Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/153

 CAREY AND FORT WILLIAM COLLEGE 129 is needless to multiply examples of works which owed their origin to his suggestion and influence ; but these will go to show how attractive his personality and how extensive his influence had been among his collaborators in the ” he writes field. “When the appointment was made on June 15, 1801 “I saw that I had a very impor- tant charge committed to me....I therefore set about compiling a grammar, which is now half printed. I got Ram Ram Basu to compose a history of one of their kings ; which we are also printing. Our Pundit! has also nearly translated the Sungskrit fables...which we are also going to publish. These, with Mr. Forster’s Vocabulary, will prepare the way to reading their poetical bouks: so that I hope this difficulty will be gotten through.”? Thus Carey’s College-room became the centre of incessant literary work as his Srirampur study had been of Bible- translation. We can imagine the indefatigable scholar in his chamber sitting with his Munsi for three or four hours daily mastering the language in all its complications and with a longing to educate the people, writing and transla- ting hour by hour into Bengali tongue the books which he thought useful for that purpose and which contains the first systematic pieces of spirited Bengali prose. Thus, although the College of Fort William was found- ed to fulfil a political mission, its The orientalism of the College; its effect. Usefulness and its importance, never ended there. The impetus which it gave, as a centre of learning and culture, to the cause of vernacular language and literature, gives ita prominent place in the literary history of the time. No doubt its greatest achievement in the history of . Mrtyuiijay. 17
 * 19. Carey, op. cit. pp. 450-454; Smith, op. cit. p, 164.