Vidyasundar

Vidyasundar a romantic poem of Medieval Bangla literature based on the love between Vidya and Sundar. The work drew heavily on Chaurapavchashika by the sanskrit poet Vilahana, a work composed in the eleventh century. The plot is as follows: The beautiful and accomplished prince Sundar obtained a boon to marry the beautiful and scholarly princess Vidya by pleasing goddess Kalika through his devotion. Sundar then reaches the kingdom of Vidya along with a parrot given to him by the goddess. He pleases the princes with love letters and paintings sent through the flower girl of the palace and they fall in love. Sundar then enters into the bedroom of Vidya through a tunnel and has sexual intercourse with her. But when Vidya becomes pregnant, her father becomes furious. The angry king then sentences Sundar to death by impaling. Sundar, however, saves his life by pleasing the goddess and marries Vidya.

The sixteenth-century poets Shah Birid Khan and Dwija Sridhar were the first to write a kavya (poetical work) centring on the love story of Vidya and Sundar. Noted poets of the later period who based their works on the theme are Krishnaram, Balaram, Kavishekhar, ramprasad sen, and bharatchandra ray and others. But among the works by these poets, Annadamabgal or Kalikamabgal by Bharatchandra is the most noted. [Soumitra Sekhar]