Updated Feb 18, 2021 | 10:55 IST Mahendralal was a patriot and a nationalist. His dream was to establish a research institute similar to the Royal Society of London where the Indians could do research in basic science. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science By training, Mahendralal Sircar was an allopath. He passed the MD examination from the Calcutta University in 1859 and very soon established himself as a leading allopath in the city. Though initially, Dr Sircar used to criticize homoeopathy severely, yet in the later years, he became interested in the field. He gave up allopathy and embraced homoeopathy for the rest of his life. His patients included Sri Ramkrishna Paramhansa, the master of Swami Vivekananda.