Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/112

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SHYAMA CHURN AS A PUNDIT IN THE CALCUTTA MADRASSA. 103 bread, cooked over-night, with a little butter, at dawn, and then went out for the day with his pockets full of dry gram which he munched for his tiffin. At times, in the absence of a cook, he was forced to content himself with a meal consisting of a preparation of only milk and flour. His love of knowledge was bo intense and absorbing that he practised a self-denial, which would have done credit to an anchorite. In order that no part of the day might pass unprofitably, he even set apart the time occupied in walking to and from his work to the mastery of the grammars of the different languages he was studying '; and during his whole career at College he allowed , himself only two or three hours at night for sleep. The Sunday of every week was longingly looked forward to by him as an opportunity for taking the rest, so much needed to preserve his health ; and hence, he long called Sunday " the happy day." To be near his work, he subsquently removed to Toltolah, where, in time, he built his comfortable house. In 1842, he was appointed Second English Teacher in the Government Sanskrit College on a salary of Es. 70 per mensem. Here, with the assistance of the several learned Pundits attached to the Institution, he continued to prosecute his studies in Sanskrit of which he had already acquired some knowledge. 0 With Pundit Ishur Chunder Bydyasagur he read Dya Krama Shungraha written by Sreekristo Turko- lunkar. After the school hours he began to read v Sanskrit literature and Grammar with Grish Bidya- rutna, Gunga Dhur Turkobagish, and Prem Chand Turkobagish all Professors of the said College. The well-known Sanskrit savant Pundit Joy Narain Tur- . kolunkar taught him some parts of Seven Upani- shads, Samanjasha Britti, and Sankaracharjie's Saririk Bhashya.