Kaliram Medhi (18 October 1880 – 24 January 1954) was a prominent linguist, writer and essayist from

Assam Assam (, , ) is a state in Northeast India, northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra Valley, Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . It is the second largest state in Northeast India, nor ...

who wrote in both the Assamese and English languages in the early part of modern

Assamese literature Assamese literature is the entire corpus of poetry, novels, short stories, plays, documents and other writings in the Assamese language. It also includes the literary works in the older forms of the language during its evolution to the contempor ...

. He was the third president of the Asom Sahitya Sabha in 1919 held at

Barpeta Barpeta is a town in Barpeta district of the state of Assam in India and is district headquarters. The city is located north west of Guwahati and is one of the major cities in Western Assam. It is also called Satra ''Nagari'' (Temple town) of ...

. He was honoured with the Rai Bahadur title in 1946. Versatile Assamese short story writer and Professor of Physics and later a lifetime associate at Assam Engineering College Surendra Nath Medhi better known by his pen name Saurav Kumar Chaliha was his son and noted Mathematician,

Emeritus Professor ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". In some c ...

of statistics at

Gauhati University Gauhati University also known as GU, is a collegiate public state university located in Guwahati, Assam, India. It was established on 26 January 1948 under the provisions of an Act enacted by the Assam Legislative Assembly and is the oldest un ...

and Institute of Advanced Study in Science and Technology Jyotiprasad Medhi was his grandson as he was the son of his daughter Kadambari Medhi and her husband Binandi Chandra Medhi.

Early life

Medhi was born on 18 October 1880 at Ramdia village near

Hajo Hajo is a historic town set in the hills northwest of Guwahati, Assam, India. It is a meeting point of Buddhism, Buddhists, Hinduism, Hindus and Islam, Muslims due to the various pilgrimage sites on the different hills of Hajo. To the Hindus, ...

Kamrup district Kamrup Rural district, or simply Kamrup district (Pron: ˈkæmˌrəp or ˈkæmˌru:p), is an administrative districts of Assam, district in the state of Assam in India formed by dividing the Undivided Kamrup district, old Kamrup district into t ...

to Bhukali Medhi and Sontara Medhi. After primary education at his village he did his higher education at

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

and City College of Calcutta.

Career

He died in Panbazar, Guwahati on 24 January 1954. His son Surendra Nath Medhi (1930-2011) became a famous Assamese writer under the pseudonym

Saurabh Kumar Chaliha Saurabh Kumar Chaliha (1930 – 25 June 2011) is the pen name of Assamese short story writer. His real name was Surendra Nath Medhi. His short story collection ''Ghulam'' won the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1974. Chaliha did not go ...

and was awarded Sahitya Academy Award in Assamese in 1974.

Literary works

; In Assamese # Asomiya Bhasar Mul (অসমীয়া ভাষাৰ মূল) (1918), # Asomiya Byakoron aru Bhasatatta (অসমীয়া ব্যকৰণ আৰু ভাষাতত্ত্ব) (1936), # Mahapurush Sankardevar Bani (1949) # Ankawali (Part-I) (অঙ্কাৱলী) (১ম ভাগ) (1950), # Prahlad charitra (প্ৰহ্লাদ চৰিত্ৰ) (1913) and more. ; In English # The Kalitas, # Brajavali Literature of Assam, # Philosophic Aspects of the Assamese Brajavali Literature, # Origin of Assamese Drama, # Studies in the Vaishnav Literature and Culture of Assam. # Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language.

References

External links

Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language
(1988) a book by Kaliram Medhi.
A statue of Kaliram Medhi
at Ambari, Guwahati, Assam.
Books by Kaliram Medhi
at Open Library website.
Books
at Worldcat.org. {{DEFAULTSORT:Medhi, Kaliram 1880 births 1954 deaths Medhi, Kaliram Asom Sahitya Sabha presidents Assamese-language writers People from Kamrup district City College, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni 20th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian scholars Writers from Guwahati Writers from British India

Early life

Career

Literary works

See also

References

External links