Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/172

 and his times. Nobody can deny that, though his pupils made a tardy progress in their text-book, their minds were enriched by much useful information, and fully developed, so as to be able to grasp subjects of importance too difficult for young lads trained in a different way.

In Ramtanu the boys found not only a good teacher, but a loving friend also. He mixed with them in the playground and in the hours of rest, and his edifying company did much to call forth those virtues which in many cases adorned their characters during their subsequent lives.

The conflicts between the orthodox and the reformed Hindus in Calcutta, of which we have spoken in the last three chapters, were now renewed in Krishnagar. The first attack on the errors and superstitions of Hinduism was made by Sriprasad, the younger brother of Ramtanu. He had a free English School in his house; and here he preached against idolatry and the evil practices connected therewith. In course of time, there arose a number of young men in Krishnagar, who commenced a war against popular Hinduism. These had not to fight unaided. They received fresh recruits from the Missionary School close by, most of the students of which, under the influence of their teacher, Babu Brajanath Mukerji, a Brahmo, had publicly forsaken the religion of their forefathers and accepted the doctrines of Monotheism. And at length this young band of reformers, making no longer a secret of their religious convictions, openly announced their determination to put an end to idolatrous Hinduism. They attacked it with a force which its champions found difficult to resist, the more so as Raja Siris Chandra warmly took the side of the young reformers. He opened a Brahmo Samaj in the palace, and was delighted to see the spread of Vedic Theism in his Raj. We noticed in the first chapter how the appointment of Hazarilal, a Sudra, as the expounder of the Vedas in the Samaj offended