HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Nagendranath Basu ( 6 July 1866 – 11 October 1938) was a Bengali encyclopedist, archaeologist,
Kayastha Kayastha (or Kayasth) denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally locatedthe Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Ka ...
activist, and nationalist social historian.


Early life

Nagendranath was born in the village of Mahesh located in
Hooghly district Hooghly district () is one of the districts of the Indian state of West Bengal. It can alternatively be spelt ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli''. The district is named after the Hooghly River. The headquarters of the district are at Hooghly-Chinsurah (' ...
,
Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...
. He was born in a
Bengali Kayastha Bengali Kayastha is a Bengali Hindu caste that originated from the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent, and is one of the main subgroups of the Kayastha community. The historical caste occupation of Kayasthas throughout India has been that of ...
family. He was the great-grandson of Tarini, sister of Ashutosh Deb.


Kayastha Sabha

In 1902, Basu founded the Kayastha Sabha. Basu wrote for the Kayastha Patrika, the mouthpiece of the organisation where he used the term Kayastha to mean a diverse jati consisting of four smaller units with distinctive practices.


Career


Archaeology and collector

Nagendranath was an official surveyor of Orissa government in
Mayurbhanj district Mayurbhanj district is one of the List of districts of Odisha, 30 districts of Odisha state in eastern India and the largest in the state by area, nearly equivalent to Tripura. The district's headquarters is located in Baripada, with other majo ...
, and traveled widely to examine archaeological remnants, compiling numerous sculptures, coins and inscriptions. Most of these expeditions were self-funded and the collections were donated to Bangiya Sahitya Parishad. He had also obtained a huge collection of ancient manuscripts (''puthi'') in Bengali,
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
and Oriya, mostly from street-vendors and facilitated
University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta, informally known as Calcutta University (), is a Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Kolkata, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India. It has 151 affiliated undergraduate c ...
to initiate its library in the Bengali Department.


Literature

Basu started his literary career with poems and novels, but soon became extensively involved in editing.


Editor


= Journals

= Basu edited multiple journals—the vernacular monthlies of ''Tapasvini'' and ''Bharat'', ''Sahitya Parisad Patrika'', the mouthpiece of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad and ''Kayastha'', the publication of the Kayastha Sabha (which he had founded).


= Books and Texts

= He also served as the editor of multiple contemporary Bengali authors and published numerous Middle Bengali classics—
Chaitanya Mangala The Chaitanya Mangala () () of Lochana Dasa is an important hagiographical work on the Supreme Personality of Godhead, Sri Krishna Chaitanya - Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in Bengali. This work of Lochana Dasa or Lochananda Dasa is influenced by the Sans ...
by Jayananda, Krishna Prema Tarangini by Raghunath Bhagavat Acharya, Kashi-Parikrama et al.—via Bangiya Sahitya Parishad.Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis
Kunal Chakrabarti, Shubhra Chakrabarti, Scarecrow Press, 2013, p. 83
Nagendranath was also nominated to the Textbook Committee.


Author

In 1884, he published ''Shabdendu Mahakosh'', an English-Bangla dictionary and in the process came in close contacts with Anandakrishna Basu (a grandson of Raja Radhakanta Deb) and
Hara Prasad Shastri Hara Prasad Shastri (; 6 December 1853 – 17 November 1931), also known as Hara Prasad Bhattacharya, was an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist, and historian of Bengali literature. He is most known for discovering the Charyapada, th ...
, who persuaded him to join
The Asiatic Society The Asiatic Society is an organisation founded during the Company rule in India to enhance and further the cause of " Oriental research" (in this case, research into India and the surrounding regions). It was founded by the philologist Will ...
. Nagendranath went on to write multiple scholarly books and essays on Bengali social history and allied historical affairs, in his roles at the society.


