e by that one man alone.

Dr. Rajendrahal Mitra was not only a profound scholar, but he had
likewise a striking personality which shone through his features. Full
of fire as he was in his public life, he could also unbend graciously so
as to talk on the most difficult subjects to a stripling like myself
without any trace of a patronising tone. I even took advantage of his
condescension to the extent of getting a contribution, _Yama's Dog_,
from him for the Bharabi. There were other great contemporaries of his
with whom I would not have ventured to take such liberties, nor would I
have met with the like response if I had.

And yet when he was on the war path his opponents on the Municipal
Corporation or the Senate of the University were mortally afraid of him.
In those days Kristo Das Pal was the tactful politician, and Rajendrahal
Mitra the valiant fighter.

For the purposes of the Asiatic Society's publications and researches,
he had to employ a number of Sanscrit Pandits to do the mechanical work
for him. I remember how this gave certain envious and mean-minded
detractors the opportunity of saying that everything was really done by
these Pandits while Rajendrahal fraudulently appropriated all the
credit. Even to-day we very often find the tools arrogating to
themselves the lion's share of the achievement, imagining the wielder to
be a mere ornamental figurehead. If the poor pen had a mind it would as
certainly have bemoaned the unfairness of its getting all the stain and
the writer all the glory!

It is curious that this extraordinary man should have got no recognition
from his countrymen even after his death. One of the reasons may be that
the national mourning for Vidyasagar, whose death followed shortly
after, left no room for a recognition of the other bereavement.
Another reason may be that his main contributions being outside the pale
of Bengali literature, he had been unable to reach the heart of the
people.

(36) _Karwar_

Our Sudder Street party next transferred itself to Karwar on the West
Sea coast. Karwar is the headquarters of the Kanara district in the
Southern portion of the Bombay Presidency. It is the tract of the Malaya
Hills of Sanskrit literature where grow the cardamum creeper and the
Sandal Tree. My second brother was then Judge there.

The little harbour, ringed round with hills, is so secluded that it has
nothing of the aspect of a port about it. Its crescent shaped beach
throw