Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/63

 a virtuous master. Though his salary was small, he never grumbled, nor did he use doubtful means to increase his income. In managing his family affairs, he had great difficulties to cope with, till Kesava, his eldest son, could help him with his earnings.

Ramkrishna took great care to keep his children from bad company. Every evening he used to take with him Kesava Chandra and afterwards Ramtanu, to the house of a neighbour named Debiprasad Chaudhuri, who was Mahafez in one of the courts of Krishnagar, and had the reputation of being religious. He strictly observed the Hindu festivals, and had the Shastras regularly read and expounded in his house. His influence was great, and every evening a pious group met in his parlour. Ramkrishna was one of the group, and Nashiram Datta another. There was a young man in Debiprasad’s house who knew English, and under whose eyes the young folk learned their lessons, while their guardians, relieved of their presence, enjoyed a devotional tete-a-tete with Nashiram Datta, just mentioned as one of Debi Babu’s guests. Ramtanu in after years wrote thus in his diary: “Alas, I shall never more see him in this life.” We find the following instance of his integrity in Babu Kartik Chandra Rai’s writings:— “The son of Nashiram Datta, being in the central part of Krishnagar, built a hall for the worship of God, and, to add beauty to its position, it was found necessary that the plot of ground in front of it should be included within its court. But the land belonged to another party who was unwilling to part with it, and so Nashiram’s son had recourse to force in order to make it his own. The aggrieved party sought the protection of the court, and, when the judge came to make a local investigation, said that his chief witness was the defendant Nashiram himself; and that if he affirmed