Shastri, Sharachchandra

Shastri, Sharachchandra (1862-1916) Sanskrit scholar, poet and philosopher, was born in Bandhulikhalkula village in Goalanda upazila of the greater Faridpur district. His father, Pitamvar Vidyavagish, was a sanskrit scholar. Sharachchandra studied different subjects such as poetry, grammar, poetics, ny'a'ya, astrology at different chatu's'p'a'th'i's and Benares College. He was conferred the title of 'Shastri'; after passing the Up'a'dhi examination from sanskrit college in Calcutta. Sharachchandra';s professional life began when he started to teach at an English school in Rajshahi. Subsequently he taught at City Collegiate School in Calcutta, Darjeeling High School, Brahma Balika Shiksalay and Calcutta Training School. Sharachchandra was adept in composing poems in Bangla and Sanskrit. He also wrote many valuable essays which were published in different newspapers of the time. Some of the books written and edited by him are N'i'tichamp'u, Sa'b'k'a'rach'a'ryacharita, R'a'm'a'nujacharita, Dak's'i'na'path Bhrama'n, etc. His editing of M'a'dhyamikas'u'tra of N'a'g'a'rjuna, a work he undertook as an assistant of Rai Bahadur Sharachchandra Das and of Karuna Pundarik';s books made him famous. Sharachchandra played an active part in the compilation of the Tibetan-Sanskrit-English Dictionary, a project carried out under government initiative. Ganesh Chandra Chanda, attorney of Calcutta at that period, and different scholars, including Thakurdas Bandyopadhyay, learnt Sanskrit from him. Jyotisarnav Vishwambhar and satish chandra vidyabhushan were his brothers. [Satyanarayan Chakraborty] [Chakraborty, Satyanarayan Professor of Sanskrit, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata]