VIDYASAGAR, Iswar Chandra, Indian author, philanthropist and social reformer: b. in the autumn of 1820 at Birsinha in the dis trict of Midnapur, Bengal, India; d. 30 July 1891. He was a Brahmin by birth. His father, the Kurdas Bandopadhya, was a poor tnan. When Iswar Chandra was nine years old, his father took him to Calcutta. They walked their way to the metropolis such was their poverty. The boy was educated in the Sanskrit College, and in all examinations he wed to be invariably at the top of his class. At this time, he suf fered from extreme poverty. Quite often he was forced to go without even proper food and clothing. He received the title °Vidyasagar" (the ocean of learning) in 1/340. Popularly, he is called in India, (Danver Sagar" — the ocean of kindness. His first work in Bengali prose, (Betal Pancha Bingshati,' was published in 1847 and his (Salcoontala) in 1855. But his masterpiece, (Sitar Banawbash) ((The ment of Sita)) WaS publi,licd in 1862 Raja Ram Mobun Roy, Iswar Chandra Vid)asagar and Akshya Kumar Datta were the fathers of Bengali prose. Vidyasagar was appointed as the Head Pandit of the Fort William College in April 1841 and the first principal of the Sanskrit College in January 1851. Apart from his scholarship, Vidyasagar was well lcnown as a social reformer. He was the originator of the movement for the remarriage of Hindu widows. He proved from Hindu scriptures that there was no injunction against such marriages. He published his (Remarriages of Hindu Widows' in 1855. He was vehemently tacked by the orthodox Hindus. Even his life was threatened. In this fight against orthodoxy, he was supportcd by two prominent men, Prosonno Kumar Tagore and Ram Gopal Ghose. Ultimately, the Widow Remarriage Act was passed in 1856. The extretne poverty of his boyhood and early youth, instead of turning him into a miscr, as is sometimes thc case, made him a philanthropist. And it is as the benefactor of his people that the people of India cherish his memory. He gave away most of his income in charity. He supported scores of poor students and hundreds of poor widows and helped thousands of persons of all classes. To give higher education at a reasonable cost, Vidyasagar opened, in 1872, the Metropolitan College of Calcutta, entirely at his own pense, and the income from the college he used for the improvement of the institution. This college still stands in Calcutta as a living monument to the memory of this great man.
feblIc, Clara, German novelist and
writer of short stories: b. Treves, 17 July 1860.
When she was nine years old, her father, a
Prussian oberregierungsrat, was transferred
and the family went with him to his new post
at Dusseldorf, where her girlhood was spent;
but she frequently returned to the Moselle
scenery at Treves and in the environment, in
which she took many tramps. Her father died
when she was hardly of age and she was sent
to live on the estate of some relatives in Posen.
She went to Berlin to study music, but instead
found that the stimulus of the great city, in
addition to the landscapes she had already seen.
was beginning to destine her for a literary
career, on which she embarked in 1894. After
marrying the publisher, Fritz Th. Cohn (a
partner in the firm of Fontane and Company,
later of Egon Fleischel and Company), she
lived most of the time in Berlin and its suburbs
(Schoneberg, Zehlendorf). In Germany she
is the most popular of the representatives of
the Zola school of naturalistic novelists and is
particularly able in the powerful description of
atmosphere and environment. Her delineation
of sensual passion is excellent, when she is at
her best, but she often descends to inartistic and
careless production, reminding us sometimes of
the backstairs novel. Her language is serious
and unadorned and her treatment of her
terials for the most part matter-of-fact and
craftsmanlike. VVhile her subjects are faced
boldly and completely, she is sometimes
erned more by the desire to produce what the
market requires than what an inner urge would dictate. None of her works has so completely caught the spirit of the times as her novel of Berlin servant life, 'Das tigliche Brot) (1901). She has also written dramas, which have met with little success. Other works are (Kinder der Eifel) (1897) ; (Das Weiberdorf) (1900) ; (Die Wacht am Rhein) (1902) ; (Des schlafende Heer) (1904) (Einer Mutter Sohn) (1907) ; (Das Kreuz un Venn) (1908) ; (Das letzte Gluck' (1909) ; (Die vor den Toren) (1910) ; (Das Eisen im Feuer) (1913). Consult