Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: A great scholar, educationalist, social reformer and great writer

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was born on September 26, 1820 at Birsingha village in Midnapore district of West Bengal, India. He was the student of Sanskrit College. He earned a lot of respect and fame by acquiring knowledge of Sanskrit first and then English. He achieved the title “Vidyasagar” (Ocean of knowledge) by passing a special exam with top marks when he was 19 years old. For his philanthropy, people called him "Doyar Sagar" (Ocean of Kindness). Very few people had the fortune to achieve fame as a great scholar, educationalist, social reformer and great writer.

 

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In 1841, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar was appointed as the head Pundit of Fort William College. It was he who discovered the collocation and subject-verb agreement in the Bengali language and successfully used punctuation in the Bengali language. Hence, his writing became simple yet very stylish. For this reason, he is known as the father of Bengali prose. His first successful book was "Barnaparichay" (An introduction to the Bengali Alphabet), published in 1855. This book is still a guide in learning the Bengali language. Betal Panchabinsati, Shakuntal, Sitar Banabas, Charitabali Bhranti Bilas etc. are his main works.