Page:Isvar Chandra Vidyasagar, a story of his life and work.djvu/58

Rh who had then returned from his pilgrimage, wrote with lac-dye a few words in the lower part of the newly-born child's tongue, before the severance of its umbilical cord, and then told his wife, Durga Devi, that as an effect of this writing the child would be incapacitated for a little while from sucking the breast of its mother. He also said that the infant's delicate tongue, being handled by his hard, rough hand, the child would stammer for a time; but that, being born at a most auspicious moment, the child would in future become a great man, and that his fame would spread far and wide." All this, Sambhu Chandra says, he heard from his father and from his paternal and maternal grand-mothers. But Vidyasagar himself has made no mention of this in his auto-biography.

Shortly after Isvar Chandra's birth, Kenaram Acharyya, a great astrologer of the time, prepared his horoscope, and he was greatly surprised at the indications. He foresaw that the future of Vidyasagar was very auspicious, and that he would become a great man. That the Hindu astrology is no myth, but a well-founded science, is clearly proved from Vidyasagar's horoscope. All its predictions were fulfilled to the letter. As the subject is very abstruse and incomprehensible without a careful study of the science, we forbear entering into a discussion of Isvar Chandra's horoscope.

As we have said before, Isvar Chandra was born at a propitious moment, and this was