Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/162

 Samaj with about a score of friends — to which movement he afterwards gave new life and new vigour. A few years before this the Samaj had lost much of its former prestige, and the number of its adherents had considerably fallen away; so it may be said to have risen to new life on Debendranath’s joining it and taking up its cause. The Tatwabodhini Patrika was started, with the object of ventilating theistic Vedic doctrines. Babu Akhai Kumar Dutta was its editor, and Rajendralal Mitra, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara, and others equally learned, were its regular contributors. Debendranath established the Tatwabodhini school for the purpose of initiating Brahmans into the mysteries of the four Vedas.

The year 1844 is memorable on one account — the sending of four of the students of the Medical College to complete their education in England. These were Bholanath Bose, Kanto Chakravartti, Dwarkanath Bose, and Gopal Lal Seal. Dwarkanath Tagore was the first to suggest the idea to Chakravartti of the Education Council, who selected the young men named above. Before they started it was settled that Mr Tagore would pay all the expenses of the first two and Government of the last two. They sailed in the same ship with him, in this the second voyage he made to England; and availed themselves also of the companionship and tutelage of Dr Goodeve. In this voyage Dwarkanath Tagore left India never to see it again; for when in the midst of strangers death snatched him away, in 1846.

In the midst of these social and political excitements Ramtanu was visited by another domestic affliction. His mother became seriously ill. She was brought to Calcutta for treatment, where her children were assiduous in their attentions to her. No wonder that the lady who had received divine honours from Kesava, whom the neighbours