[ '6? 1 NAVINCHANDRA SEN. Navinchandra Sen, one of the greatest of Bengali poets, belongs lo a respectable Vaidya family who in the sixteenth century left their original seat in a village near Tribeni in the Hugli district and settled in Chittagong. The founder of the family, the one who emigrated to Chittagong, was a Ray, a high revenue officer in the service of the Nabab and a very devout Hindu whose memory as the founder of a remarkable shrine of Durga still lives in the district. Ray's brother, Ryam Ray, was a captain in the Nabab's service and became the founder of a respectable family of converts to Muhammadanism. The original surname of the family seems to have been Sen, but it was not until the time of the poet that this title was reverted to. The poet was born in the village of Nayapara, a place abounding in natural scenery of the most beautiful character. The district itself is full of such scenery, being a second Scotland, and has been fitly described by the poet, in the words of Sir Walter Scott, as " meet nurse for a poetic child." The poet's father, Babu Gopimohan, was remarkable for his charity aiid benevolence. He rose from a Sheristadarship to a Munsiffship and then became a Vakil of the Judge's Court. His numerous charities left him nothing of his vast earnings, and white Navin- chandra was yet an undergraduate at the Presidency College, he was left penniless and in charge of a large family. This melancholy event brought out the hitherto dormant poetical nature of Mr. Sen. We see in the first volume of his Abakasranjini and in his Sasanka- tfut how deeply he was affected by this domestic calamity. How- ever, shortly after his father's death, Mr. Sen graduated and having passed the competitive Civil Service Examination, then held in India, became a Deputy Magistrate. The independence of his nature, his
