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THE AUTHOR SUNITI KUMAR CHATTERJI was born on 26th November, 1890, in a Brahman family the ancestors of which according to old tradition came from Kanauj in North India and settled in West Bengal in the twelfth century. He had his school and college education in his native city of Calcutta, and he took his M.A. degree from the University of Calcutta in English language and literature in 1913. He studied as a Government of India Research Scholar for three years in London and Paris, under some of the great masters of Indo-European and Indo-Aryan as well as General Linguistics and Phonetics, and obtained his Doctorate in Literature from London University in 1921. He was connected with the University of Calcutta for 38 years as Professor of Linguistics and of various Indo-European languages. He was called to the U.S.A. as Visiting Professor in Indology in Philadelphia in 1951. Dr. Chatterji was returned to the Legislative Council (Senate) of West Bengal in 1952, and was unanimously elected its Chairman, which position he held till 1965, when he was made one of the National Professors of India by the Government of India. Dr. Chatterji has several hundred papers on scientific (linguistic) and general subjects in English, Bengali and Hindi, besides a number of books in these languages. His magnum opus, the Origin and Development of the Bengali Language, of near about 1,300 pages, came out in 1926. He made a number of valuable discoveries in his own subject of Indo-Aryan Linguistics. He has also some noteworthy papers on the culture of various peoples. As a prosateur in Bengali, he has his special place of honour. Dr. Chatterji was given the Doctorate honoris causa by several universities, and he has been made Honorary Member of a number of scientific societies in Asia, Europe and America. Rabindranath Tagore, with whom he was closely connected from 1911 to his death in 1941, gave him the sobriquet Bhāshtichārya (Master of Speech) in inscribing one of his books to him. The Government of India awarded to him the high order of Padma-vibhūshaṇa in 1963. Dr. Chatterji lost his wife, Kamala Devi, his life’s companion for over 50 years, in December 1964. He has one son, Suman Kumar, who is a Chemical Engineer, and five daughters, all of whom are happily married and established in life. Travel (Dr. Chatterji has travelled extensively throughout the world) and study of Art, and collecting Kleinekunst, besides listening to Music, are his favourite hobbies. |
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