Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/232

 208 BENGALI LITERATURE of literary history. There are some helf a dozen or more translations of this work between 1800 and 1550, and it is not necessary to bring under review all of them. But this version being the work of Mrtyunjay possesses a peculiar interest of its own. Long gives 1801 as the date of its publication: but from internal evidence of ৪35: language and manner it seems that the date is a too early one. We have not been able to obtain sight of the first edition in order to verify the date ': but the work seems to have been composed later than as Golak-nath AHzfopades and exemplifies Mrtyufijay’s earlier Its language and রর style compared to style. It would be interesting to ৪ f Golak-na রর _ those of Golak-nath. Compare Golak-nath’s language as shown in the specimen quoted at p. 183 e/ seg. with that 1 The copy I use is a third reprint at Srirampur (1814) and bears the following title-page: পঞ্চতন্ত্ প্রভৃতি নীতিশাস্ত্র হইতে উদ্ধত। মিত্রলাভ waren fade সন্ধি। এতচ্চতষ্টয়াবয়ব বিশিষ্ট হিতোপদেশ। fryers কর্তৃক সংগৃহীত 1 Wala SAS! Aarti fers শ্রীরামপুরে তৃতীয় বার ছাপ হইল | ১৮১৪ | 101). 17146. LI have not been able to get the first edition of this work. The copy in the British Museum Library (Blumhardt, Catalogue, p. 67 and p. 115) of the second edition bears 1814 as the date of publication. 3rd Ea, 1821. It would appear from Dinesh Chandra Sen, Baiiga Sahitya Parichay or Selection from Bengali Literature, pt. ii (1914) p. 1727, that the first edition was published in 1801. But this is incorrect ; this is the date of the first edition of Golak-naths Hitopades. There is mention of a “Hitopadeshu in Bengali 8৮০, ৪০78101১০0০ 1808” in the Catalogue of the Library of the East India College. But in the Catalogue of the Library of the Hon. East India Company, we find an entry of “Hitopadeshu or Salutary Instructions. 8vo, Serampore, 1808” without any mention of the name of the author and of an edition apparently of Golak-nith’a earlier Hitopades (1801), From the Tenth Memoir, relative to Serampore translation (Appendix), it is clear that the first edition of Mrtyufijay’s Hitvupadei was published in 1808, and therefore the anonymous entry in the Catalogue of the East India College above noted must refer to this work,