as Syed Ali Ahsan's, helps in reading it.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's masterpiece, it inspired Bengali novels, plays and poems in the nineteenth century, and adaptations by Abanindranath Tagore.