Page:Ramtanu Lahiri, Brahman and Reformer - A History of the Renaissance in Bengal.djvu/81

 every description are to be met there, especially women of ill-fame. Chetla was infested by such characters then as now, and the boy Ramtanu had often to come in contact with them. But, fortunately, he was then too young to understand the nature of their vices, or imitate them.

Kesava felt that to keep his brother long amidst these surroundings was dangerous, so he was anxious as soon as possible to remove him from their influence. At length a favourable opportunity presented itself. One day a gentleman of Nadia, Kali Sankar Chakravartti by name, saw Kesava with the object of getting some employment. The latter promised to help him to obtain a post, on condition that he would influence a relation of his, Gaur Mohan Vidyalankar, a pandit in one of David Hare’s schools, to get Ramtanu admitted as a free student into the institution which then passed under the name of “Society’s School,” but is now called the “Hare School.”

We have brought Gaur Mohan before our readers, and we cannot dismiss him without saying something of his uncle, Jai Gopal Tarkalankar, famous for his erudition in Sanskrit. He first came into public notice as Dr Cary’s pandit, and as editor of the Ramayan in verse. Afterwards, in 1824, on the establishment of the Sanskrit College, he was appointed the Professor of Literature there, and the most distinguished Sanskrit scholars of Bengal, Premchand Tarkabagish, Taranath Tarkabachaspati and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagara, were his pupils. There are many anecdotes illustrating his excellent mode of teaching. It is said that when reading, with his scholars, Kalidas’ Sakuntala or Bhababhuti’s Uttararamcharita, he would be so carried beyond himself, as, even at the age of eighty, suddenly to leave his seat and play the most interesting parts with the gesticulations of a perfect actor.

On the appointed day Ramtanu was taken by Gaur