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Notice in a coal mine near Pendlebury, England:—

“Visitors are requested not to fall down the pit as there are workmen at the bottom.”

In our country there is a story that an old housewife thanked the gods that her maidservant had not, in drawing water from a deep well, fallen into it, as in that case her brass water-pot would have been broken and lost.

Monday the 24th of the last month, which happened to be the Rishi Panchami day, passed away from his field of labour one who was rightly looked upon as a modern Rishi. Like the rishis of old Sir Ramkrishna Bhandarkar utilised his unequalled talents for the spread of education in its widest sense. Like the rishis he lived a life of purity, love and justice—a life that hankered after nothing so much as the love and knowledge of the Author of this Universe. His purity of thought, word and act, his love of God and His righteousness are now the heritage of the country and they will always shine like the celestial fire-pillars and shed the splendour of their influence on many a succeeding generation. Sir Ramkrishna died at the glorious age of eighty-eight, full of honours and all that the world could give, full of love and respect of his countrymen.

Sir Ramkrishna had a brilliant school and college career. He was one of the finest products of early English education in this Presidency. A great believer that he was in the power and efficacy of English education to elevate the condition of our society, he devoted himself unsparingly to the spread of the education at whose fountain he himself had drunk deep indeed. He served as a Dakshina Fellow in his College; took the head-mastership of a Government High School, served as Professor of Sanskrit—a subject of which he was an unequalled master, in the Elphinstone and Deccan Colleges. In all these years of service hundreds of students had the privilege of learning at his feet and though austere and stern in his manners, he succeeded in earning the love and affectionate regard of all of them. We have seen several of his students who are themselves advanced in age, still speaking of him as their beloved Acharya to learn at whose feet was, in their opinion, the greatest good fortune—nay a high privilege of their lives. While in the Educational Service of the Government, Sir Ramkrishna kept himself in close touch with the University, where for more than thirty years his voice was listened to with great respect by the Fellows of that body. The interests of students were safe in the hands of Sir Ramkrishna who, by the way, was the second Indian Vice-Chancellor of his Alma Mater.

Sir Ramkrishna’s fame as an educationist was undoubtedly great. His services to that cause were immense and of long duration. His research work in the cause of Indian antiquity was of a high order and was much appreciated by those who knew what an amount of patient labour it involved. His expert Knowledge of all educational problems was admitted to be great and he was chosen as one of the members of the Viceroy’s Council while the University Commission’s report was being discussed therein. While Sir Ramkrishna certainly rendered uncommon services to the educational advancement of the Presidency and has for that reason a claim on the lasting gratitude of his country-men, in our opinion his life-long work as a religious and social reformer more even than his work in the field of education entitles him to the unstinted gratitude of all. By his labour in these fields he taught the men and women of two generations at least to understand and realise the true paths leading to a nation’s greatness.

Sir Ramkrishna’s work as a social reformer was both practical and theoretical