Sarat Kumar Ray (Bengali: শরৎ কুমার রায়) (1876–1946) was a member of the royal family of Dighapatia. A noted scholar, he was the son of the Raja (King) Pramathanath Ray and lived in the Maharaja's Palace. Along with historian Ramaprasad Chanda, he co-founded the Varendra Research Museum,[1][2][3][4][5] which Lord Dundas the Governor of Bengal, inaugurated in November 1919. He was well traveled, and visited England in 1900. He was a friend of Rabindranath Tagore.
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Early life
editRay was born in 1876 in Dighapatia Raj family in Natore District, Bengal Presidency, British Raj. His father was Pramathanath Ray, the Zamindar of Dighapatia.[3] He studied at Rajshahi Collegiate School and Ripon College (renamed Surendranath College).[3] He earned a B.A. from Presidency College and a Masters in Physics from the University of Calcutta.[3] He joined the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad after being introduced to it by his teacher Ramendra Sundar Tribedi. Through the Parishad he became acquainted with Dwijendranath Tagore and Rabindranath Tagore.[3]
Career
editRay published his book, Sivaji O Guru Gobinda Singha, in 1908 for which an introduction was written by Rabindranath Tagore.[6]
Ray, along with Ramaprasad Chanda and Akshay Kumar Maitreya, worked to discover and preserve the archeological sites in the Varendra region of Bengal.[3][7] They also worked with R. D. Banerji to explore different sites. On 27 September 1910 they founded the Varendra Research Society.[3] Ray was the president of the society.[8] They needed a museum to preserve the antiques they discovered. Ray donated 63 thousand rupee and his brother donated the land for the museum.[3] The museum was inaugurated by Lord Dundas the Governor of Bengal, inaugurated in November 1919.[3]
Ray backed Ramaprasad Chanda in his anthropometric research work circa 1910.[9]
Ray was a management member of Bangiya Sahitya Sammilani, Indian Music Society, Rajshahi Association, Rajshahi Public Library, and The Asiatic Society.[3] He was elected to the Bengal Legislative Council in 1930.[3]
Death
editRay died on 12 April 1946.[3]
References
edit- ^ University of Rajshahi. "Varendra Research Museum". Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ "Varendra Research Museum". Banglapedia. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l "Ray, Saratkumar". Banglapedia. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ "Varendra Research Museum nurtures country's heritage". The Independent. Dhaka. Retrieved 2021-01-15.
- ^ Datta, Sanjukta (2009). "Artefacts and Antiquities in Bengal: Some Perspectives Within an Emerging Non-official Sphere". In Singh, Upinder; Lahiri, Nayanjot (eds.). Ancient India: New Research. Oxford University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-19-806028-4.
- ^ Tuteja, K. L.; Chakraborty, Kaustav (2017). Tagore and Nationalism. Springer. p. 259. ISBN 978-81-322-3696-2.
- ^ Lahiri, Nayanjot (2006). Finding Forgotten Cities: How the Indus Civilization was Discovered. Permanent Black. p. 186. ISBN 978-81-7824-159-3.
- ^ Studies in Modern Bengal. Institute of Bangladesh Studies, University of Rajshahi. 1981. p. 246.
- ^ Mukharji, Projit Bihari (18 April 2017). "The Bengali Pharaoh: Upper-Caste Aryanism, Pan-Egyptianism, and the Contested History of Biometric Nationalism in Twentieth-Century Bengal". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 59 (2). Cambridge University Press: 446–476. doi:10.1017/S001041751700010X. ISSN 0010-4175.
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