Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/48

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BIRTH AND ANCESTRY.

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Rupees^[1] a month. He was highly delighted at this appointment, but did not leave the protection of his benefactor, who had given him shelter in times of dire need. He lived in the same house with his protector as before, and without minding in the least his own privations, began to regularly send the two rupees every month to his mother to mitigate her sufferings. He was very intelligent and industrious, and performed his duties most willingly and cheerfully. For this reason, his employers, wheresoever he was employed, were all highly satisfied with him.

"In two or three years, Thakurdas had a pay of five rupees a month. The sufferings of his mother, brother, and sisters were now much relieved. At this time, my grandfather (Thakurdas's

↑ At the present rate of exchange, one rupee is equivalent to 15 pence.

The reader may smile at the idea of an income of two rupees a month. But at the time of which we are speaking, this amount small as if may seem, was sufficient to maintain a little family. The articles of living were very cheap. There was a time when rice sold at two maunds a rupee; mustard oil eight to ten seers; milk, one maund; vegetables the poor people grew in the compounds of their houses or procured from the neighbouring fields; fish they fished in tanks and rivers. The people were less luxurious. They were content with coarse rice and cloth. The men longed not for European shoes and boots, nor the women for fine clothes and Jewelry. To be brief, they had very little need of money. Woe to the country that those days are past, perhaps never to return.

[1] At the present rate of exchange, one rupee is equivalent to 15 pence.

The reader may smile at the idea of an income of two rupees a month. But at the time of which we are speaking, this amount small as if may seem, was sufficient to maintain a little family. The articles of living were very cheap. There was a time when rice sold at two maunds a rupee; mustard oil eight to ten seers; milk, one maund; vegetables the poor people grew in the compounds of their houses or procured from the neighbouring fields; fish they fished in tanks and rivers. The people were less luxurious. They were content with coarse rice and cloth. The men longed not for European shoes and boots, nor the women for fine clothes and Jewelry. To be brief, they had very little need of money. Woe to the country that those days are past, perhaps never to return.

[1]