Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/113

74 one could not aspire to that post. He had, therefore, applied to the authorities and obtained permission from them to study Smriti before Philosophy and Vedanta. So difficult was the subject, that ordinary students, who had already passed through the Philosophy and Vedanta classes, took two to three years to study such books, as the Mitakshara, Dayabhag, and Manusanghita, and then to obtain a tolerable knowledge of Smriti. But how wondrous! Young, unbearded Isvar Chandra, for he was then a mere lad of seventeen years, mastered the subject in six months' time; at the end of which, he underwent the Law-Committee Examination, and came out successful. Of course, these six months he neither cooked his food, nor performed other functions of a domestic, and slept daily for two or three hours only. So powerful were his memory and intellect, that in six months he learned the whole Smriti by heart, and could easily repeat, and give a lucid explanation of, every line in it. All his teachers, colleagues, and contemporary pundits were wonder-struck at his extraordinary abilities. Was not Isvar Chandra a genius?