Oriental Seminary

Oriental Seminary was an English school, established at Goranhata of Kolkata, on 1 March 1829. Its founder was Gourmohan Adhya (1805-1845). After ten years, from 27 April in 1839 the Seminary started teaching Bangla.

Receiving western education, some students of hindu college used to become atheist and converted to Christianity. The influence of English education made students disinterested in local socio-cultural norms and even they tended to look down upon their customary institutions. Noticing such tendency, guardians were unwilling to send their children to schools run by Christian missionaries. Under these circumstances, the Oriental Seminary assured the guardians that, none of the students of this Seminary would become atheist or convert to Christianity. Actually its success lay in the presence of good teachers. Gourmohan Adhya used to go to different places for potential teachers.'

Some of the teachers at the elementary and high sections of Oriental Seminary were: George Edward Baylis, Alexander Turnbull, David Lester Richardson, Fredrick Penny, Mr JB Smith, Hardman Jeffrey and others. At the elementary level, different languages like Greek, Latin, German, French, Hebrew, Spanish and others were taught along with English. Some Bengali teachers were: Kalikinkor Palit, Peary Mohan Bandhopadhyay, Gurucharon Datta, Kailash Chandra Basu, Ishwar Chandra Nandi, Benimadhob De, amrita lal basu and others.

Some of the noted students of Oriental Seminary were: akshay kumar datta, Shambu Nath Pundit, Krishna Das Pal, girish chandra ghosh, Kailash Chandra Basu, woomesh chandra bannerjee, Guru Das Bandhopadhyay, Amrita Lal Basu, rabindranath tagore and others. Later, most of them earned name and fame in their respective career. [Muhammad Saiful Islam]