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Mahamahopadhyay Pandit Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya CIE (22 February 1836 – 12 April 1906) was an Indian scholar of the Sanskrit language and the principal of the Sanskrit College between 1876 and 1895. A friend and colleague of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, he was involved in the Bengal Renaissance.
Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 22 February 1836 |
| Died | 12 April 1906 (aged 70) |
| Known for | Sanskrit Academic administration Social welfare Philosophy |
| Title | Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (1881) Mahamahopadhyay (1887) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Sanskrit, academics, academic administration, social welfare, philosophy |
| Institutions | Sanskrit College University of Calcutta Narit Nyayratna Institution Hungarian Academy of Sciences Bengal Asiatic Society Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Anthropological Society of Bombay Government Engineering College, Shibpur |
Biography
editPersonal life
editMahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya was born on 22 February 1836 to a Kulin Brahmin family, the Bhattacharyya family of Narit. His father, Harinarayan Tarkasiddhanta, and his two uncles, Guruprasad Tarkapanchanan and Thakurdas Churamani, were known Pandits. His elder brother, Pandit Madhab Chandra Sarbabhauma, was the Sabha Pandit of Mahishadal Raj.
In 1848, he married Mandakini, the daughter of Pandit Ram Chand Tarkabagis, in Jehanabad, Hooghly.
He had a daughter, Manorama, and three sons – Manmatha Nath Vidyaratna Bhattacharyya MA, who was born on April 1863 and was the first Indian Accountant General of Madras, Munindra Nath Bhattacharyya MA, BL was born in February 1868, he was the Vakil of the High Court of Calcutta and Mahima Nath Bhattacharyya BA, who was born in April 1870, Mahima is the first Indian Collector in the Excise Department for the Government of India.
He died at the age of 70, on April 12th 1906.
Career in academia
editOn 1876, he succeeded Prasanna Kumar Sarbadhikari as the principal of the Sanskrit College. During his 19-year tenure as principal, he took the initiative of introducing the Sanskrit Title Examination, for the conferment of titles on students of special departments of Sanskrit learning.
He later started a secondary Anglo-Sanskrit school in his native village of Narit that exists to this day as Narit Nyayratna Institution.
Written work
editHe has written and edited Kavya Prakas, Mimansa Darshan and the Black Yajur Veda. He wrote numerous pamphlets, such as remarks on Dayananda Saravati's Veda-Bhashya, Tulasidharan Mimansa, The Authorship of Mrichchhakatika and Lupta Samvatsara.
Philanthropy
editHe has not only improved roads and infrastructure in and around Narit, but also took a role in developing roads and infrastructure, including tramways, in his native district of Howrah.
Honours and titles
editThe title of Mahamahopadhyay was conferred as a personal distinction on 16 February 1887, on the occasion of the Jubilee of the reign of Queen Victoria, for eminence in oriental learning. It entitled him to take rank in the Durbar immediately after titular Rajas.
Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna was made a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) on 24 May 1881 and the estimation with which Indian scholars held him is marked by the title of Nyayratna.
He was elected as a member or had a position in the following institutions:
- Foreign member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences at Budapest.
- Member of the Bengal Asiatic Society.
- Member of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.
- Member of the University of Calcutta.
- Member of the Central Text Book Committee of Bengal
- Member of the Behar Sanskrit Samaj
- Member of the Anthropological Society of Bombay.
- Joint-Secretary of the Hindu Hostel Committee.
- Member of the Bethune College Committee.
- Visitor at the Government Engineering College at Shibpur, Howrah.[1]
He was also in charge of Sanskrit education of the Bengal presidency, which comprised then, the present West Bengal, Bihar and Orissa states.[2]
Nyayratna Lane[3] and the Manmatha Bhattacharyya Street in Shyambazar, North Kolkata is named after him.
Descendants
editThis section may contain material not related to the topic of the article. (September 2024) |
Many of his descendants have left their mark on Kolkata's history. Foremost among them was his eldest son, Manmatha Nath Vidyaratna Bhattacharyya.
Works online
edit- Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya, ed. (1889). The Mimansa Darsana (Bibliotheca Indica) (in Hindi). Baptist Mission Press.
References
edit- ^ Lethbridge, R. (1893). The Golden Book of India: A Genealogical and Biographical Dictionary of the Ruling Princes, Chiefs, Nobles, and Other Personages, Titled Or Decorated of the Indian Empire. Aakar Books. ISBN 9788187879541. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- ^ "Physicist / Astronomer S". www.mlahanas.de. Archived from the original on 5 July 2014. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Nyaratna Lane". wikimapia.org. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
External links
edit- Lethbridge, R. (1893). The Golden Book of India: A Genealogical and Biographical Dictionary of the Ruling Princes, Chiefs, Nobles, and Other Personages, Titled Or Decorated of the Indian Empire. Aakar Books. ISBN 9788187879541. Retrieved 21 August 2015.
- Ramakrishnavivekananda.info
- Swami Vivekananda in India: A Corrective Biography by Rajagopal Chattopadhyaya
- Commonground.ca
- Myth and Mythmaking by Julia Leslie
- Frankreport.com/vivekananda/KnownLetters
- Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 6, Conversations and Dialogues
- Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda by A. Srinivasa Pai