History of Bengali Language and Literature c7.s2.2

c7.s2.2

Vidyāpati 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 Rājā Çiva Simha. Vidyāpati enjoyed the patronage of Çiva Simha, Lacchimā Devī, Viçwās Devī, Narasimha Deva and other sovereigns of Mithilā. The copper-plate grant by which Rājā Çiva Simha is said to have conferred on the poet the title of Nava Jay Deva together with the ownership of the village Visfi is dated 1400 A.D.* Some scholars consider this copper-plate to be forged. The date in the inscription is given in Hijrā era along with other eras, but the Hijrā era was, by the unanimous opinion of historians, introduced at a much later period by the Emperor Ākbar. 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 was granted by Çiva Simha to Vidyāpati. The poet himself speaks of this grant in one of his poems;† and the descendants of Vidyāpati have for