Atmaram Pandurang or Atmaram Pandurang Turkhadekar (or just Turkhad in English publications) (1823 – 26 April 1898) was an Indian physician and social reformer who founded the

Prarthana Samaj Prarthana Samaj or "Prayer Society" in Sanskrit, was a movement for religious and social reform in Bombay, India, based on earlier reform movements. Prarthana Samaj was founded by Atmaram Pandurang in 31 March 1867 when Keshub Chandra Sen ...

and was one of the two Indian co-founders (the other being Sakharam Arjun) of the

Bombay Natural History Society The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS), founded on 15 September 1883, is one of the largest non-governmental organisations in India engaged in conservation and biodiversity research. It supports many research efforts through grants and pub ...

. A graduate of Grant Medical College, he was a brother of Dadoba Pandurang (9 May 1814 – 17 October 1882), a scholar of Sanskrit and Marathi. Atmaram Pandurang served briefly as sheriff of Bombay in 1879. Atmaram was born to Pandurang Yeshwant and Yashodabai. He went to the Elphinstone Institution (along with fellow student

Dadabhai Naoroji Dadabhai Naoroji (4 September 1825 – 30 June 1917) also known as the "Grand Old Man of India" and "Unofficial Ambassador of India", was an Indian political leader, merchant, scholar and writer who served as 2nd, 9th, and 22nd President of t ...

) where he studied mathematics under Bal Gangadhar Shastri Jambhekar (1812-1846). He then joined the newly opened Grant Medical College and was in the first batch of students that included Dr

Bhau Daji Lad Ramachandra Vitthal Lad (1824–1874), commonly known as Bhau Daji Lad was an Indian physician, Sanskrit scholar, and an antiquarian. Early life and education Lad was born in 1822 in a Gaud Saraswat Brahmin family in Mandrem (Manjari) Goa. ...

and joined on 1 November 1845.With a diploma, he worked in

Bhiwandi Bhiwandi () is a city in the Thane district in Maharashtra, India. It is located northeast of Mumbai and northeast of the city of Thane. The city is a part of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Bhiwandi is a commercial city and a major trade ...

, running a smallpox vaccination campaign. He later helped frame Article 14 of the Contagious Diseases Act (1868). He was present in the famous Maharaj Libel Case where he deposed as a witness to present evidence that the plaintiff suffered from venereal disease. Atmaram Pandurang was a theistic reformer who opposed many Hindu traditions including child marriage. He believed and openly supported the idea that the minimum age for marriage of girls should be twenty, to the disapproval of contemporary conservative Hindu society. The ''Prarthana Samaj'' was founded at his home on 31 March 1867 and was influenced by Keshab Chunder Sen. Among the objects of the society at the time of its founding were to openly denounce the caste system, introduce widow-remarriage, encourage female education and abolish child-marriage. He was a Fellow of Bombay University and helped found the Bhandarkar free library. He was selected

Sheriff of Bombay The Sheriff of Bombay is an apolitical titular position of authority bestowed for one year on a prominent citizen of Bombay. The Sheriff is an officer of the High Court and the nominal Head of the High Court Department which carries out the or ...

in 1879. He died from a lung infection after visiting Lonavala. He was described in obituaries as a "mild Hindu" who held "very advanced views, too much so for the peace of mind of some of his colleagues." His wife Radhabai survived him. Pandurang belonged to a highly educated and influential family and his circle of acquaintances included reformists from across the country. When

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

intended to visit England in 1878, he stayed for a time in their Bombay home and sought to improve his English with the assistance of Pandurang's second daughter Annapurna or Ana. It is believed that the two were attracted to each other and Tagore wrote several poems in her memory (he referred to her as "Nalini"). Ana Turkhud, however, married

Harold Littledale Harold Littledale (3 October 1853 – 11 May 1930) was a professor of English who worked in India. He published commentaries on the works of Tennyson, Wordsworth and Coleridge. He was also a naturalist who documented bird life mainly in western I ...

, professor of history and English literature at Baroda on 11 November 1880 and died in Edinburgh on 5 July 1891. Ana's older brother Moreshwar Atmaram obtained a gold medal in Practical Chemistry and obtained honours in mathematics and geology at University College London in 1867 and was a vice-principal at Rajkumar College in Baroda. Another daughter Manek Turkhud passed the Licensiate of Medicine and Surgery from Bombay in 1892. In the same year, the daughter of

, Maneckbai also passed the same examination. Another son

Dnyaneshwar Atmaram Turkhud Sant Dnyaneshwar (Marathi pronunciation: ̪ɲaːn̪eʃʋəɾ, also referred to as Jnaneshwar, Jnanadeva, Dnyandev or Mauli or Dnyaneshwar Vitthal Kulkarni (1275–1296), was a 13th-century Indian Marathi saint, poet, philosopher and yogi of ...

(1862-1943) studied at the Grant Medical College and at the University of Edinburgh from 1890-91. He worked at the Haffkine Institute and served as a director of the King Institute of Preventive Medicine at Guindy and worked in Kodaikanal on ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes until his death.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pandurang, Atmaram 1823 births 1898 deaths 19th-century Indian medical doctors Prarthana Samaj Sheriffs of Mumbai Members of the Bombay Natural History Society