Bengali manuscripts from Nepal :

Baru Candīdās and Vidyāsundara

Abstract

In Nepal（Kathmandu Valley）, there are many drama manuscripts and song manuscripts written in Middle Bengali. These texts were performed in the courts and temples of the medieval Malla dynasty. It turns out that among these texts are included Krishna songs by Baṙu Candīdās who is the earliest Middle Bengali poet, and also the earliest version of the amorous adventure story “Princess Vidyā and Prince Sundara” attributed to Ś rīdhara, the court poet of the Gaur dynasty of Bengal. With these evidences, I argued that the Bengali manuscripts of dramas and songs that have been handed down in Nepal do not represent a sub-stream or offshoot of Medieval Bengali literature, as have been conventionally thought, but they rather preserve an early form of its mainstream.