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Sangamashram—Dr. Bhandarkar’s Residence
and it was done quite disinterestedly. As a scholar of antiquity he had long realised the height of social greatness of the ancients and he was never slow in telling his countrymen that they had fallen very low indeed from that great ancient ideal. The miserable condition of Indian womanhood excited his pity and he set the example of how it could be improved by sending his own daughters to school. The result of the introduction of female education in his family is that six of his grand-daughters today are graduates of the University of Bombay. On the question of marriage he held very advanced views. Widow marriage in those days was not much in public favour, nor can it be said that it is so to-day. But in those days it required undoubtedly greater courage to espouse the cause than it does now. When an opportunity to exhibit this courage came, he did not hesitate to get his own widowed daughter remarried. He abhorred the prevalent custom of marrying girls in their tender age and characterised it as human sacrifice. On the question of caste, he held very distinct and advanced views and was in favour of the uplift of the depressed classes. Social and moral reform was according to him the great and perhaps the only panacea for the many evils from which our country suffers. He most firmly believed that there could be no political advancement without social and moral advancement. In social matters, as in all other things, Sir Ramkrishna was not a revolutionary, at least he considered himself not to be so. Speaking on one occasion on the question of caste-distinction, he said, “I do not wish you to obliterate all distinctions at once,” because he realised that an evil of very long standing could not be destroyed in a short time and easily. It required patient and persevering labour to do it. But so far as he was personally concerned, distinctions of castes and creeds were unknown to him. He sat with all, touched all, ate with all and did all he could to put even the untouchables on the way to progress. He presided over the deliberations of the Anti-Untouchability Conference and from his knowledge of the subject showed that the people who are considered untouchables now were not so in the olden days, and that justice and fairplay required that they should be treated as our equals and every sympathy and love be shown to them. In his opinion social reform was not a subject on which it was possible to compromise. “Social reform is to be based on truth, love and morality and how can there be any compromise on these subjects?” This is what he said on the occasion. And he added, “What-
