1895.] Copper-plate grant made hy Civa Siihha, king of Mitlnld. 143 



tioa of all Vedic research ; tins is the greater testimony to his learn- 

 ing and accuracy, when we remember that at the time when he wrote, 

 there were few printed texts available, and nearly all his information 

 had to be collected from manuscript materials. 



Oriental scholars feel that in losing Rudolf von Roth, the " old man 

 eloquent" of Sanskrit learning, they have lost not only a great teacher 

 but a close friend. His hospitable house on the vine-clad banks of the 

 Neckar was ever open to the travelling student, where the boundless 

 stores of his learning were ungrudgingly placed at the disposal of the 

 inquirer. He had many distinguished pupils, of whom, perhaps, the 

 late Professor Whitney is the best known, and when the Philological 

 Secretary was in Tiibingen some ten years ago, he found there, studjdng 

 under him, pupils of men who had been Whitney's pupils, all of whom 

 had sat in turn at the feet of the eminent Professor. 



Dr. von Roth was elected an Honorary Member of this Society in 

 1881. He was ennobled by the late king of Wiirttemberg in recogni- 

 tion of his great services to oriental scholarship. The University of 

 Edinburgh gave him the degree of LL.D., lionoris causa, and he was 

 honoured in various ways by many Continental Academies and Societies, 

 but the greatest testimony to his learning, is the monument, oere 

 perennius, which he has left in the pages of the St. Petersburg T'Tor- 

 terbttch. 



The SECRETARY reported that Mr. N. D. Beatson-Bell had com- 

 pounded for his subscription as non-resident member by the payment 

 in a single sum of Rs. 300. 



The Honorary Philological Srcretary exhibited a copper^plate 

 grant, by which king Civa Sililha of Mithila gave the village of 

 Bisapi to the famous poet Vidyapati Thakkura, and made the follow- 

 ing remarks : — 



This grant was translated by me in the Indian Antiquary, Vol. 

 XIV (1885), p. 190, in an article entitled ' Vidyapati and his contempora- 

 ries.' I had tlien to depend on a copy procured through the agency of a 

 Pandit. The Grant is dated in the era of Laksmana-Sena, 292, equi- 

 valent to A.D. 1400. The corresponding Vikrama-sambat, (Jak, and 

 (apparently) Hijra dates are also given. For reasons which it is un- 

 necessary to state, I was unable then to get hold of the original plate. 

 My attention has been again drawn to the matter by an article of 

 Dr. Eggeling, No. 2864 of Part IV of the Catalogue of the Sanskrit 

 MSS. in the Library of the India Office. In describing a MS. of the 

 Durgd-hhahti-tararjgini, he discusses the whole question of Vidyapati's 

 life and times. Thei^e is no doubt that the date of this grant gives 



