Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar CIE (26 September 1820 – 29 July 1891), was a British Indian Bengali polymath 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. He also forced British to pass widow remarriage act

He received the title "Vidyasagar" (in Sanskrit Vidya means knowledge and Sagar means ocean, i.e., Ocean of Knowledge) from Sanskrit College, Calcutta (from where he graduated), due to his excellent performance in Sanskrit studies and philosophy. Noted Bengali mathematician Anil Kumar Gain founded Vidyasagar University, named in his honour.