Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/256

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TWELVE MEN OF BENGAL

Bengal Landowner's Society in 1838 and was elected President of the British Indian Association on its inauguration in 1857. On the formation of the Legislative Council of the Governor-General in 1854 he was appointed clerk assistant and later a member of the Legislative Council itself. He bequeathed the half of his immense wealth to his brother Huro Kumar Tagore, the father of Sir Jotindra.

Huro Kumar Tagore, unlike his more famous brother, figured but little in public life. Devoted to music, he was not only its liberal patron but was himself no mean performer. As a Sanskrit scholar he excelled, even in a family noted for its scholarship. He was not only able to write with ease and literary grace, he was able to converse in it fluently. There is a story told of him that when he and his brother wished to raise a tablet to his father's memory they offered a prize among all the most learned Pandits of the day for the best commemorative verses sent in. Huro Kumar annonymously sent in some verses that he had himself composed and these were at once adjudged the best although many of the greatest Sanskrit scholars of the day had competed. He died in 1858 and so well had he managed the family property that he was able to hand on a splendid inheritance to his sons Jotindra Mohan and Sourindra Mohan, who were themselves worthily to uphold the great traditions of their house.

Jotindra Mohan was born in Calcutta in 1831.