Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/535

488 females, and provided for their safe delivery and supply of milk to the new-born babies. The poor people in gratefulness changed his name from Vidyasagar to Dayar Sagar (an ocean of kindness). Gradually the number of the hungry rose to such a height that the 12 cooks engaged for preparing the food and the 20 men employed to distribute it felt quite used up with their work. As the hungry sat to their meals, they rent the air with repeated loud cheers for their "ocean of kindness." These people were fed by him up to the close of the year, when the new corn being ripe, they left the feeding camp one by one and returned to their respective houses, blessing with all their heart their benevolent protector, and praying to God for his long life.

He was not content with merely feeding the hungry people in his camp, but he visited the houses of his neighbours one after the other, and enquired after every one of them. The poor of the upper classes felt a great humiliation in resorting to the feeding camps. He helped them with money and articles of food, supplied at their houses, In fact, the unbounded kindness of Vidyasagar, who was by no means a man of money, put the great millionaires of the country to shame, Even the Government was obliged to acknowledge his generous bounty for the relief of the sufferers. The Commissioner of the Burdwan Division wrote to him as follows:—