ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the Vidyasagar enshrined in biography and popular memory as a friend of the friendless, a patron of the poor and a champion of the powerless. The chapter focuses on Vidyasagar through epithets such as 'ocean of compassion', 'ocean of generosity' and 'friend of the poor', and it reveals whether such descriptions can be made to support a more nuanced understanding of his values, aspirations and life's work. If the arrival of 'private life' in colonial India is associated with the expression of new forms of conjugality, romantic love, friendship and interiorised religious belief, some of these developments are hinted at by Vidyasagar's intimate expressions of love and affection. The best approach, it seems, is not one of forensic reduction of all information to verifiable 'data' but one of critical reading. The stuff of legends may often seem like moral pablum, but a critical engagement with the sources can also reveal the messier truth behind the hagiography.
