PREFACE
“Trisandhi"—literally means, the union of the three, i.e. the Hindu, the Mahomedan and the Christian. This book has been prepared in accordance with the vernacular curriculum prescribed for class V in High and Middle English Schools, in Eastern Bengal; and as the name signifies, has been representative, as far as possible, of the three cultures which rule the life of the Bengali people at the present day. The curriculum prescribed has been strictly followed, but with a definite plan in view, the plan of representing the three cultures through the medium of simple and interesting lessons, so that no one among the three may be given undue prominence.
The connexion of the author, as a teacher, with Sir Rabindranath Tagore's school at Santiniketan, Bolepur, for eleven years or more, enabled him to have a firsthand knowledge and experience of the requirements of the boys and made him think of preparing a book, in which the three cultures, the Hindu, the Mahomedan and the Christian, would be represented.
In moral stories, therefore, anecdotes have not simply been chosen from Hindu history and Hindu life, but equally from Mahomedan history. In poetry, three poems have been composed by the author, the subjects being taken from the Koran, the Bostan of the poet Sadi, and the Mahomedan history of India. The first lesson of the book is about Sultan Mahmud and the Kingdom of Gazni and
