Suniti Kumar Chatterji (1890-1977) a linguist of international repute and a litterateur of very high order, studied and researched in Indo-European Linguistics, Origin and Development of Bengali Language, Slav and Austro- Asian linguistics from London University, UK and Sorbonne University in France. Besides his eminence as a linguist, he was a specialist of Bengali Literature, tribal culture of India, and art and culture of Asia. A prolific writer in English, Bengali and Hindi, some of his well known works are: Origin and Development of Bengali Language (English), Bangla Bhashatatter Bhumika (Bengali), Bharat Sanskriti Kirata Janakriti and Arabhasa aur Hindi (Hindi). He accompanied Rabindranath Tagore to the Far Eastern countries and recorded his experiences of the great cultural heritage of the area in his delightful work in Bengali Dripamay Bharat.
Suniti Kumar Chatterji also held many important positions. He became the National professor in 1964 and was appointed as Chairman of the Sanskrit Commission constituted by the Government of India in 1956. He was also the President of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad, Calcutta during 1961 and the President of the S e Sahitya Akademi from 1968-1972.
Sukumar Sen (1900-1992) was not only a famous Bengali linguist but also well versed in Päli, Prakrit and Sanskrit. He joined the University of Calcutta as a lecturer in 1930 and retired in 1964. Sen was the first scholar to explore the Old Indo-Aryan syntax in his book, Use of Cases in Vedic Prose (1928) and Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (1928). He has published numerous significant articles and research papers. These include the Bangla Sahityer Itihas (5 Vols., 1939, 1991), Bhashar Itibritta (1939), A History of Brajabuli Literature (1935), A Comparative Grammar of Middle Indo-Aryan (1960), Ramkathar Prak Itibas (1977), Bangla Sthannaam (1982), Bharat Kathar Granthimochan (1981), Bharatiya Ara Sahityer Itibar (1963) and Women's Dialect in Bengali (1923).
He was honoured with several prizes which include the Rabindra Puraskar (1963), Ananda Puraskar (1966, 1984), Vidyasagar Puraskar (1981), Desikottam (1982), and the Padma Bhushan (1990). He was elected as an honorary fellow of Sahitya Akademi in 1973.
When Sahitya Akademi very kindly asked me to write a monograph on Suniti Kumar Chatterji I accepted with alacrity and enthusiasm. But after a few weeks when I was making myself ready to begin writing I was assailed by doubt and inhibition. I was at first student and then his colleague in the University and was long associated with him in linguistic and other research work. In fact I knew him for fifty-five years, and throghout a half century and more I was always his pupil in spirit and love. Would it be feasible for me to write on him as an impartial surveyor or an official reporter?
The doubt however did not last long and I felt no further inhibition. Many who knew Chatterji well are not unaware of his liking for me. It is also, I am afraid, wellknown that the master and his pupil sometimes in the later days had differences, where the latter would even talk aggressively. So there is no fear of my narration being taken as overestimation. I have tried to keep myself entirely in the background. I have given almost the bare facts. The real man behind facade of the great scholar requires a skilled artist to be brought out in proper tint.
Scholars of the stature of Suniti Kumar Chatterji are of two types. One is the type of Valmiki, a Muni, who sits down in a place diffuses knowledge and wisdom. The other is the type of Cyavana, a Rsi, who moves about and helps himself as well as others. Suniti Kumar Chatterji combined in his self the essence of the both Muni and Rsi types of ancient sages, but there was no nonsense about him. He did not know what is hostility. He had no real enemy.
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