Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/397

354 when Colvile repeatedly goaded him to it, he visited for a few days his friend, Dwarka Nath Mitter, one of the best pleaders of the said Court, to have an inkling of the manners of the legal professionals. But from what he witnessed on those days, his aversion for the bar waxed ten-fold, and he gave up that forced project once for all.

Shortly after his retirement from public service he had to face a most heart-rending calamity in the death of his dear grand-mamma (father's mother). According to the custom of the Hindus she had been brought living to the shores of the Bhagirathi (the river Hugli) at the Salkea Ghat, where she lived for 20 days, and then breathed her last in the bed of the holy river. These 20 days she had lived simply on the sacred water of the Bhagirathi. Her Sraddha ceremonials made a large hole in Vidyasagar's purse. His Widow Marriage movement had turned most of the inhabitants of his native place to be his enemies. They now found an opportunity to be revenged upon him. They tried their best to dissuade the Pandits and the Brahmans of the locality from joining the ceremonials and eating in his house. But Vidyasagar had won a great reputation from his universal philanthrophy, and had done immense good to his countrymen in different forms. The reader