Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/304

Rh to the cause of the remarriage of Hindu widows, as in days past, Raja Ram Mohan Ray had sacrificed his life in his endeavours to prevent the practice of concremation of ''Satis. ''

This resolution had sat deeprooted in his mind from his early years. It is said, that Vidyasagar had a girl-playmate at Birsingha. He was very fond of her. After he had been separated from her, and had come down to Calcutta for education, she was married at an early age, but, in a short time, her husband died, and she was a widow. When Vidyasagar next went home during one of his college-vacations, he was deeply sorry to hear that his dear playmate had been married and had lost her husband. He immediately called at her house to see her, and there learnt that she had not eaten anything that day, because it was the eleventh day of the moon (which is a day of fasting for Hindu widows). He felt so much commiseration for the little girl, that he, then and there, resolved that he would give his life to relieve the sufferings of widows. He was at that time only 13 or 14 years old.

It is also said, that when he was still a pupil in the Sanskrit College and was come home during another vacation, he came to learn that a young widow of a respectable family had formed an illicit connection with a young man, and as a fruit of that connection, she had been pregnant, that various means had been adopted to bring about