Sarat Kumar Ray () (1876–1946) was a member of the royal family of Dighapatia. A noted scholar, he was the son of the Raja (''King'') Pramathanath Ray and lived in the Maharaja's Palace. Along with historian Ramaprasad Chanda, he co-founded the

Varendra Research Museum Varendra Museum () is a museum, research centre, and popular visitor attraction at the heart of Rajshahi and maintained by Rajshahi University in Bangladesh. It is considered the oldest museum in Bangladesh. It was the first museum to be estab ...

, which Lord Dundas the

Governor of Bengal In 1644, Gabriel Boughton procured privileges for the East India Company which permitted them to build a factory at Hooghly district, Hughli, without fortifications. Various chief agents, Governors and presidents were appointed to look after co ...

, inaugurated in November 1919. He was well traveled, and visited England in 1900. He was a friend of

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengalis, Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renai ...

Early life

Ray was born in 1876 into the

Dighapatia Raj Dighapatia Raj (sometimes called ''Dighapatia Raj Paribar'' literally ''Dighapatia Royal Family'') was a zamindari in present-day Rajshahi, which was ruled by this dynasty of 7 generations of Rajas from early 18th century till the mid-20th centur ...

family in

Natore District Natore district () is a district in Rajshahi Division located in northern Bangladesh. It borders the metropolitan city of Rajshahi and used to be a part of Rajshahi District. History Natore was the district headquarters of Rajshahi from 1769 to ...

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 ...

, British Raj. His father was Pramathanath Ray, the

Zamindar A zamindar in the Indian subcontinent was an autonomous or semi-autonomous feudal lord of a ''zamindari'' (feudal estate). The term itself came into use during the Mughal Empire, when Persian was the official language; ''zamindar'' is the ...

of Dighapatia. He studied at

Rajshahi Collegiate School Rajshahi Collegiate School (), a public school for boys located in Boalia Thana in the center of Rajshahi, which is a metropolitan city in northern Bangladesh, is the oldest school in the country. History Rajshahi Collegiate School is the olde ...

and Ripon College (renamed

Surendranath College Surendranath College is an undergraduate college affiliated to the University of Calcutta, in Kolkata, India. It was founded in 1884 by the nationalist leader and scholar Surendranath Banerjee. It offers undergraduate and postgraduate level co ...

). He earned a B.A. from Presidency College and a master's in physics from the

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 ...

. He joined the

Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Bangiya Sahitya Parishat is a literary society in Maniktala of Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Established during the time of the British Raj, its goal is to promote Bengali literature, both by translating works in other languages to Bengali a ...

after being introduced to it by his teacher Ramendra Sundar Tribedi. Through the Parishad he became acquainted with

Dwijendranath Tagore Dwijendranath Tagore (11 March 1840 – 19 January 1926) was an Indian poet, song composer, philosopher, mathematician and painter. He was one of the pioneers of shorthand and notation in Bengali script. He was the eldest son of Debendranath Ta ...

and

Career

Ray published his book, ''Sivaji O Guru Gobinda Singha'', in 1908, for which an introduction was written by Rabindranath Tagore. Ray, along with Ramaprasad Chanda and

Akshay Kumar Maitreya Akshay Kumar Maitreya (1 March 1861 – 10 February 1930) was an Indian lawyer, historian and social worker. Life Maitreya was born in Shimulia in Nawapara of Mirpur Kushtia District to a family originally from Naogaon district.Much of his educ ...

, worked to discover and preserve the archeological sites in the

Varendra Varendra (), also known as Barind (), was an ancient and historical territory of Northern Bengal, now mostly in Bangladesh and a little portion in the Indian state of West Bengal and Eastern Bihar. It formed part of the Pundravardhana or Pund ...

region of Bengal. They also worked with R. D. Banerji to explore different sites. On 27 September 1910, they founded the

Varendra Research Society Varendra Research Society (1910–1963) was established in Rajshahi in 1910 for the promotion of studies and research into the History of Bengal in general, and in particular of the Varendra area History Some of the leading and enlightened citiz ...

. Ray was the president of the society. They needed a museum to preserve the antiques they discovered. Ray donated 63 thousand rupees and his brother donated the land for the museum. The museum was inaugurated by Lord Dundas the

, in November 1919. Ray backed Ramaprasad Chanda in his

anthropometric Anthropometry (, ) refers to the measurement of the human individual. An early tool of physical anthropology, it has been used for identification, for the purposes of understanding human physical variation, in paleoanthropology and in various a ...

research work circa 1910. Ray was a management member of Bangiya Sahitya Sammilani, Indian Music Society, Rajshahi Association, Rajshahi Public Library, and

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 ...

. He was elected to the

Bengal Legislative Council The Bengal Legislative Council ( was the legislative council of Bengal Presidency. It was the legislature of the Bengal Presidency during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. After reforms were adopted in 1937, it served as the upper house of ...

in 1930.

Death

Ray died on 12 April 1946.

References

1876 births 1946 deaths People from Rajshahi District {{Bangladesh-bio-stub