Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/25

16 LIFE OF MR, MANOMOHUN GHOSE. THE LIFE OF Mr. MANOMOHUN GHOSE. B ARR I STER-AT-LAW, CALCUTTA. CHAPTER I. HIS PARENTAGE AND BIRTH. The two brothers Messrs. Manomohun Ghose and Lai Mohun Ghose, whose name and fame have spread all over India, belong to a very old Kyastha family of Bikrampore, in the district of Dacca. The family has a history of its own, as we gather from a manuscript note left by Babu Ram Lochun Ghose, the father of Mr. Ghose : — Ram Bhadra Ghose, a remote ancestor, was the proprietor of a village called Bhulladia, near Sumkote, in Bikrampore. That village which, together with Sumkote has long since disappear- ed by reason of the constant changes in the course of the Kirtinasha or Pudma river, was the ancestral pro- perty of the family which was known, at one time, as the Ghoses of Bhulladia. Ram Bhadra Ghose died, leaving two infant sons. At this time, Raja Gopal Krishna, son of the famous Raja Raj Bullub conceived the idea of marrying his daughter by a Kayastha woman to one of the two minor sons left by Ram Bhadra Ghose. He, accordingly, sent for the two boys who, however, left the village, and took shelter in the house of a powerful Zemindar, of Purgunah Idilpur, viz., Komul Roy Chowdry. Raja Gopal Krishna then made several ineffectual attempts to obtain possession ' of the two boys, and it is recorded, that in consequence of the refusal of the Idilpur Zemindar to make them over, Raja Gopal Krishna sent a small army, with the result that there was a pitched battle faught on the banks of Bhaira Khal between the adherents of Idilpur Zemin- dar and the troops of Gopal Krishna. The latter suffered a heavy defeat, • several men having been