Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/20



It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I have received the warmly appreciative biography of this modest-minded but truly great man, that has been written by his friend and distinguished follower, the Pandit Sivanath Sastri, M.A., — and published in excellent form by the filial piety and love of the reformer’s son, Mr S.K. Lahiri. And I have been so greatly interested by the perusal of Mr Sastri’s admirable work in its Bengali form that, with the efficient collaboration of Mr Lahiri, I now venture to submit to the judgment of the Western world, and of that large class of Indian-born readers who are more familiar with English than with Bengali, an English translation of this remarkable biography.

The learned Pandit writes evidently from a heart full of affection for the subject of his Memoir; for his grandfather had been the “Guru” (a spiritual pastor) of Ramtanu in early youth, and the Pandit himself had been his friend and associate up to the end of his long life, not only in Krishnagar, but also in Calcutta and in Uttarpara.

Lahiri Mahashai, as he was always reverentially called in his later years, was by birth a Brahman of the Brahmans, a Kulin of very high descent. His ancestors for generations occupied important positions as Diwans or some other responsible position, closely associated with the princely family of the Maharajas of Nadia near Krishnagar. His father, Ramkrishna Lahiri, was the Dewan of two of the younger scions of the Nadia family; and was married to Srimati Jagaddhatri Devi, the only daughter of another great Kulin family, that of Radhakanta Rai. Ramtanu was the fifth son; and, as the circumstances of the Dewan were by no means commensurate with his high birth, the early education of the eager young Brahman was a matter of difficulty for his father. Up to the age of eleven Ramtanu attended the village patshala. Then his eldest brother, Kesava Chandra Lahiri, took him away to Calcutta, and himself taught him something of English, Persian, and Arabic; and ultimately, by the kind patronage of the famous David Hare, he obtained a free scholarship in the Society’s School, whence in 1828 he obtained promotion to the old Hindu College. Here he came under the influence of Derozio, one of the most remarkable of the giants of the pre-University