Page:History of Bengali Language and Literature.djvu/942

 K. M. Banerji. His Ency- clopaedea Bengal- ensis. 898 BENGALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE. [Chap. — lish education and the missionaries, was the Rev. K. M. Banerji. Born in 1813 at Calcutta, this scholar was train- ed in the Hindu College and was one of the most diligent pupils and admirers of Dr. Razario whose influence upon ‘‘ Young Bengal’’ was unbounded in his time. His pupils were imbued with Euro- | pean tastes, and though many of them rose to great | eminence in later times, nearly all of them despised the orthodox religion and by their unrestrained con- duct created great alarm in the minds of the Hindus. The comrades of Mr. Krisna Mohana Banerji, in the enthusiasm of their reformation, used to throw bones and meat into the neighbouring houses, and then cry out that it was beef which they had deli- berately thrown there to pollute the homes of their Hindu friends. Krishna Mohana in his youth was unsparing in his abuse of those who happened to hold a different view from himself in matters of religion and used to call the illustrious Radha Kanta Deva, who was one of the leaders of the orthodox community, by the name of Gadha Kanta, the word ‘ gadha’ meaning an ass. Krishna Mohana embraced Christianity in 1832, and after the hey-day of his youth had pas 7 ed, was held in high esteem by Europeans as well as by our countrymen for the soundness of his views, his great scholarship and his coolness of temper. His chief work in Bengali was the Vidya Kalpa Druma or Encyclopedea Bengalensis. It was start- ed under the patronage of the Government in 1846, and dedicated by permission to the Governor-