ABSTRACT
The widow marriage campaign benefitted immensely from the collaboration of two pandits in particular: Vidyasagar and his colleague Taranath Tarkavachaspati. If Vidyasagar spearheaded the campaign, he often relied on the moral and intellectual support provided by Taranath. As a rule, pandits are reticent to speak about themselves. Young Ishvarchandra is a year into his studies at the Sanskrit College when Taranath first joined as a student. In 1841, Ishvarchandra successfully completed his education and immediately began to take advantage of the kinds of official positions that are becoming available for colonially trained pandits in Calcutta. Vidyasagar's growing suspicion of his friend is evident from two appendices attached to the first book of Bahuvivaha. Vidyasagar are a better pandit he wouldn't need to spend so much time rooting around in the shastras to know what was valid and what was not. This chapter explores two Sanskrit scholars it becomes clear how careful we must be in deploying generic categories like 'pandit'.
