t 7i ] RAJENDRALALA MITRA. Though the name of Raja Rajendralala Mitra has become the synonym of antiquarian researches, yet in point of profound scholarship he hw been surpassed by few of his countrymen. He was born on the 15th February, 1824 in a very distinguished family at Surah in the suburbs of Calcutta. His great-grand- father, Raja Pitambar Mitra, received from the Mogul Emperor the command of 300 horse, and a rich jaigir to support his dignity and cavalry. Rajendialala inherited a love of learning from his father, who was deeply read in Sanskrit and Persian. After learning English in the schools, he entered the Calcutta Medical College. The gifted Btudent soon became prominent in the college and Babu Dwarkanath Tagore offered to take him* to England to complete his medical studies there. His father, a staunch Hindu, did not relish the idea, and took him away from the college. He then began to study law, and prepared for the examination ; but the question papers of thtj year went out, and the examination became null and vend. Without waiting for tho next chance, he gave up his legal stndics>, and de voted himself to various kinds of knowledge. When i>nly 22, he was appointed Assistant Secretary to the Asiatic Society of Bengal, which appointment ho. held for 10 years. During this period he diligently studied Sanskrit and the allh-d languages, for which the situation alforded consider- able facilities. Thus he learnt Bengali, Uriya, Hindi, Urdu utid Persian while his knowledge of Greek, Latin, French and Herman elicited the applause of even European scholars. English he could speak and write like an Englishman. This intimate acquaintance with all the important Indo-European languages was of signal service to him in his part icular line of work- in 1S51 he started a Bengali magazine, the Vib'xIartKa iVum?rriAf7,an<l followed it up hy the RttJtmya MimfarWa. His library labours were herculean, for he wrote 50 learned trea- tises divided into 128 volumes of no less than 3.1,000 pages. Of
