Hara Prasad Shastri

 

Hara Prasad Shastri

Haraprasad Shastri was born on December 6, 1853 CE and died on November 17, 1931 CE, he was a famous Bengali Indologist, archivist, manuscript-collector and historian of Bengali literature, versed of Sanskrit and Reader of inscriptions on Copper Plates. His real name was Har Prasad Bhattacharya. Hara Prasad Shastri was born in Kumira village in Khulna, Bengal (now in Bangladesh) to a family that hailed from Naihati in North 24 Parganas of the present day West Bengal. The family name was Bhattacharya, a common Bengali surname. Ramkamal (father of Hara Parasad Shastri) also had six sons -- named Nandakumar, Raghunath, Jadunath, Hemnath, Sharatnath and Meghnath. This very Sharatnath is our Haraprasad. Once, the little boy Sharatnath had a hard disease. When the doctors could not identify the disease and gave their hopes up, Ramkamal prayed to Lord Shiva (Hara) for his life. Anyway, after his gradual recovery Sharatnath was renamed Haraprasad. Haraprasad Shastri got married on the 9th March, 1878 to Smt. Hemanta Kumari Devi daughter of Roy Krishna Chandra Chattopaddhay Bahadur of Deyasin village, near Katwa, in Burdwan district. Haraprasad and Hemanta Kumari had five sons and three daughters.

Haraprasad successfully passed his F.A. from Sanskrit College with scholarship and B.A. from Presidency College, securing 8th position. He passed M.A. in Sanskrit, Securing the first class alone. For this achievement he was awarded the title -- Shastri, Books of 250.00 Rupees as a prize and two other scholarships of Rupees fifty and Rupees twenty five each.

Two other persons whose influence were embossed in Haraprasads life were Rajendralal Mitra (1822-1891) and Ramesh Chandra Dutta (1848-1909). Rajendralal Mitra, in his time itself was renowned for his writings on Indology. He was also the pioneer in the field of Oriental Studies in India. Rajendralal Mitra was working on various schemes on Indology and Oriental Studies in Asiatic Society of Bengal. He was in search of such a person who at the same time should be able to read and write fluently both in Sanskrit and English. Haraprasad Shastri was the most suitable person for the job, though he was very young at that time. 21 hence, Haraprasad became the assistant of Rajendralal Mitra in his projects like collection of manuscripts, preparation of a detailed catalogue of those collected manuscripts. This was the beginning of Haraprasad’s work. After the demise of Rajendralal Mitra, Haraprasad was appointed the Director of the Operation in Search of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Asiatic Society in the year of 1891. He prepared Descriptive Catalogue of ten thousand Sanskrit Manuscripts in fourteen volumes. Haraprasad was praised highly by his guide Rajendralal Mitra in his book the Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal, published in 1882. Haraprasad wrote sixteen chapters and completed the book because of the illness of Rajendralal. In the introductory notes of this book Rajendralal expressed his deep gratitude to Haraprasad this way: “I feel deeply obliged to him for the timely aid he rendered me and tender him my cordial acknowledgements for it. His thorough mastery of the Sanskrit language and knowledge of European literature fully qualified him for the task and he did his work to my entire satisfaction.’’ Though Rajendralal Mitra influenced him a lot in moulding his own way, Haraprasad showed his individuality in some aspects

 He was first introduced to research by Rajendralal Mitra, a noted Indologist, and translated the Buddhist Puranas which Mitra included in the book The Sanskrit Buddhist Literature of Nepal.

Haraprasad Shastri gradually became interested in collecting old Bengali manuscripts and ended up visiting Nepal several times, where, in 1907, he discovered the Charyageeti or Charyapada manuscripts. The man is finder of the earliest sign of Bengali literature- Charyapada. His painstaking research on the manuscript led to the establishment of Charyapada as the earliest known evidence of Bengali language. Shsatri wrote about this finding in a paper titled Hajar Bachharer Purana Bangala Bhasay Rachita Bauddha Gan O Doha. (Buddhist songs and verses written in Bengali a thousand years ago) in 1916. The Charyapada is a collection of mystical poems, songs of realization in the Vajrayana tradition of Buddhism from the tantric tradition in Assam, Bengal, Bihar and Odisha.

It was written between the 8th and 12th centuries in an Abahatta that was the ancestor of the Assamese, Bengali, Bhojpuri, Sylheti, Odia, Magahi, Maithili, and many other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, and it is said to be the oldest collection of verses written in those languages.Charyapadas written in the script resembles the most closest form of Assamese language used today. A palm-leaf manuscript of the Charyapada was rediscovered in the early 20th century by Haraprasad Shastri at the Nepal Royal Court Library. The Charyapada was also preserved in the Tibetan Buddhist canon.

Shastri's first research article was "Bharat mahila", published in the periodical Bangadarshan when he was a student. Haraprasad collected many ancient books and published. He was a noted historiographer and wrote many research papers. Haraprasad Shastri was the collector and publisher of many other old works, author of many research articles, a noted historiographer, and recipient of a number of awards and titles. Some of his notable works were: Balmikir Jai, Panch Chheler Galpo. Bamuner Durgotsab, Ekjan Bangali Governorer Adbhut Beeratwa, Meghdoot Byakhya, Bener Meye (novel), Kanchanmala (novel), Sachitra Ramayan, Prachin Banglar Gourab and Bouddha Dharma. His English works included: Magadhan Literature, Sanskrit Culture in Modern India and Discovery of Living Buddhism in Bengal.