Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/34

 devotion. The eighty-four parganas comprised in the Zemindari of Krishna Chandra, now dwindled into five or six parganas and a few villages free of rent. Giris Chandra, having no issue, adopted a son, to whom he gave the name of Siris Chandra, and who when only a minor succeeded him in 1841. This Raja, like some of his predecessors, encouraged learning and the fine arts. Famous musicians from Delhi were entertained by him.

Siris Chandra on attaining his majority devoted his attention to the affairs of the Raj. At first he tried to recover the lost parganas. Then he organised a philanthropic society, of which he was the president, the chief object of which was to move Government to restore to their former owners those rent-free lands which it had deprived them of. He did not stop here in his good work. He tried every means to ameliorate the social condition of the people of lower Bengal. Having read the Hindu Shastras with learned Brahmans, he tried to glean from them passages sanctioning the remarriage of widows. He would have succeeded in this noble work, but for the strong opposition of the Nadia Pandits.

Siris Chandra appreciated and encouraged the spread of English education in this country. In 1845 the Krishnagar College was founded, and the Raja, unlike his predecessors, sent his son there, and enrolled himself as a member of the managing committee. He established a Brahmo Samaj in 1844; and Babu Debendranath Tagore sent a Brahmo preacher, Hazarilal, to permanently lead in the worship. It is said that finding Hazarilal not to be a Vedic Brahman, the Rajah was much grieved, and ordered that the Samaj should no longer meet in his house.

A little after this, an agitation was set on foot against the Christian missionaries at Krishnagar; and to counteract