Vidyasagar, the Great Indian Educationist and Philanthropist/Chapter 7
CHAPTER VII
HOMEWARDS.
"A Power is passing from the earth."
—Wordsworth.
The great are never born to die. Their works, their teachings, their character, make them immortal. Dust returns to dust. Death cannot lay his cruel hands on the soul; the dissolution of the body cannot cast it into the limbo of oblivion. Death does not level or equalise all. Men possessing no personality go the way of all Shams. The inspiring influence of a master spirit does not cease with the shuffling off of this mortal coil. Though Vidyasagar passed away after he had lived out his threescore years and ten, his grand personality remains behind to inspirit people for ages to come.
After submitting his note on the Age of Consent Bill the septuagenarian reformer returned to Chandernagore where he felt comparatively better for about two months. Then he gradually became worse and towards the middle of June was attacked with a severe pain in the sides. Finding no cure there, he returned to Calcutta. The eminent physicians were called in one by one. None could give him permanent relief. Their tender care and the ceaseless attendance of his devoted kinsmen only served to prolong his life up to the 28th July. Intense as his sufferings were, the fortitude that he displayed was marvellous. His calm and serene countenance sometimes deceived the watchers awakening fresh hopes, only to scatter them in a few days. As he could not bear the rattle of carriages, straw was spread over the adjacent streets. The municipal corporation was sympathetic enough to prohibit the passing of heavy scavenger carts by that lane. All these noble efforts could not check the progress of the fatal malady, the symptoms of which constantly changed. The patient at last became unconscious. On Tuesday the 28th July 1891 all hope of recovery was given up. He had been speechless and in a stupor for four days past, yet he suddenly turned his head from the north to the west in order to face the portrait of his mother hanging on the eastern wall. Tears streamed down his withered cheeks as he intently gazed at the picture, the last object he saw in life. All perceived that the end was drawing nigh. A few minutes after two on the morning of Wednesday the 29th July he ceased to breathe and entered into rest.
First outburst of grief over, friends and relations of the deceased hastened to prepare against the funeral. The body of the lamented Pundit clad in pure white was placed upon the bed he used to sleep on. A large crowd soon assembled to accompany the cortege to the Nimtala burning ghat. Before daylight the melancholy procession started slowly, the bier being borne by the family mourners. On the way it halted for a few minuets before the Metropolitan Institution. By five o'clock it reached the cremation ground. Meanwhile the heavy news had spread from end to end of the town and men, women and children of all classes flocked in thousands, eager to obtain a coign of vantage to catch a last glimpse of the departed. There was scarcely any dry eye in that vast concourse of people. At length the remains were washed with the holy waters of the Ganges and slowly laid on a pyre of sandalwood. Narayan Chandra with tearful eyes set fire to it. By mid-day the mourners collected the sacred ashes and while returning home distributed alms to the beggars.
The sad tidings travelled fast through the length and breadth of India and the public grief was universal and profound. The press, both English and Vernacular, appeared in mourning, giving a sketch of the life and career of the lamented Pundit. The journals of Europe and America also published obituary notices in terms most appreciative of his merits. The schools and colleges in Bengal and elsewhere closed in honour of the deceased. The students of Metropolitan Institution, among others, went into mourning. The merchants and shopkeepers closed their places of business. Various condolence meetings were called in all important towns of India, the foremost men of the time taking the chair. It was decided to award prizes and found scholarships for students and open libraries and hospitals to do honour to the memory of the great man.
A month after a grand meeting was held in the Town Hall of Calcutta presided over by Sir Charles Elliott, the Lieutenant-Governor (1890-'95), to give expression to the general sorrow and to consider the best means of keeping up the name of the Pundit. All orders of the community were present. It was decided to erect a public monument of the first Principal of the Sanskrit College. The statue in spotless marble, which so long decorated the vestibule of the Sanskrit College, has now been placed in the College Square, facing the university buildings.
It is also gratifying to note that the Hindu ladies of the town convened an early memorial meeting and raised a sum of over sixteen hundred rupees from among themselves. With this they established an annual scholarship tenable for two years and awarded to a girl who after passing the annual examination in the third class of the Bethune School desired to prepare herself for the university examination.