Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/257

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SIR JOTINDRA MOHAN TAGORE
225

He was entered as a student at the Hindu College at the early age of eight and for nine years he continued his studies there, distinguished among his fellow-students for his application and ability. Leaving the college when seventeen years old he finished his English education under the tuition of Captain D. L. Richardson, the distinguished scholar and writer. Brought up under strictly orthodox influences, Jotindra Mohan always retained his orthodox beliefs, furnishing by his piety, his charity and the sincerity of his life one of the most striking examples of all that is best in Hinduism, at the same time that his broadmindedness, his wide sympathy and his intense humanity was typical of the awakening that had come to Bengal.

From the first he was keenly interested in all that concerned education. The great cause which so many members of his house had ardently championed found in him a no less keen supporter. Following the family tradition, he had early acquired proficiency in Sanskrit, a language he always venerated as the guardian of the written tenets of his faith. His modern studies, however, kept place with his classical learning and from the first he had a perfect command of English. In his younger days, before the management of a great estate and many public duties occupied all his time, he gave evidence of considerable literary ability, and many contributions to various papers