Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/18

6 immersed in the study of the Hindu Shastras, and striving always to gain from them a firm foundation of belief.

It was not until 1806 that Ram Mohan first began the study of English and seven years later that he entered the service of the East India Company. He appears to have spent the greater part of his ten years service under Mr. John Digby, of the Civil Service, whom he served as Dewan or Sheristadar in Bhagalpur and Rungpur. Mr. Digby, who later edited Ram Mohan's translations of the Kena Upanishad and his abridgment of the Vedanta, had a high opinion of his abilities and wrote in high praise of the work he did in connection with the survey and settlement operations in which he was chiefly concerned. For five years he was stationed at Rungpur and it was here that he first began those small gatherings of his friends for reading and discussions in his own house which were afterwards to become such a famous centre of thought and interest. Already he had begun to publish his writings. The first of an immense number of publications on an infinite variety of subjects was a treatise in Persian with an Arabic preface entitled Tahfut-ul-muahhidin, being a protest against the idolatry which had crept into so many established religions. For long he had refrained from any public exposition of his opinions, from the filial desire not to do violence to his father's feelings. The breach with