Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/27

 became the famous medical practitioner of Calcutta and always befriended his patron in his unselfish works of benevolence. Little did he guess at the time that he would be the father of the first Indian orator of to-day, Babu Surendra Nath Banerji.

Vidyasagar's next instructor was his lifelong friend Babu Raj Narayan Basu. Then he took lessons under a relative of Raja Radhakanto Deva Bahadur of Shovabazar. In this connection he attracted the favourable notice of the Raja Bahadur who treated him with respectful cordiality. Here, also, he met Babu Akshaya Kumar Dutta whom he encouraged with useful suggestions and who in a few years was to become a writer of taste and erudition. The "Tattvabodhini Patrika," edited by Akshaya Babu, commenced publishing Vidyasagar's translation of the Mahabharata in February 1848. But it was soon discontinued at the request of Babu Kali Prasanna Singha, who was also ably translating the great epic.

While he was performing his appointed