Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/11



the close of the first quarter of the nineteenth century the vernacular literature of Bengal existed only in a more or less debased form. In its earlier phases of development it had struggled to revert to its original Sanskrit elements; in later days, under the influence of the Muhammadan conquest, it had become largely Persianised. The lifetime of Ramtanu Lahiri was synchronous with the renaissance of Bengali literature — the period of awakening in Bengal that saw also the birth and early growth of English education in the country, and of the various schools of reform in religion and morals that have so mightily changed the whole aspect of Bengali life and thought. It was, therefore, fitting that one of the most important of the works that have as yet appeared in pure Bengali should have been a “Life” of this great educationist and reformer, from the pen of Pandit Sivanáth Sástri, M.A., himself one of the most distinguished writers of modern Bengal.

It was also reasonable to expect that the biography of Ramtanu, covering such an eventful period in the social, moral, and religious history of Bengal, would introduce to the reader a large number of interesting and varied characters and scenes grouped around the central personage. The Pandit’s work is quite the most scholarly book of its kind, as well as the most serious and sustained effort to combine, in a biographical work, Oriental and Western modes of thought, that has yet appeared in Bengali.

Viewing this most interesting and characteristic treatise from the point here indicated, I have not deemed it necessary, or even advisable, to make any very rigorous use of the editorial pruning-knife in adapting the Pandit’s biography to the taste of the English reader. The translation, into more or less literal English, is due to the filial piety of my friend, Mr S. K. Lahiri, one of the most eminent of Calcutta publishers, and son of the illustrious