Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/13

4 time when Babu Degumber received a donation of a lac of Rupees from the Raja, as his tutor and Manager, the gift must have been made between the years 1838 and 1844. Raja Kishennath attained his majority in 1838, and perhaps, from that year, Babu Degumber commenced his tutorship for the second time till the time of the Rajah's death in 1844. And the first time when he served the Rajah as his tutor, must have been previous to the year 1838.

Like the late Hon'ble Kristo Das Pal, Babu Degumber found no scope for the display of his rare talents in Government Service, and had to rely upon his inherent resources and his intellectual and moral qualities to chalk out a career for himself, first as a trader and manufacturer of silk and indigo, then as a kind and sympathetic Zemindar possessing vast landed properties in many districts of Bengal, and lastly as a patriot and statesman in the arena of political life.

It is said that the gift of a lac of rupees, he had received from Raja Kishennath, he invested in the Union Bank. In 1849, the Bank having failed, he lost almost all his money except a small residue of Rs. 25000, with which he began to trade as a silk and indigo manufacturer, stock-jobber, and so forth. He had silk factories in Moorshidabad, at Ramkholla, and Rajaputy. The anonymous correspondent, who wrote a letter to the Indian Mirror, on the 29th April, 1879, says that Babu Degumber established a silk factory at Sunkur Mirzapur, near Jungypoor, and another at Dowlut Bazar in the district of Moorshidabad. The same correspondent positively asserts that Babu Degumber was never a private tutor to Raja Kishennath. He says that one Mr. Lambrick was private tutor to the Raja, and Babu Degumber was his dewan. We are not in a position to decide between these two contradictory statements; but it appears from the obituary notice of Raja Degumber written by the late Hon'ble Kristo Das Pal, who was very thick and thin