HIS KARLY^LIFfi. '97 be found in rural circles except in the great towns of the different districts of Bengal. The boy, therefore, remained in complete ignorance, till the memorable 14th year of his age. It was at this time, it is said, he accidentally came to the great historic town of Krishnaghur, and remained there with one Huro Chunder Sirkar, a relation of his. Huro Chunder, though not in affluent circumstances took pity on the poor boy, allowed him to remain in his house, and en- couraged him to study Persian, the language of the Courts, the courtiers, and the elite of the .community at the time. This was the initial turning point in the famous career of Shyama Churn. At that time, there was a great Persian scholar by the name of Babu Sree Nath Lahiry, an uncle of the renowned moral man of Bengal, — we mean Babu Ram Tonoo Lahiry of Krish- naghur ; and it was this great Hindu Moulvi, taking compassion upon poor Shyama Churn, consented to give him a gratuitous education in Persian. In those dark days, learned savants like Babu Sreenath Lahiry used to take great delight in imparting an eleemosy- nary education to poor boys. The educated people had not known yet how to make a trade of the profession of teaching. The poor recipient of this gratuitous education shewed all the necessary qualities of a student — the qualities of earnestness, application, patience and industry — in acquiring an elementary knowledge of that language. Pundnama was the first elementary book that he read, and within a few months finished it. He then obtained a manuscript copy of Guliatan- from a neighbour, and copied it out for his use. He borrowed books from the sons of the rich Chowdhry Zemindar families of Krish- naghur and copied them out with his own hand and read them very carefully. The relatives and rich neighbouring friends of the well-known Lahiry and Chowdhry families no doubt took great pity on him and sometimes asked him to dinner. But 13
