Page:Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist.djvu/49

 the third part in the following year. Gradually he introduced all these books into the Sanskrit College. English was soon made a compulsory subject of study in the higher classes.

1853 was lucky for his village Birsingha. It was in that year that he opened there a free day school, a free night school for the sons of tillers of the soil and a girls' school. Soon an infirmary was also set up. The total cost of maintaining these charities came to nearly Rs. 550, which he paid out of his own purse. He was now well off, for the authorities perfectly satisfied with his administrative success had raised his pay to Rs. 300. Besides this, from his writings he earned about Rs. 500 every month,—a tolerable fortune in those times for a gentleman of moderate wishes. But so liberal and open-handed was he that his expenses always exceeded his means.

His Sakuntala, a Bengali rendering in pure prose of the famous Sanskrit drama by Kalidas, appeared in December 1854.