312 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [July, 1910. 



great grandfather was Narahari Visarada, that through Nara- 

 hari he was connected with Vasudeva Sarvabhauma, the founder 

 of the greatness of Navadvipa as a place of learning, and that 

 through Narahari's father, Kesava, he was connected with 

 Raghunandana, the legislator of Bengal, as well as with the 

 Princely House of the Rajas of Naladafiga in the district of 

 Jessore. As Mr. N. Basu compiled his Jatiya-Itihasa from the 

 authentic genealogical records of the Brahmanas of Bengal, 

 there was little reason to doubt the facts recorded therein. 

 But as these genealogical lists have not yet been published, 

 scholars may not be disposed to give them the credit they 

 deserve. So I was anxious to secure some contemporary 

 evidence, and fortunately I got it in No. 153 of the 2nd volume 

 of the 2nd series of the Notices of Sanskrit Manuscripts. That 

 number describes " Bhramara-Dutam *' a poem by Rudra 

 Nyayavacaspati, the son of Vidyanivasa and the grandson of 

 Vidyavacaspati. So Rudra, I thought, must be a brother of 

 Visvanatha; and referring to Nagendra Babu's list, given in 

 page 295, I found that Rudra, Narayana, and Visvanatha were 

 three sons of Vidyanivasa. The agreement of the statements 

 in No. 153 with Mr. Basu's list proved the authenticity of the 

 latter. 



The foregoing considerations proved that Visvanatha was 

 a Banerjee, was an Akhendala, and was connected with some 



of the best Brahmin families in Bengal known for w r ealth and 

 culture. 



But what was the age in which he flourished ? The pan- 

 ditas assured Dr. Roer that Visvanatha lived about 200 years 

 ago. But this was vague and so not deserving of much reliance. 



In the course of my reading through the descriptive cata- 

 logue of Sanskrit Manuscripts, I came to No. 1385 of the 1.0. 

 Catalogue, where I read : 



That is, a Sudra scribe, named Kavicandra, copied the 



manuscript for Vidyanivasa in Saka 1510=1588 A.D. That 



panditas of wealth and influence employed Sudras as salaried 

 scribes, is a well-known fact. In this case Vidyanivasa em- 

 ployed Kavicandra as his scribe, and Kavicandra says that he 

 copied the manuscript for his employer in 1588 A.D. This 



was the time when Bengal was ruled on behalf of Akbar, by the 

 Hindu princes, Todarmall and Manasinha. This gives some 

 meaning to the statement about Vidyavacaspati in No. 153 



