Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/392

 368 BENGALI LITERATURE Latest born of this group but intimately connected with Haru Thakur in poetical rivalry, in superior reputation and also in the singularly unsympathetic criticism which has been lavished from time to time upon him, is Ram Basu. He was considerably younger than Haru and Nitai— almost by forty-eight and thirty-five years respectively—having been born about 1786 ; but he survived Nita by seven years and died only a year before Haru Thakur. His full name was Ram-mohan Basu but he was widely and popular- ly known through the abbreviated form of his name, Ram Basu. His birth-placé was ae Basu. 1786- Salkia on the right bank of the Hoogly and his father’s name was Rim Lochan Basu. Like every village-boy he was at first educated at the village pathsa/a and then at the age of twelve he was sent to Calcutta to his unele’s (father’s sister’s husband) house at Jorasanko for further education. But like Haru Thakur, Ram Basu showed even in_ his early years a marked tendency towards poetical composition which made his ambitious father sorry but which brought the young poet to the notice of the kabiwala Bhabani Banik. Bhabani’s training and encouragement made Ram Basu realise very early the true bent of his genius. His father dying soon after this, Ram Basu had to give up his studies and became a clerk insome mercantile office. But his poetical aptitudes proving too strong, he ultimately took up the profession of a Kabiwala—a lucrative profession, how- ever, in those days—as a regular means of livelihood. At first he continued to compose songs and sing for Bhabani, later on for Nilu Thakur, Thakur-das Sirhha and others ; but in the end, a few years before his death, he formed a party of his own, at first amateur eventually professional. Of his character nothing definite is known but Ram Basu seems to have been one of those poets who have