Ishwar Chandra Vidhyasagar has been an achiever at a very young age. During his graduation he gained mastery in many shastras or disciplines - kavya (poetry), alankar (rhetorics), vedanta (vedic literature and anthology), smriti (philosophy of law), nyaya (logic, science and jurisprudence), and jyotish-vidya (astrology). He bagged all the prizes and scholarships for best performance. Evaluating his stupendous results in the above courses, the College Committee endowed Ishwar Chandra with the Honorific Title of Vidyasagar (Ocean of Knowledge) in 1839 when he became a Law Graduate. Vidyasagar`s greatest legacy is the result of his persistent campaign to better the situation of Indian women, specially in his native Bengal. Many social reformers such as the celestial body of the Brahmo Samaj movement -- Raja Rammohan Roy, Keshub Chunder Sen, Debendranath Tagore -- and Christian missionaries like Alexander Duff, Krishna Mohan Banerjee and Lal Behari Dey, were attempting to reform Indian social practice. Vidyasagar was blessed to live in such a time. But this social reformer did not seek to set up any alternative societies of such manners. He worked for transformation of orthodox Hindu society from within.

During his tenure as the principal of the famous Sanskrit College, he encouraged scholars to study ancient sacred texts and interpret them for the times. His study of these texts convinced him that the contaminate status of women in nineteenth century Hindu society was not at all sanctioned by the scriptures. It had more to do with existing power relations in society. The bias in law against female inheritance, wealth and property, and the social prejudice against female autonomy and education, were in his eyes comparatively recent phenomena.

Apart from this another prevailing custom of Kulin Brahmin polygamy those days allowed elderly men often on the verge of death to marry many teenage girls or even infants, supposedly to spare their parents the shame of having an unmarried girl attain puberty in their house. The girls were usually abandoned soon after marriage and left behind in their parental homes, with their parents bearing the entire expense of their upkeep in addition to the financial burden of the wedding and dowry. The children would often be widowed within a few years, and thereby condemned to live in abstinence, grief, torture, deprivation and discrimination. They were not allowed to eat meat, fish, onions, garlic and (often) sugar, had to rise before dawn to carry out worship and rituals, bathe in icy water and wrap a clean sari around their bodies without drying them, and pick flowers with the night`s dew still on them. By custom they ate last in the household, or went without. They had to dress in plain white cotton saris and shave their heads for the rest of their lives to render them unattractive to men. Some would even be thrown out of their houses or sent to Varanasi or Vrindavan, supposedly to pray and purify themselves, but in reality they frequently ended up as prostitutes, rape victims and unsupported mothers. Viewing this evil practice against women Vidhyasagar introduced widow remarriage to uplift the Hindu society.

His pioneering work in Bengali prose certainly deserves the very best of appreciation. He mostly devoted his time writing reformist literature and textbooks. Vidyasagar cannot be judged as one of the best pure literary figures of Bengal but his simplification of idiomatic expressions and clarification of the writing style provided the sound base on which latter Bengali writers like Tekchand Thakur, Pyarichand Mitra and Bankim Chandra Chatterjee built their literary superstructures. Vidhyasagar also wrote biographical notes on numerous noteworthy personalities in the history of the world so that the young generation could be inspired by reading the great examples of their endurance, hard work, honesty, patience, perseverance, courage, determination and philosophy of life.

Betaal Panchavinsati - 25 tales of a Betaal (Demon) published in 1847 - a translation from the Sanskrit Kathasaritsagara on King Vikramaditya and his Betaal, is one of the most popular works of Vidyasagar in Bengali Prose. Other notable Literary contributions by him include Banglar Itihaas (1848), Jivancharita (1849), Shakuntala (1854), Mahabharata (1860), Seetar Vanavas (1860), Bhrantivilaas (1869), Oti Alpa Hoilo (1873), Aabaar Oti Alpa Hoilo (1873), Brajavilaas (1884) and Ratnopariksha (1886). Vidyasagar is also famously known for his Educational Book of "Barnoparichoy" - a first book of the Bengali alphabet to introduce children to the alphabetical letters of the Bangla Language. The term "Barna" means Letter (of the alphabets) and "Parichoy" means Introduction. This book on the Bengali alphabets and their elementary usage is illustrated with very interesting pictures, which was an entirely innovative and novel concept during those times.