Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/253

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SIR JOTINDRA MOHAN TAGORE
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of the city. With the restoration of the English, however, better days soon dawned again. The site selected by the Company for the new Fort included part of the land which Panchanana had purchased at Gobindpur on his first arrival and whereon he had erected his family house and temple. The Company now purchased the land at a considerably enhanced price from his son Joyram who reaped further profit from his association with the building of the Fort. The new dwelling-house and bathing ghat which he built for himself at Pathuria Ghatta still remains in the possessions of his descendants to-day.

Joyram Tagore who may thus be looked upon as the modern founder of the family died in 1762, and since that date his descendants have without a break continued to hold a prominent position in Bengal. His sons Darpa Narain and Nilmoni Tagore early acquired wealth and distinction, the former through successful mercantile enterprises, the latter as sheristadar of the Magistrate's Court at Alipore. Nilmoni Tagore was the grandfather of Dwarkanath Tagore who was so closely associated with Ram Mohan Roy in that great reformer's schemes for the regeneration of Bengal. Dwarkanath's career is one of the romances of the Rennaissance of Bengal. Starting life as a law agent, he carried on at the same time an extensive commercial agency, finally relinquishing both to enter government service and acting for six years as sheristadar to