Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/23

II Mohan responded to these influences in the commencement of the century; Iswar Chandra, during the next thirty years.

The lives of these two great Indian workers fit in curiously in respect of dates. The establishment of the Brahma Samaj, or the Hindu Theistic Society, in 1828, was the crowning work of Ram Mohan Rai's social and religious reforms; in the following year, Iswar Chandra, a gifted and bright-eyed boy, was wending his way from his native village to Calcutta to seek for that education which was to fit him for his life-work. Ram Mohan died in England in 1833; within a few years after that date Iswar Chandra had completed his education at the Sanscrit College, passed a brilliant examination, and won the title of Vidyasagar by which he will always be known by his countrymen.

Lord Wellesley had founded the Fort William College in 1800 for the education of young civilians on their arrival in India in the vernacular languages; and young Vidyasagar, then only 21 years of age, was appointed Head Pandit of this College in 1841. The appointment had great influence on his life, as it led him to take up the study of the English language, of which he had learnt very little before. It was an eventful period of Vidyasagar's life; and he came in daily contact with some of the best Englishmen in Calcutta,