Peary Chand Mitra

Mitra was born at Calcutta on 22 July 1814. His ancestral village was Panisehala in Hooghly District of present-day West Bengal. His father, Ramnarayan Mitra, moved from Panisehala, Hooghli District to Calcutta in early life and made his fortunes as banians to European merchants and officials. Kishori Chand Mitra was his brother. As was the custom at that time, he started learning Persian at a young age and in 1827 joined the Hindu College, where he started learning English. While still a student he started a school in his own home to teach others in his locality what he learnt. At some point in time his friends Rasik Krishna Mallick, Radhanath Sikdar and Sib Chandra Deb joined him to bolster his efforts. David Hare and Derozio helped him as well. ==Career==

Mitra joined Calcutta Public Library as deputy librarian in 1836. The library was established the same year in the residence of an Englishman named Strong in the Esplanade. It was later shifted to Fort William College and when the Metcalfe Hall was constructed to pay respect to the memory of Charles Metcalfe, the library was moved to the hall in 1844. Mitra rapidly rose up the ladder as librarian, secretary and finally curator, a position he held till his retirement. He was associated with a variety of social welfare activities of his day. He was a member of the Calcutta University Senate, the society for prevention of cruelty to animals, and the Bethune Society. He was secretary of the British India Society (later Association). He was also a Justice of the Peace. He had a strong interest in the development of agriculture in the country. His criticism of the permanent settlement, The Zemindar and Ryots, created a sensation. While a member of the Agricultural Society, he started an organisation for the translation of books on agriculture from English to Bengali. In 1881, when Madame Blavatsky and Col Olcott visited India, he became involved with the Theosophical Society. ==Journalism and literary work==

Mitra was a contributor to the Englishman, Indian Field, Hindu Patriot, Friend of India, Calcutta Review, Bengal Harkara and Bengal Spectator. So great was its popularity that the language style came to be known as 'Alali'. That set the trend for Bengali prose then. In 1864, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay published his first novel Durgeshnandini to finally lay down the standard for Bengali prose. Alaler Ghare Dulal was later translated into English. Dickens of Bengal Rev. James Long was a keen observer of the literary scene in Bengal and referred to Mitra as 'the Dickens of Bengal'. He was imprisoned and fined for writing a preface to the English translation of Dinabandhu Mitra's controversial play Nil Darpan. The translation was done by Michael Madhusudan Dutt. ==Entrepreneurship==

In later life, Mitra became a successful businessman. Along with his Derozian friend Tarachand Chakraborti, he was involved in export-import business Pearychand & Tarachand Limited. == Family ==

Mitra had a brother Kishori Chand Mitra, a civil servant. He had four sonsAmrita Lal Mitra, Chuuni Lal Mitra, Heera Lal Mitra and Nagendra Lal Mitra and a daughter Uma Shashi Mitra. ==References==