New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1891-10-11
THREE INDIANS.
NOTABLE LEADERS OF THOUGHT AND AC-
TION IN IIINDOSTAN.
Calcutta, September !

r,,re is Scarcely known A hundred others are
far better known, far more conspicuous In receh'
Indian history. Indeed, for many years the hanie
of Iswara Chandra has been absent from the news
napers. and one will search in vain for it In the
lists of those upon whom great titles and decora-
tions have been conferred. Yet If the estimate be
based upon his actual achievements, 1t Will not
seem too great: and IL it be determined Dy the
popular grief at his death. one VIII not hesitate
TO pronounce that he was indeed the greatest OF
the HindOos.
Perhaps the most striking feature OF his re-
markabe career was his defiance, ana successiui
defiance, of Brabminism. lie was himself
Brahmin of the Brahmins, Of the very hlghes'
caste And it was indeed because OF that very
fact that he ventured to put himself In drect op
position TO his whole order. and that he was aoie
TO overcome and TO bring all his compeers 10 Ms
way of thinking. 1t is now thirty-hve years sihce
no took ND the cause of the child-widows of India
Had any lesser man undertaken the task, he
would have been doomed TO overwhelming defeat.
He had arraycd against him all the religious, social
and political sentiments of India. II he falied'
he would he an outcast, worse than dog. whom
no other Brahmin would so much as look upon,
~ nossible He took up the cause, single-handed,
and by the sheer sublimity of his moral and spirit
nal worth. carried through the law of 1856. How
he accomplished this is one of the most eXtraor-
binary passages in Indian history
There is nothing Brahmin detests more than
an attack npon his religion. Even If you con-
vince him that certain law or practice WORKS
evil he will listen to no suggestion of replacing 1t
with n new one Iswara Chandra knew this; or
rather be lived I'D to il. for he himself was the
strictest of Brahmins in this very respect lie
saw however that the existing customs were evil
Therefore. he said they are not pure Brahmlns'
they have become corrupted; return must be had
IN the pure ancient faith So he devoted wears oil
profound study to the sacred BOOKS Ana there
WAS not Pundit in all the land who dld not ne
srect his scholarship. He found that in former
wears women had far greater liberty than now
Tho regulations bearing so intoerably upon child
,,jdo,ys had no existence in those earlier and
,,oro ,,rosoorous DAYS. wherefore he urged upon
his ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS not any new thing, but the
forsal,inp of new things and return TO the
pristine faith Such argument. backed up by his
unoucstoned authority as scholar, was con-
viucinc and successful 1t would have been an
uncommonly shrewd bit Of work on the part OF
n man TO whom it was merely diplomatic tick.
Rnt to him it was not merely tact. lie only pre-
vailed upon others by the very arguments by
which he had himself been convinced.
This one achievement would give to 1swara
Chandra O. place in the Hindoo pantheon com
parable with that given in America to the author
of the Emancipation Proclamation. But that was
by no means his sole life work. lie was the
creator of the modern literature OF Bengal. For
forty years he was indisputably the foremost
prose writer in all the land 1t was his object TO
found a new school of literature, of more vigor.
GUS and wholesome type than that which had
.Io 1ono IF
country in corrupt and chanGeful state. He
moulded it and fixed its form, restoring largely
the old Sanskrit purity. but adding many new
words from European tongues. Then his pro-
life pen sent forth many volumes which must
become classic. Many of them were educational
in character Indeed, he gave to Bengal its Gu
tire system Of yuistic text books SO great were
his literary achievements and vast his learn
ing, that he was called By popular acclaim
"Vidyasagara," which means Ocean Of Learn
ing" a title by which he was ever after known,
For two score years he was the unchallenged
leader Of the literary world OF Bengal. But
neither this nor his work of reform in social laws
was to him at any rate. his greatest achievement
for his fellow-men. ResOutey turning his back
upon all the honors and powers and fame that
might have been his he strove to realize TO the
fullest possible degree the Hindoo ideal of self
denial, charity. spiritual exaltaton. and efiace-
ment from the world. In this. too he
unique. lie did not do many, seek these
ends in the life OF recuse. He did not avoid
contamination by avoiding contact with others.
On the contrary. he mingled daily with his fellow
men. ignoring social ranks and caste. He gave to
all who were needy and ministered TO all who
were sick. lie never hestated to enter the house
Of man of the lowest caste and to perform there
even the most mental services. Any other high
caste Brahmin would have shrunl1 from such
dcfilement, But he took loftier view. His
purity SO immaculate or so unassailabe,
rather. that contact with that which was
base could not sully it in the least.
What is it to be pure.' he said. IF one
must also be a. prisoner within the
pale of caste?" And so he went about personally
doing good, and at the same time not neglecting
to organize systematic charities after the manner
of European nations. Thus he spent most Of his
Wealth. he said, belongs to no man, but only
great fortune, which he would never call his
the right to dispose of it,"
This was Brahmin of the purely spiritual
type, type which is, unhappily, growing less com
mon year by year. At nearly the same date there
died another Brahmin Of the best worldly type, who
in worldly point of view by far more eminent
This was Dr. Mira, or in Hindoo phrase. the
Rajah Raiendra Laa Mira. Simply as a scholar,
he ranked almost as high as Iswara Chandra.
But his scholarship was of different type. He
had no mission save an intellectual one He de-
voted himself to researches into Sanskrt litera-
ture. not for spiritual cdifcaton, nor to restore
purity to the Hindoo faith. but merely to find and
preserve literary gems, any foreigner might
have done He was at first educated as physi-
clan, and wished to visit England to complete
his course Of study. But TO cross the sea would
have defled his caste and doomed him to life
of penance. So lie stayed at home and abandoned
that profession, becoming instead the librarian
Of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. This society
had an unrivalled collection of manuscripts and
other relics of the palmy days of Sanslxrit liter.
AZURE TO the study Of which DR.. Mira devoted