The life and letters of Raja Rammohun Roy - WordPress.com

16 RAMMOHUN ROY.at any station except that of Rungpur, where he served fromOctober 20, 1809, to December, 1814, when he returned toEngland for a few years. Now it is at Rungpur that populartradition chiefly connects the name of Rammohun Roy withMr. Digby ;but as Mr. Digby was previously at Ramgurh (1805to 1808) and Bhagalpur (1808 to 1809), and as Rammohunmentions in his evidence on theBurdwan law-suit having residedat " Ramgurh, Bhagalpur, and Rungpur," it is highly probablethat he was working under Mr. Digby in the two former localitiesbefore he went to Rungpur , although we have no detailsas to the successive posts which he then occupied.It is usually stated by Rammohun's biographers that " awritten agreement was signed by Mr. Digby to the effect thatRammohun should never be kept standing (a custom enforcedby European Civil Servants towards natives of the highest rank)in the presence of the Collector, and that no order should beissued to him as a mere Hindu functionary." So far as I cantrace, this statement first appearedin a letter by Mr. R. MontgomeryMartin (in whose words I have quoted in the Courtifr)Journal of October 5, 1833, Just a ^ter Rammohun's death. Somany statements in that letter are undoubtedly erroneous thatI can feel no assurance as to the fact of this written agreement.There can, however, be no doubt that Mr. Digby held Rammohunin high regard, and that a sincere friendship existedbetween them, honourable alike to both.Mr. G. S. Leonard in his History of the Brahmo Somaj,based on a MS. work by a highly respected member of the AdiBrahmo Somaj, makes the following statement :The permanent settlement of Zemindaries under Lord Cornwallis in1793, and its ratification by the Court of Directors some three years after,required a general survey and assessment of all lands in Bengal underEuropean collectors, some of whom were empowered with the settlementof several districts at once. Mr. Digby had the charge of settling thedistricts of Rungpur, Dinajpur and Purnea,a work which kept him employ-