not only in that language but also in French; his son, Gopee Mohun Tagore, was equally well versed in English, French, Portuguese, Persian and Urdu; while the entire career of the late Prosunna Coomar Tagore was a convincing proof that, along with the learning, he had imbibed deeply the true spirit, of Western culture.

Nor has this success in the cultivation of foreign languages and literature been attended with the reproach of having been. purchased at the cost of that native scholarship which should be the first aim, as it must always be the chief and truest glory, of every patriotic Indian; for the Tagore family continues to this day to be distinguished for the same pre-eminence in Sanskrit learning that secured for its renowned ancestors the patronage of King Adisur, and raised them at once to the front rank of society in Bengal.

Hurro Coomar Tagore, the son of Gopee Mohun Tagore, was not only justly famed for his patronage of Sanskrit studies, but was himself a Sanskrit scholar of no mean

eminence.

Prosunno Coomar Tagore's nu

merous works, translated from, or based upon, Sanskrit originals, possess a wide-spread reputation. Maharajah Jotendra Mohun Tagore has enriched the literature of the day by numerous dramatic works of great merit in the vernacular, either original or translated from the classical language of the Hindus. Raja Sourendra Mohun Tagore's learned investigations into the recondite subject of Indian music have earned for him world-wide celebrity and honorary distinctions and decorations too numerous to detail.

In short, when we trace the history of the Tagore family from the days of Bhatta Narayana downwards, we may reasonably doubt whether any act of an Indian sovereign has effected more towards the development of learning and the enlightenment of posterity than Adisur's importation into Bengal of the five learned Brahmans of Kanouj.

EARLY ANCESTRY.

In writing a memoir of the Tagore family, the biographer naturally takes his start from an event so memorable in the annals of Bengal, and of their ancestry, as that just referred to.

History has left us no means of determining with absolute precision the period of the founder of the great Sena dynasty of Bengal. By combining the evidence regarding its genealogy furnished by the well-known Rājshahai inscription, which is dateless, with the statement of the author of the Samayprakāsa as to the time of the completion of the Dānāsāgara of Ballal Sena, on the one hand, and that of the Ayin Akbari, which places the commencement of Ballal Sena's reign in A.D. 1066, on the other, the learned Bābu Rājendra Lāla Mittra arrives at A.D. 994 as the probable date of the accession of Vira Sena, who was either the immediate successor of Adisura, or, as the Rājshahai inscription just referred to renders not unlikely, and as Bābu

Rajendra Lāla Mittra suggests, actually identical with that renowned monarch.

Without aiming at precision, where precision is, in the existing state of our knowledge, unattainable, we may reasonably accept the latter part of the tenth century of the Christian era as an adequate approximation to the period of Adisur.

Regarding the manner of Adisur's accession to the throne of Bengal, we know as little as about the exact date of that celebrated event. This much, however, is established by a concurrence of testimonythat he conquered the country from a Buddhist sovereign, and that Buddhism had then been the religion of the Court at Gaur long enough to bring about a very general decay of Brahminical institutions and learning in Bengal.

Tradition runs that, some time after his accession, Adisur, owing to the occurrence in his dominions of severe famine and other portents, which he regarded as evidence of the divine displeasure, determined to perform

certain expiatory sacrifices. So complete, however, had been the neglect of Brahminical learning and practice among his subjects, that no Brahmans competent to celebrate the necessary rites were to be found in his territories; and Adisur, having consulted Gunarām Bhatta, a minister of his Court, resolved to apply to Vira Sinha, the reigning monarch of Kanouj, to send him qualified Brahmans for the purpose.

Vira Sinha accordingly selected five Brahmans, Bhatta Narayana, Daksha, Vedagarbha, Chhandara, and Sri Harsha for the task, and despatched them to Adisur.

On their arrival at his capital, the story proceeds, Adisur, having ascertained, from the reports made him by his officers, that they had come riding on bulls, with their sacred threads made of leather; that they allowed their beards and whiskers to grow ; chewed betel, and in other respects departed from the usual practice of orthodox Brahmans, received them with coldness, if not disrespect; and the result was that they made up their