October, 1 ON TEE AGE ASD COUNTRY OP BIDYAPATI. 801 mimt 4-B years before hia death iB hardly prob- This date, moreover, would give B i d y a | himself a very long life. Two prodectians of hia ua still cjdau". hi* lyrical poena. One in a proaa work in Sanskrit. LI FiiT-Urshu, which ffM translated into Bengali by qui uf the parnli* . of Port Wflliwn College, and u still remembered by Bengal civilian* a* one of those instruments of torture known us text* books which wf tiwhI to plod wearily over iu ODC college days, Now in the introduction to thia tedious work ii I to h*?0 hi>t*n written
- r | ba request of RiVja Sib Singh* then reigning,
or 46 years after the grant of loud, whin? Bidyu* vdi have been less than 66 or 70 vt-ars old. ■ The aoeond work ii in Sanskrit verse, find is it is said to huve been written in the mign of Baja Naru Singha, who did not ascend th« throne till £0 years later; so at bid aecc poet must have been at leaat 92 ynara old, CVCtt supposing MS) qnite a young man -when be gut the grant. The deHceudiinia of Bidynpati at K.paal -.> -;l to I a v» in their possession ft copy of the handwriting of the poet, written in L. 3. 340 = Snka 137'.) or a. in Tho writer in 111 Dariaaa is not at ill -.itrprindl at the great nge attained by the [toot; he moral/ remark* that a contemplative Ufo ii conducive to longevity, axiii ape arc; many uutaacc* of Urih mans devoted to litera- ture reaching: a gnat age. I would troggow the possibility of there having boon more than. One Bid/ft pati, and that the word in not a proper name, but a R»i Gnnofcor or Kahi Kankan. Tharu h> perhaps some weight in the idition that the poet's real name wan Basaiitu J Tho V&nji slates that B*JS Dova Singh a reigned 91 years, and thu dates of the various reigns of thia period mtif be thna given i — T)sva Singha. ,. JLB, 1 W«», reignud 91 yonj*. BEbfimgfai ... H« »; >i n Rani Padniavut: I), hi 1450 . r!* -. RAni Laknunfi Debl... 14*2 » fl « Bin! Biswas Debt ... M81 „ IS , £ara Singha... 1473 It also appears that KO nana rAytina, whose nama so constantly occurs immediately following that of Bib Singha, is not an independent pcr&onage, but that the kings of that family took the title ..lyaua with some prefix. Thus we find Mikluu.'ijjiA Kara Singha Darpanariyana, Ratna 14 .Tivannnarayana, Raghn Singha Bijaya- nlrayana, and i patron of our poet was thna called in full Maharaja Sib Suurh UupwArfyana. Jl throe wive*— the three Ranis fl rtm tin ned uWo— who, according to the F6njk wtiguod in anocea- nil after them, reigned Kara $uighu; . Jm's eonsin. M i I h i I "t was always closely allied tn Bengal, and waa aabjuet to it at the time of the intro* dnrtinn of thn L. S. era. Thia accounts Tor our Gatatottnn to tho "panelm G u u ('«••'• - ' i 1 1 h 1 1 a being regarded us alao princes ofCranT or Bengal^ Thh prince* are prubabl; Igha and hia four conainst Kara, Bntna, Rughu, and lihinn, tho first of whom came eventually to be the ruling priueo. The LachJnma Debt whom tho poet bo fre- quently celebrates k the second of the three wive* of Sib Sbgleuand her mnne— a rorrnption mt— in alsu written bakhmt, in con. Eonnnce with LUndi phoneaiB. Wo rnuat then regard B i d y k p a ti as a poet of M 1 1 h * I a , where ho is still remembered and lias left deawmdanto, Hia lanirua^e, though no longer to 1* regarded as old Bengali, i- elnsfllyakin ro it, and r -rwaaa .f h o<mtnry Beii^ali and 1 Haiti. Witlioeu hand ho tatohftfl Sur Das, with the other Chandf He ia aaid to have died a L Bajitpnr.a vilkgo near Dahungha Sarui, about ten tnilw norLh-eaab of BArh. He waa on hia wii pes, to Ood bia tlays tliorOf when death overtook him on the road. of the article I hare been dia. enaaing would give ns aomo more information as to thia Maithila Vtlitjl, it wootd bn welcome* and il would also be insaresting to know who. iher Bija Sib Singha Buponikrayanft was in any way oonnoeted with the family whose pre- sent ropresentatiTO is atill the nominal rukr of Nepil.
