Ishvar Chandra Vidyasagar (b. 1820) was one of India's greatest intellectuals and activists of the nineteenth century. He was born into a poor Brahmin family and faced poverty all through his childhood. He was known variously as an educator, academic, philosopher, reformer and philanthropist. He started his career as the principal of Fort William College at age twenty-one and then joined Sanskrit College in 1850 and became principal the following year. Through his writings, Vidyasagar raised many questions about the various ills that had permeated society like early marriage and polygamy. He advocated widow-remarriage all through his life and was considered as one of the greatest pillars of the Bengal Renaissance.