Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/59

22 by the surrounding circumstances. Slowly, but surely, his father's troubles lessened. He began to have a larger income, and soon there was a sudden change, on all sides, for the better. There was a general talk in the neighbourhood that a most fortunate child was born to Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay. Hence Isvar Chandra was a great favourite with the neighbours. The grandfather, Ramjay Tarkasiddhanta, gave the child the name, Isvar (which means Lord).

The village Birsingha was not in a very flourishing state at that time. It had no English-teaching school. There was only a vernacular pathasala (primary school) for giving little boys an elementary education in reading and writing the Bengali language. After a few year's training in this school, the sons of comparatively well-to-do Brahmans were sent to tols (seats of Sanskrit education), where they had to study hard for several years, and then undergo a set of examinations held by the professor himself. After the final examination, the professor gave the pupils each a degree or title, and then dismissed them, who, in their turn, then opened Tols and set themselves up as independent professors of Sanskrit.

Isvar Chandra was now five years old, and it was time, according to the Hindu Sastras, that he should begin to read and write. At this time, there was a primary pathsala in Birsingha under the teachership of Sanatan Sarkar. School-masters of