*Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar,* born on 26 September 1820

*Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar,* born on 26 September 1820, was a Bengali polymath from the Indian subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance. He was a philosopher, academic educator, writer, translator, printer, publisher, entrepreneur, reformer and philanthropist. His efforts to simplify and modernize Bengali prose were significant. He also rationalized and simplified the Bengali alphabet and type, which had remained unchanged since Charles Wilkins and Panchanan Karmakar had cut the first (wooden) Bengali type in 1780.