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''Meghnad Badh Kavya'' (Bengali: মেঘনাদবধ কাব্য- ''The Saga of Meghnad's Killing'') is the most famous and most acclaimed poem by the poet Michael Madhusudan Dutta. It is based on the demise of Meghnad (a.k.a. Indrajit), son of Ravana, the villain of the classic Sanskrit epic ''Ramayana''. It was first published in 1861, incidentally the year of birth of the Bengali author, Rabindranath Tagore, who afterwards wrote a review on it. The ballad is divided into 9 different ''sarga''s, i.e. parts.〔(Read the whole ballad in Bangla )〕 Each part exhibits different incidents. Starting from the death of Beerbahu, son of Ravana, it is continued till the sati-daha (the ancient Indian custom of burning the widows alive with the dead husband) of Prameela, Meghnad's beloved wife. The poem starts with the lines: ==Critical review== Ravana, along with his sons, were the ones performing evil deeds in the ''Ramayana'', which was originally written in Sanskrit by the sage Valmiki. But Dutta claims to have found a tragic hero in Ravana, as he was conversant Western literature. He feels a shadow of Hector of Troy in Meghnad. According to him, he realized why Ravana had perpetrated such crimes and Meghnad was slayed by Lakshmana brutally. He says that Meghnad was worshiping Lord Shiva in the royal temple of Lanka, while Lakshmana attacked him with some help from Bivishana, who is eventually an uncle of Meghnad. Meghnad prayed not to fight with an unarmed person, rebuking Lakshmana as a coward; but Lakshmana did not heed him. This unfortunate hero twice endangered Rama but could not survive himself in this unfair battle. This is the central theme of this epic. Here Meghnad is shown to be a patriot, a loving husband, a caring son and a friend to his countrymen. Unlike in the Ramayana, here Ravana is portrayed as a respectable man and a responsible king possessed of all royal qualities. Here are some comments of a few pioneers of Bengali literature: #"...to Homer and Milton, as well as to Valmiki, he is largely indebted, and his poem is on the whole the most valuable work in modern Bengali literature." -Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay〔(Read more about the poet )〕 #"The Epic Meghnad-Badh is really a rare treasure in Bengali literature. Through his writings, the richness of Bengali literature has been proclaimed to the wide world." -Rabindranath Tagore〔 #"MeghnadBadh is a supreme poem." -Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Meghnad Badh Kavya」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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