=''Bangla Bishwakosh''

= In the late 19th century, Basu gained widespread recognition as the compiler of the ''Bangla Bishwakosh'', one of the most complete
encyclopedia An encyclopedia is a reference work or compendium providing summaries of knowledge, either general or special, in a particular field or discipline. Encyclopedias are divided into article (publishing), articles or entries that are arranged Alp ...
s in Bangla (at that time). The first volume of ''Bangla Bishwakosh'' was compiled by Troilokyanath Mukhopadhyay (and his brother, Rangalal) in 1887; however all the subsequent volumes were compiled and published by Nagendranath, who held the reins from 1888 till the publication of the 22nd (and last) volume in 1911. A 24 volume translation in Hindi was compiled and published by Nagendranath from 1916 to 1931. A second Hindi edition entered compilation from 1933 onward; however, only four volumes were published before his death and the project remains incomplete.


=''Banger Jatiya Itihasa''

= A multi-volume work, this was based on ''kulapanjikas''—genealogical histories of prominent families, and has been since considered as a ''magnum opus''. It was sequentially published from 1911 to 1933. Basu gathered these ''kulapanjikas'' from ''ghataks'' ( matchmakers) across the country, who used to hold high acclaim in the Bengali society as professional
genealogists Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kins ...
(to the extent of arbitrating disputes of societal status) and effectively served as tools of social memory. The historicity of the source material for his work were rejected in near-entirety by a majority of the contemporary professional historians including Akshay Kumar Maitreya, Ramaprasad Chanda, R. C. Majumdar, R. D. Banerji et al., belonging to the logical-positivist school of thought. Not only the tales were emotionally charged verses with distinct impressions of caste-chauvinism but also they oft-contradicted each other, suffered from dating inaccuracies and failed to be corroborated by archaeological evidence. However Basu and others followed a romantic nativist school and considered them as a treasure trove of indigenous social history, wherein ''history'' did not merely mean a linear chronology of dynastic rulers and the state but rather the entirety of local caste-societies (''samaja'') with its own mythologies, traditions and material achievements, as experienced by the masses and reflected in ''kulapanjikas''. Material from different ''kulapanjikas'' were assimilated to form a history of the broader Bengali society.


= Other samaja histories

= Basu also wrote ''Uttarrarhiya Kayastha Kanda'' (1910), a sub-regional history of Uttar Rarh (a geographical region in North Bengal) by integrating the genealogical histories of various local caste-''samaj''s—Kandi, Jemo, Rashra, Joyjan et al. A volume on the regional history of
Burdwan Bardhaman (, ), officially Bardhaman Sadar, is a city and municipality in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of Purba Bardhaman district, having become a district capital during the period of British rule. Burdwan, an a ...
and
Kamarupa Kamarupa (; also called Pragjyotisha or Pragjyotisha-Kamarupa), an early state during the Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, was (along with Davaka) the first historical kingdom of Assam. The Kamrupa word first appeared in the ...
was also produced in similar manner. Patronage in various forms were provided by local aristocrats, rajahs and zamindars.


= Miscellaneous

= Basu had authored and edited volumes on the musical heritage of Bengal.


Reception

Basu's historical methods have been challenged. His interpretations are now deemed to be of questionable reliability, courtesy his strong antipathy towards the Muslim rule in India and a rigid acceptance of the-then prevalent caste hierarchy as a social order. Projit Bihari Mukherjee also has accused him of being a dedicated Kayastha propagandist. His usage of ''kulapanjika'' as authentic source(s) has not only introduced aspects of un-reliability but also espoused a Savarna view of the world; outright myths, legends and popular imaginations (esp. about the greatness of the Aryans and a pan-Bengali identity which aligned with Aryan traits) frequently pervade his works.


Legacy and Honors

He was awarded the title of "Raysaheb" and "Prachyavidyamaharnav". On 17 March 1915,
Kolkata Municipal Corporation Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is the local government of the Indian city of Kolkata, the List of Indian state and union territory capitals, state capital of West Bengal. This civic administrative body administers an area of . Its motto, ' ...
renamed Basu's residential street of 8, Kantapukur Lane to ''Bishvakosh Lane'', in commemoration of his pioneer efforts behind ''Bangla Bishwakosh''.


References

{{authority control 1866 births 1938 deaths Bengali Hindus Academic staff of the University of Calcutta Vangiya Sahitya Parishad 19th-century Bengali poets Indian male essayists Writers from Kolkata Bengali male poets 19th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian essayists 20th-century Indian poets 19th-century Indian poets 19th-century Indian male writers 20th-century Indian male writers People from the Bengal Presidency Writers from British India