Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/80

64 were surrounded by good influences which were to bear fruit in after years.

Ramtanu was born in 1813 at village Baruihuda in Krishnagar in the house of his mother's family. At the age of five he began his education in one of the local patshalas, then generally located in the house of the most important man in the village. They were schools of the most primitive description, the guru like his pupils seated on the ground, and the latter writing on plantain leaves for paper with pointed sticks for pens. The teaching was of the most elementary character, and with no terror of an inspecting officer hanging over his head, the guru taught as much or as little as he pleased, the whole system being very different from that which came into force after the awakening of Bengal when the greatest minds of the day had devoted themselves to the cause of education. In 1826, Ramtanu's elder brother Kesava took him to reside with him at Chetla, a suburb of Calcutta, in order that he might secure a better education than his native village could provide. Kesava's resources, however, were limited, his salary being only Rs. 30 a month and it was therefore impossible for him to bear the expense of sending Ramtanu to an English school. At first he had to be content with giving him what instruction he could in his own spare time, teaching him Arabic, Persian and a little English. With only the early mornings and a little English his disposal, however, the whole of the day being