Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/15

 bride and in due course married her. It was a strange union from which to spring so ardent a reformer as Ram Mohan Roy.

Brought up in the midst of such orthodox surroundings Ram Mohan early showed signs of a religious bent of mind. His father, having retired from the service of the Nawab, was spending his days in pious meditations and religious exercises at Radhanagar and he early took steps to secure for his son a sound classical education. When the latter had finished his first course of study at the local patshala where he had already acquired considerable proficiency in Persian, he was sent to Patna and Benares to acquire Arabic and Sanskrit. Here his studies appear to have been somewhat more liberal than those usually indulged in at the time and he is said to have become acquainted with Arabic translations of Euclid and Aristotle as well as with the Koran. The latter made a deep impression on his mind and it is probable that it was this early study of it that later led him to question the orthodox beliefs in which he had been brought up. His first religious enthusiasms, however, were naturally for the old faith. It is said that at the age of fourteen nothing but his mother's, earnest entreaties withheld him from leaving home as a sannyasi. Every home influence ran on orthodox lines. Already long before he had reached an age of discretion he had been married three times according to Kulin Brahman