Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/167

 | III. ] BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. — 137 Bengali poet, at least in this version, and _ it would be impossible now to expunge his poems from the compilations current in Bengal, where they have for the last three centuries found a prominent place. Vidyapati was a resident of Visfi—a village in the Sub-division of Sitamari, near Jarail, in the district of Durbhanga. This village he obtained as a grant from Raja iva Simha. Vidyapati enjoyed the patronage of Civa Simha, Lacchima Devi, Vigwas Devi, Narasimha Deva and other sovereigns of Mithila. Civa Simha is said to have conferred on the poet The copper-plate grant by which Raja the title of Nava Jay Deva together with the owner- ship of the village Visfiis dated 1400 A.D.* ১০106 scholars consider this copper-plate to be forged. The date in the inscription is given in Hijra era along with other eras, but the Hijra era was, by the unanimous opinion of historians, introduced at a much later period by the Emperor Akbar. The characters of the inscription, besides, do not bear the stamp of that early period when the grant Is said to have been made. The copper-plate, has been, on these grounds, declared to be unreliable. There is, however, no doubt that the village Visfi The poet himself speaks of this grant in one of his was granted by Civa Simha to Vidyapati. poems ;t and the descendants of Vidyapati have for In 293 of Laksman Sen’s era. 1 “জনম দাতা মোর, গণপতি ঠাকুর, মৈখিলী দেশে করুবাস। পঞ্চ গৌড়াধিপ শিবসিংহ ভূপ কপাকরি লেউ নিজ পাশ ॥ 18 And are now in« separable from Bengali songs. The date of the copper- plate grant,
 * “অন্দে লক্ষমণসেন ভূপতিমিতি বহ্ছিগ্রহদ্যক্কিতে,"