Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/54

Rh of his mother. It is said that, one night, when he was staying on the top of a hill, Ramjay dreamed that a good male child, who was destined to do much real good to the country and to win a worldwide renown, was going to take its birth in his family. This dream made him forsake his ascetic life and return again to his home. This child was Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar.

When Ramjay returned a second time to Birsingha, he saw that his daughter-in-law, Bhagavati Devi, was really pregnant, but at the same time quite insane. She had lost her sanity from the moment she had conceived the child in her womb. This insanity lasted throughout the whole period of her pregnancy. Strange to say, that although with continued treatment of different kinds for ten months failed to cure her, yet no sooner was she delivered of the child, Isvar Chandra, than she began to regain her sanity even without any medical help. In a short time, she was as sane as ever, and continued so to the last day of her life. Kind-hearted as she naturally was, she was ever afterwards seen to feed and clothe the poor. As is the custom with unalloyed Hindu women, she cooked food with her own hands, and took great delight in distributing it to the guests and the needy, without distinction of caste or creed. Her generosity, kindness and benevolence were unparalleled. We shall try to give a more detailed description of her character later on, But we may mention here, in