PUNDITS AND MUNSIS 201 been born in 1762 at Midnapore (then included in Orissa) and educated at Natore. In physique and knowledge, he has been compared to Dr. Johnson, and he was held in high and deserved estimation.. In the English preface to Prabodh-chandriké which was-. edited in 1633 after Mrtyunjay’s death, © Marshman Marshman’s tribute. eulogises the learned pundit as “ one of the most profound scholars of the age.” “At the head of the establishment of Pundits,” Marshmap writes elsewhere', “stood Mrityunjoy, who although a native of Orissa,* usually regarded as the Beetia of the country, was a colossus of literature. He bore a strong resemblance to our great lexicographer not only by his stupendous acquirements and the soundness of his eritical judgments but also in his rough features and his unwieldly figure. His knowledge of the Sanserit ar 5 title was Bidy@lankay and not Tarkalankadr as mentioned by Dinesh Chandra Sen in History (p.886). See Roebuck, op, cit, App. IJ,p. 29: also Smith, op. cit. p. 170. » History of Serampore Mission.
- Mptyniijay seems to have been as proficient in the Odiya dialect
as in Bengali. It was his help that euabled Carey to translate the Scriptures into the Odiya dialect. (Smith, op. cit. p. 190).
- In this connexion, M,.M. Haraprasdd Sastri, in the lecture
referred to before, speaks of Mytyufijay as an Odiya but it might be noted here that although born in a province of Orissa, it is very doubtfal whether Mrtyufijay was really an Odiyé. From the edition of his work Rajabali, published in 1889 by a person calling himself the writer’s grandson, it seems that he belonged to the Chattopadhyay class of Bengali Brahmans: for the title-page of the aforesaid edition says :—"“ 4¥(t44 পৌন্ শ্রীবেহারি লাল চট্োপাধ্যায় কণ্তক রাজ। রাজবল্লভ as ৫২ নং ভবন হইতে প্রকাশিত | পঞ্চম সংস্করণ |” Ram-mohan Ray, again, (Works: Panini Office Reprint, p. 646) calls Mrtyufijay a Bhattacharyya and his controversy with the Pundit is styled by himself as ভষ্টাচায্যের মহিত বিচার । Mrtyufijay was a Radiya 13781000810 (খাঁনের চাটুতি শ্ীকরের সন্ত্রান। ) 26
