Page:Twelve men of Bengal in the nineteenth century (1910).djvu/14

Ram Mohan Roy was born on May the 22nd. 1772, at Radhanagar near Krishnagar. He came of a Brahman family, Kulins of the highest caste, which had won rank and wealth in the service of the Nawabs of Bengal. His grandfather, Brajabinode Roy, was like all his family a zealous follower of the Vaishnava sect. Nothing but the most unusual circumstances, therefore, accounted for the fact that his fifth son Ram Kanto Roy, the father of Ram Mohan Roy, was married to a girl whose father not only was a Bhanga Kulin, one who had broken his Kulin caste, but was also a priest of the rival sect of the Saktas. Brajabinode Roy, it is said, lay dying on the banks of the Ganges when a priest suddenly appeared before him and craved of him a boon. The dying man, anxious to comply with a priest's request, gave the required promise and further at the priest's request swore by the holy Ganges to fulfil it. The priest thereupon asked to be allowed to bestow his daughter in marriage upon one of Brajabinode's sons. This was a request that Brajabinode, as an orthodox Kulin, would have scouted had he not sworn by the sacred river, but, having done so, he had no alternative save to fulfil his promise. So, calling his sons, he turned to the eldest and bade him espouse the girl, only to meet with a determined refusal. His next three sons also declined in their turn. Ram Kanto Roy, the fifth son, however, unwilling to refuse his father's last request reluctantly consented to take the unwel-