Harinath De - Philanthropist And Linguist

Harinath De is universally acknowledged as one of the foremost linguists of all time. He mastered some twenty European and fourteen Indian languages within a short life-span of thirty-four years (1877-1911). He was the first Indian to be recruited to the Indian Education Service and appointed as librarian of the Imperial Library of Calcutta. He was a contemporary of celebrated linguists and Indologists, like T.W. Rhys Davids, Richard von Pischel, Ernst Theodor Bloch and others. For his scholastic contributions, Harinath received an annual scholarship of one lakh rupees, a major portion of which was spent on Philanthropic activities. To quote his pupil, Aghorenath Ghosh, Harinath's generosity to students was such that "sometimes he had to borrow money from others or face other inconveniences, but he never refused help to the needy."

Sunil Bandyopadhyay, apart from this comprehensive biography and numerous essays in periodicals, has written Bhasha-Pathik Harinath De in Bangla and Harinath De-Select Papers: Mainly Indological in English.

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