Haraprasad Shastri

Infobox Person
name = Haraprasad Shastri


image_size =
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birth_date = December 6, 1853
birth_place = Khulna
death_date = December 17, 1931
death_place =
occupation = Academic, orientalist
spouse =

Haraprasad Shastri ( _bn. হরপ্রসাদ শাস্ত্রী), also known as Haraprasad Bhattacharya, (6 December 1853–17 November 1931) was an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature. He is most known for discovering the Charyapada, the earliest known examples of Bengali literature.cite web |url= http://banglapedia.net/HT/S_0124.HTM |title= Shastri, Haraprasad |accessdate=2008-04-07 |last= Chowdhury |first= Satyajit |work= Banglapedia |publisher= Asiatic Society of Bangladesh ]

Early life

Haraprasad Shastri was born in Kumira village in Khulna, Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to a family that hailed from Naihati in North 24 Parganas. The family name was Bhattacharya, a common Bengali surname.

Shastri studied at the village school initially and then at Sanskrit College and Presidency College in Calcutta (now Kolkata). While in Calcutta, he stayed with the noted Bengali scholar and social reformer, Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, who was a friend of Shastri's older brother Nandakumar Nyayachunchu.cite book| editor=Subodh Chandra Sengupta and Anjali Bose (eds.) | year=1998 | title=Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan | volume=Vol. I | edition=4^th ed. | publisher=Sahitya Samsad | pages=612–613 | isbn=8185626650 bn icon]

Shastri passed entrance (school-leaving) examination in 1871, First Arts, the undergraduate degree, in 1873, received a BA in 1876 and Honours in Sanskrit in 1877. Later, he was conferred the title of "Shastri" when he received a MA degree. The Shastri title was conferred on those who secured a first class (highest grade) and he was the only student in his batch (class) to do so. He then joined Hare School as a teacher in 1878.

Professional career

Haraprasad Shastri held numerous postions. He became a Professor at the Sanskrit College in 1883. At the same time, he worked as an Assistant Translator with the Bengal government. Between 1886 and 1894, besides teaching at the Sanskrit College, he was the Librarian of the Bengal Library. In 1895 he headed the Sanskrit department at Presidency College.

He became Principal of Sanskrit College in 1900, leaving in 1908 to join the government's Bureau of Information. Also, from 1921–1924, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Bengali and Sanskrit at Dhaka University.

Shastri held different positions within the Asiatic Society, and was its President for two years. He was also President of Vangiya Sahitya Parishad for twelve years and was an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society in London.

Works

Shastri's first research article was "Bharat mahila", published in the periodical "Bangadarshan" when he was a student. Later, Shastri became a regular contributor to the periodical, which was then edited by the noted Bengali author Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, authoring around thirty articles on different topics, as well as novel reviews. He was first introduced to research by Rajendralal Mitra, a noted Indologist, and translated the Buddhist Puranas which Mitra included in the book "The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal". Shastri was also Mitra's assistant at the Asiatic Society, and became Director of Operations in Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts after Mitra's death.cite journal| last=Bhatacharyya | first=Ritwik | title=Time-citations: Haraprasad Shastri and the 'Glorious Times' | journal=Cerebration | url=http://www.cerebration.org/ritwikbhattacharyya.html | accessdate=2008-04-12]

Shastri was instrumental in preparing the Catalogue of the Asiatic Society's approximately ten thousand manuscripts with the assistance of a few others. The long introduction to the Catalogue contains invaluable information on the history of Sanskrit literature.

Shastri gradually became interested in collecting old Bengali manuscripts and ended up visiting Nepal several times, where, in 1907, he discovered the "Charyageeti" or "Charyapada" manuscripts. His painstaking research on the manuscript led to the establishment of "Charyapada" as the earliest known evidence of Bengali language. Shastri wrote about this finding in a 1916 paper titled "Hajar bachharer purana Bangla bhasay rachita Bauddha gan o doha" ("Buddhist songs and verses written in Bengali a thousand years ago").cite encyclopedia| author=S. D. | year=1987 | title=Charyapada (Bengali) | encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature | volume=Vol. 1 | publisher=Sahitya Akademi | isbn=8126018038 | pages=646– ]

Shastri was the collector and publisher of many other old works, author of many research articles, a noted historiographer, and recipient of a number of awards and titles.

Some of his notable works were: "Balmikir jai", "Meghdoot byakshya", "Beneyer Meye" ("The Merchant's Daughter", a novel), "Kancanmala" (novel), "Sachitra Ramayan", "Prachin Banglar Gourab", and "Bouddha dharma".

His English works include: "Magadhan Literature", "Sanskrit Culture in Modern India", and "Discovery of Living Buddhism in Bengal".

Critical assessment

"Shastri's "Beneyer Meye" ("The Merchant’s Daughter", 1920) is written in a style that is very close to the colloquial. It reconstructs with plausibility and brilliance the domestic and social atmosphere in West Bengal in the eleventh century. His other work of fiction ("Kancanmala", a historical tale) also is well-written. It was first published in Bangadarshan (1883). Shastri wrote better Bengali than many of his contemporaries, old and young, and although a Sankritist of the first grade he did not care to load his literary style with learned words and Sanskritism."cite book| first=Sukumar | last=Sen | authorlink=Sukumar Sen | title=History of Bengali Literature | publisher=Sahitya Akademi | pages=311– | isbn=8172011075]

References

Persondata
NAME=Haraprasad Shastri
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Haraprasad Bhattacharya
SHORT DESCRIPTION=Author, antiquarian, archivist
DATE OF BIRTH=6 December 1853
PLACE OF BIRTH=Kumira, Khulna, now in Bangladesh
DATE OF DEATH=17 November 1931
PLACE OF DEATH=