Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-1891) The grammarist, polymath, scholar, humanist, educationist, reformer, and doyen of the Bengal Renaissance was born on 26 September 1820 in a poor brahman family in a village in Medinipur.

He brought a revolution in the education system of Bengal. His book, “Barno-Porichoy” (Introduction to the letter).

Vidyasagar refined the Bengali language and made it accessible to the common strata of the society. He also opened the doors of the colleges and other educational institutions to lower caste students, which was earlier reserved only for the Brahmins. For his immense generosity and kind-heartedness, people started addressing him as “Dayar Sagar” (ocean of kindness) He is considered the “father of Bengali prose”

Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar initiated the concept of widow remarriage and raised concern for the abolition of child marriage and polygamy. . His arguments with the British brought Hindu Widows’ Remarriage Act in 1856 .