Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/76

 business to different parts of the country. And thirdly, men who worked as pleaders, mukhtears, or amla in the English courts. Most of these lived at Goari, on the right bank of the Khoresi.

We have before said something of Raja Giris Chandra. One great fault in him was that he was subject to the influence of men of mean intellect and bad morals. He was surrounded on all sides by the selfish and the mean-minded; and it is easy to imagine what a baneful effect on Krishnagar society these circumstances produced. At this time there was a link of connection between the Raja and the Lahiri family; for the half-brother of Ramkrishna, Babu Thakurdas Lahiri, was, as we have before said, the chief agent of the Raja in Calcutta.

Raja Giris Chandra was succeeded by Shiris Chandra, and a terrible picture is drawn of the corruption of which the palace was full during the time of the latter. The Raja, in spite of his many good qualities, was addicted to some vices which were not then regarded as such. It was a period of gross public immorality such as happily exists no longer, either in Bengal or elsewhere in India; and the Dewan Kartik Chandra in his “Memoirs” has much to say about the immorality of Krishnagar, and of the court of its Rajas at this time, over which we will now draw a veil.

We have alluded to these evils only to show the state of Hindu society at the time of Ramtanu’s birth. The loose lives of the men influenced the conduct and the language of the rising generation. Boys were familiar with odious scenes; and that their pet child, Ramtanu, should get spoiled in such company was the constant fear of Ramkrishna and Jagaddhatri; so they were anxious not to let him remain in the contaminating atmosphere of Krishnagar. At length they hit upon an expedient.