My Homeland
In the midst of impervious silence
What a beautiful place Moynagarh is
To recite poems under star studded eve sky
With the curved moon as witness.
What a beautiful place Moynagarh is
To recite poems under star studded eve sky
With the curved moon as witness.
In the midst of delusive darkness
What a beautiful place Moynagarh is
To recite poems under the green light of fireflies
With the dark shadow covering green jackfruit leaves.
What a beautiful place Moynagarh is
To recite poems under the green light of fireflies
With the dark shadow covering green jackfruit leaves.
Be the historic Moynagarh filled with poems –
Better, that’s why, to recite poems closely here.
Better, that’s why, to recite poems closely here.
Encircled by two wide, deep moats
What a mystery Moynagarh is,
Turns the grave air of ditches into a pleasant one
As poetry is recited on floating boats.
What a mystery Moynagarh is,
Turns the grave air of ditches into a pleasant one
As poetry is recited on floating boats.
Poems – one after another
Resound in the voice of poets.
As the breeze gets rapt in the odour of poems thus,
What a captivating place Moynagarh is.
Resound in the voice of poets.
As the breeze gets rapt in the odour of poems thus,
What a captivating place Moynagarh is.
Pulled by the poems, also rush the poets
--Lifeless and penless, towards the earth again,
Be Moynagarh the lonely host
Of that crowd of poets – lifeless and penless.
--Lifeless and penless, towards the earth again,
Be Moynagarh the lonely host
Of that crowd of poets – lifeless and penless.
It’s unknown
Whether the God of Moynagarh listens to them or not,
Yet, a wonderful bouquet of verses
Is humbly offered to him.
Whether the God of Moynagarh listens to them or not,
Yet, a wonderful bouquet of verses
Is humbly offered to him.
A "garh" is a moat surrounding a castle. Moynagarh is "an island within an island," referring to its being encircled by 2 concentric moats ("almost lakes," in the words of L. S. S. O'Malley in 1911), once filled with alligators. According to H. V. Bayley in 1852, "within its inner ditch was another defence of closely planted bamboos, so inter-twisted with each other as to be impervious to an arrow and unapproachable by the cavalry." Medieval literature and the oral traditions are eloquent on its past glory & grandeur. The town is by the Kangsabati river in West Bengal, India, 10 km west of Tamluk (the ancient Tamralipta, ruled by the Pandava hero Bhima in the "Mahabharata"). In 1593 historian Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah ("Firishta") wrote the "Tarikh-i Firishta" in which he referred to the Bahubalindra (office in charge of the noncombatant force). The title was given to Gobardhananda, a vassal of the king of Orissa, who captured the fort in 1561, and the family is still the town's most prominent.
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