Tara Charan learned English at a
free mission-school. Afterwards Surja Mukhi was married, and some
years later her father died. By this time Tara Charan had learned
English after a clumsy fashion, but he was not qualified for any
business. Rendered homeless by the death of Surja Mukhi's father, he
went to her house. At her instigation Nagendra opened a school in the
village, and Tara Charan was appointed master. Nowadays, by means of
the grant-in-aid system in many villages, sleek-haired, song-singing,
harmless Master Babus appear; but at that time such a being as a
Master Babu was scarcely to be seen. Consequently, Tara Charan
appeared as one of the village gods; especially as it was known in the
bazaar that he had read the _Citizen of the World_, the _Spectator_,
and three books of _Euclid_. On account of these gifts he was received
into the _Brahmo Samaj_ of Debendra Babu, the zemindar of Debipur, and
reckoned as one of that Babu's retinue.
Tara Charan wrote many essays on widow-marriage, on the education of
women, and against idol-worship; read them weekly in the _Samaj_, and
delivered many discourses beginning with "Oh, most merciful God!"
Some of these he took from the _Tattwa Bodhini_,[3] and some he caused
to be written for him by the school _pandit_.
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