Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar: Seeing Bengal’s reformist icon through photographs and prints

In April 1859, an advertisement in the Bengali journal Tattwabodhini announced that prints of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s portrait had been released for sale. The insertion read:

People across the land have heard of the good deeds of our most venerable benefactor, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, but most have not had the opportunity to see him. For those wishing to do so, we have made copies of his portrait available. Each print measures about one-and-a-half arms’ length [approximately 27 inches] and is priced at 1 rupee. They can be obtained by sending the abovementioned amount to our [NC Ghosh Company] offices on 23 Lal Bazar.

At the time, Vidyasagar was not yet forty but his fame had evidently spread wide enough that there was a demand for his image. Born Ishwar Chandra Bandyopadhyay in 1820 in Birsingha in present-day West Midnapore, the champion of widow remarriage had already borne his “Vidyasagar” epithet for two decades. He had completed his education at the Sanskrit College, cleared the law examination and taught for several years at the Fort William College by this time – apart from leading a successful campaign that contributed to the passing of the Hindu Widow Remarriage Act of 1856. Just below the insertion in Tattwabodhini, appears...

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