Baital Pachisi : Betal-Panchvimśati (1847) by Īśvara Chandra Vidyāsāgara, based on Shiva Das Bhatt’s Vaitala-Pancha-vimsaka, was the first prose work of Bengali literature. It is a set of 25 tales of King Vikramāditya: each consists of a conundrum question by a Vaital (spirit haunting a dead body) & Vikramāditya’s solution.
... though very sweet and melodious, was an instrument with but one string to it. Except the old poet Bharatchandra, no supreme genius had taken it in hand; hence while prose hardly existed except in Baital Pachisi and some other tales about Vikramaditya, Bengali verse had very little to recommend it beyond a certain fatiguing sweetness. Virility, subtlety, scope, these were wanting to it. Then came Madhu ...
Share your feedback. Help us improve. Or ask a question.