Page:The Message and Ministrations of Dewan Bahadur R. Venkata Ratnam, volume 2.djvu/411



From the galaxy of 'Indian Worthies there have disappeared beyond human ken two most radiant orbs of the very first magnitude. Within four days of each other have ended the illustrious careers here below of two of India's most noted worthies. If the lives of its great men be the most precious treasure of a country, our poor fatherland has had to pay a very heavy tribute, indeed, to the grim old king of "mantle dark and cold n in the departure, almost simultaneously, of one who signally vindicated the intellectual greatness of his nation and the other who was a life-long champion of the social victims of his custom-ridden race. Verily a cloud, a gloom, has passed over the face of Aryavarta; and the entire peninsula mourns the loss of two of the rarest products of this country or age.