“When I had reached my sixteenth year, I was removed to the college in Benares.  This is commonly a very interesting event in the life of a youth, as it reminds him that he is drawing near the period of manhood, and leaves him more a master of his actions.  But on the present occasion my pleasure had two drawbacks:  I could not but feel the contrast between the warm and confiding attachment of my late school-fellows, and the coldness and reserve of my new companions.  Yet the most disagreeable circumstance was, that I here met with my former rival, Balty Mahu.  He had entered the college about a month before me, and, aware of my intention, had spared no pains, as I afterwards learnt, of prejudicing the students against me.

“After a few months, however, our relative standing was the same here as it had been at the school.  I gradually overcame the prejudices of the students, and gained their good will, while he was always giving offence by his meddlesome disposition and overbearing manners:  yet his talents and force of character always procured him a few followers, whom he managed as he pleased.  Of their aid he made use to gratify his malevolence towards me, for this feeling had grown with his growth, and now seemed to be the master passion of his breast.  I was able to trace the result of their machinations every where.  Sometimes it was intimated to the teachers that I had been assisted in my exercises; at others, that I had infringed the college rules, or had put false reports in circulation, or had neglected some of the many ceremonies required by our religion.  This was their favourite, as well as the most efficient mode of attack, as in these respects there was some colour for their accusation.

“In my early childhood I had been spared, by the tenderest of mothers, from many of the ablutions practised by the Hindoos, under the belief that they would be injurious to my constitution, which, though healthy, had never been robust.  A foundation was thus laid with me for habitual remissness in these ceremonies; and after I grew up, I persuaded myself that they were of less importance than they were deemed by my countrymen.  My chief delight had ever been in books; and although, when engaged in active pursuits, I took a lively interest in them for the time, I always returned to my first love with unabated ardour.

“Some of these accusations, being utterly groundless, I was able to disprove; but the few that were true I endeavoured to excuse, and thus, by their admission, credit was procured for their most unfounded calumny.  These petty transgressions, (for I cannot even now regard them as sins,) industriously reported and artfully exaggerated, did me lasting injury with all the most pious of our caste.  The charitable portion, indeed, were merely estranged from me; but the more bigoted part began to regard me with aversion and horror.