TARANATH TARKABACHASPATI.
During the last century oriental Scholarship bad no greater votary than Taranath. In the year 1812 he was born in Ambieagram near the city of Kalna, situated in the Subdivision of the same name, in the district of Burdwan. His father, Kalidas, was a Pandit of acknowledged fame. His ancestors were all distinguished men of letters, who had acquired an immense landed property by their knowledge of the Sastras.
Taranath attained great proficiency in all the Sastras at a very early age. He was indeed second to none in his knowledge of the science of language; and in Astrology, in Philosophy and in Hindu Laws, there was no Pandit in Bengal who could challenge him. Great was his thirst for acquiring knowledge, and he was accustomed to read even while walking in the streets. He studied the Vedanta and Panini at Benares with Biswampa Swami. He could speak so well in Bengali, Hindustani and Sanskrit, preserving the peculiarities of each language that it was difficult to detect which language was his mother tongue. He was appointed a Professor of Sanskrit in the Sanskrit College on the 23rd January, 1845, on a monthly salary of Rs. 90, which increased up to Rs. 150. At that time no Professor of the Sanskrit College drew more than Rs. 150 a month. He took his pension in 1874, and passed the rest of his life in the cultivation of the Sastras and in the performance of religious rites.
In his youthful days, he had tried his hand on several kinds of business. At Ambicagram, he opened a cloth shop and was not the least discouraged even after incurring a loss of Rs. 5000. At Kalna, he became the owner of a goldsmith's shop, and at Suri near Birbhum, he established another shop of cloth, and employed peasants to work in paddy and sugarcane plantations.
An unrivalled Sanskrit scholar, he was not versed in the English language, but he showed such command over the principles of Sociology and Political Economy after occidental
