Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/65

58 sionary Journal—the Friend of India—, "a Hindu among the nations, a Brahmin among the Hindus, a Kulin among the Brahmins, and a Foola among the Kulins." His father had three wives, of whom the last was Sreemutty Rukhini Dabee. By this wife, he had two sons, of whom Ha ran Chandra was the eldest and Hurish the youngest.

CHAPTER II.

HIS EDUCATION, AND STRUGGLES IN EARLY LIFE.

Hurish Chandra, being a Kulin Brahmin boy, was, as is generally the case with people of his class, brought up in the house of his maternal uncles. When he was five years of age, he was sent to a patshalla where he picked up knowledge of his mother tongue; and at the age of seven, he began to learn the English alphabet with his eldest brother Haran Chandra. He was then put in as a charity boy in the local Union School where he studied English for more than six years, and it is said, that he had to leave the Institution at the early age of fourteen, in search of an employment to make provision for himself and his poor family. The interesting details of his school-life are lost in obscurity, as there is now no one living in the family who could tell us how this sapient youth, who, afterwards, in the heyday of his journalistic career, proved himself to be a terror to Lord Dalhousie for his annexation policy, and stood up as a staunch supporter of Lord Canning during the troublous times of the Sepoy Mutiny, and as a firm and true friend of the ryots during the indigo crisis of 1860, and was

Lucky Narain Mukerjee His Great Grand -father. Debi Prasad Do. Grand-father. Ram Dhun Do. Father. Hurrish Chandra Da