Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya | |
|---|---|
 |
Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya (1896–1974) was a distinguished scholar ofSanskrit from India. A scholar of Sanskrit,Veda, grammar,Pali,Prakrit andphilology, he was born on 27 October 1896 in village Nimta ofNorth 24 Parganas in what was thenBengal. He came from an illustrious family ofKulinaBrahmans of Deshmukho in DistrictHooghly. The Indian writerBankim Chandra Chattopadhyay belonged to the same family and Kshetresa Chandra Chattopadhyaya inherited the spirit ofIndian renaissance from him.
Chattopadhyaya studied in a number of schools and passed the matriculation examination of theCalcutta University in 1913 fromHindu School of Calcutta. He then attended thePresidency College, Calcutta for Intermediate examination and passed in 1915. He then migrated to the United Province ofAgra andOudh and passed theB.A. examination ofAllahabad University (1917) andM.A. inSanskrit from Queen's College,Benares (1919). He also passed the M.A. Examination inVeda fromCalcutta University in 1921 and Vedant in 1922. He in his college days became an intimate friend ofSubhas Chandra Bose who later became a prominent figure in Indian politics and theIndian independence movement. Chattopadhyaya was a student ofDr. Ganganath Jha.[1]
Chattopadhyaya joinedUniversity of Allahabad as a lecturer in the department ofSanskrit in 1924. In the year 1950 he was promoted to reader and from 1956 for about a couple of years he acted as professor of Sanskrit. Later he became Director, Research Institute atSampurnanand Sanskrit University, Benares. As the director, he was in a position to guide research exclusively.
Chattopadhyaya was the editor of book seriesSarasvati Bhavana Granthamala and famous Sanskrit Journal,Sarasvati Susama. He was also appointed as a special scholar for comparative study ofVeda andAvesta by the Ministry of Education,Govt. of India at Kendriya Sanskrit Vidyapeeth,Tirupati. TheCalcutta University appointed him Stephan's Nirmalendu Ghosh Lecturer on Comparative Religion in 1960 (In that period he was on leave fromSampurnanand Sanskrit University).[2]
He has produced many scholars, among them are
Chattopadhyaya had been actively connected with All India Oriental Conference since its third session held in Madras in December 1924. He presided over its Veda and Indo-Aryan section in the ninth session held atTrivandrum in 1937 and its Veda section in the eighteenth session held at Annamalainagar in 1955. He presided over thePhilology section of Akhil Bhartiya Hindi Sahitya Sammelana held at Karachi in December 1946.[3]
Certificate of Merit,President of India, 1966.
