Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/179

138 দেবলোকে দুন্দুভি-ধ্বনি হইতে লাগিল। সিদ্ধ চারণ কিন্নর গন্ধর্ব্বগণ গীতি ও স্তুতি করিতে লাগিল। বিদ্যাধরীগণ অপ্সরাদিগের সহিত নৃত্য করিতে লাগিল। দেব ও দেবর্ষিগণ হর্ষিতমনে পুষ্পবর্ষণ করিতে লাগিল। মেঘসকল মন্দ মন্দ গর্জ্জন করিতে লাগিল।"

Such easy, chaste Bengali, as is found in Vidyasagar's "Vasudeva-Charita," is not generally to be met with in any other book written by Sanskrit pundits save Vidyasagar himself. It cannot, therefore, be said that those, who have a knowledge of Sanskrit, must invariably write good Bengali. Raja Ram Mohan Ray, Raja Rajendra Lala Mitra, and Rev. K. M. Banarji had a considerable knowledge of the Sanskrit language. They made no small amount of attempts for the culture and development of the Bengali prose. They rendered no inconsiderable extent of help for the improvement of the Bengali language. For this, their names ought to be respectfully cherished in the memory of every native of Bengal, equally with that of Vidyasagar. But even the language of these notable authors could not approach that of Vidyasagar in easy flow, chasteness, correctness, and elegance of style.

Raja Ram Mohan Ray had died at Bristol on the 27th September, 1833, at the age of 61, when Vidyasagar was still a scholar in the Sanskrit College. Raja Rajendra Lala Mitra and Rev. K. M. Banarji, devoted themselves to the cultivation and development of the Bengali language, contemporaneously with Vidyasagar. Both of them