Haricharan Bandopadhayaya


Haricharan Bandopadhayaya was a scholar and lexicographer best known for his 5-volume Bangiya Sabdakosh.

Early life

The son of Nibaran Chandra Bandopadhyaya, he born in his maternal grand father's house at Ramnarayanpur in 24-Parganas. He had his early education in the schools at Masaikati, the ancestral village of the family. He joined the Metropolitan Institute, but his studies were disrupted when he was in BA third year as a result of the discontinuation of student's fund. After teaching assignments in his ancestral village and at Narajole, he moved on to the Tagore estate at Patisar, now in Bangladesh.

Santiketan

was impressed by his knowledge of Sanskrit and brought him over to Santiniketan. He taught Sanskrit at Brahmacharya Ashram from 1902 till his retirement in 1932. In 1905, Tagore asked him to compile a Bengali dictionary. He started working on this project, whenever, he could find time and it became an all-absorbing occupation for him. It took him 40 years to complete the project. The dictionary, Bangiya Sabdakosh was published in 5 volumes by Visva Bharati in 1945.

Works

Bandopadhyaya wrote several books, some of them for use in schools: Sanskrit Pravesh, Pali Pravesh, Byakaran Koumadi, Hints on Sanskrit Translation and Composition, Kobir Katha, Rabindranather Katha etc., He had translated some of the poems of Matthew Arnold.

Awards

He was recipient of the Sarojini Basu Gold Medal and Sisir Kumar Memorial Prize from the University of Calcutta. In 1957, Visva Bharati honoured him with Desikottama. The Desikottama was conferred on him by the Chancellor, Jawaharlal Nehru, who said, "His unwearied pursuit of knowledge fulfils one of the major aims and ideals of Rabindranath and Visva-Bharati."