Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/218

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HISTORY OF BENGAL.
177

founder of the well-known Bethune School of Calcutta. It is a girl, or rather a female, school for the education of native women. It was first started in 1849 with only 25 girl pupils. Its original name was the 'Hindu Girls' School,' which was subsequently converted to its present name, "Bethune School," after the name of its founder.

It was, about this time, that Vidyasagar was charged with the annual examinations of the students of the Junior and Senior departments of the Sanskrit College. In this connection, he had to come in contact with the famous German Scholar, Dr. Rowar, who was also another of the examiners. The charge of setting questions was intrusted to both of them. Dr. Rowar was, no doubt, vastly erudite in Sanskrit literature,[1] yet he had to obtain Vidyasagar's help in framing the questions. They were given some remuneration for the work. Vidyasagar did not appropriate the money to his own private use. He made a generous and charitable use of it. He laid out a part of it in giving a copy of the great Sanskrit epic, The Mahabharat, as a prize to Ram Kamal Bhattacharya, who stood first in Rheotric and Belles-lettres at the Senior scholarship examination. For this, he had to obtain permission of the

  1. He has translated into Engliah two Sanskrit works, viz. "Sahityadarpana," a book on Rhetoric, and "Bhasha-Parichheda," a book on Nyaya philosophy.