Professor Haran Chandra Chakladar was connected with the University of Calcutta for about twenty years till his retirement in 1937. He was originally connected with the Department of Ancient Indian History and Culture and later on, with the Department of Anthropology. For about a year he also efficiated as the Head of the latter Department. Professor Chakladar was one of those scholars for whem learning and teaching were one's life's mission. During these years at the University of Calcutta he wrote numerous papers on social life in ancient India, on the date of Vatsyayana, translated Ruggeri's article on Races of Asia from Italian to English contributed a very original paper on the racial composition of India and also on the Aryan occupation of eastern India and so on.
I have been one of those fortunate pupils who have had the privilege of studying under him for two years. What impressed us most was the remarkable painstaking manner in which he prepared his lessons, sometimes even carrying it to lengths which are not warranted in a class-room lecture. Ilut he was a perfectionist, and perhaps this quality also sometimes made it impossible for him to contribute articles unless he was completely satisfied with their perfection. But in scholarship, perfection perhaps always remains an unattainable ideal, and that is one of the reasons why he has left a huge amount of notes in manuscript and only a few papers which were made ready for print. One of these entitled Bharat Darlan of Kalidasa is a remarkable paper on the geography of India as gleaned from Kalicasa's poems.
Such a remarkable man whom we knew only later at his maturer age had an equally remarkable past. Professor Chakladar was extremely reticent about his personal history. But one could gather it, if one had the privilege of coming into intimate contact with him, from stray bits of information scattered in his conversation.
Professor Chakladar belonged to the district of Faridpur, and became a disciple of saint Vijayakrishna Goswami. One of the older disciples of Sri Vijayakrishna was Satish Chandra Mukherjee whose name is closely associated with the new educational movement linked with the Dawn Magazine and the Dawn Society. I have heard from Professor Chakladar that he had some responsibilities in connection with the magazine as well as with a small Swadeshi store run by the Dawn Society within the precincts of the Metropolitan College of those days.
In the Dawn Magazine he contributed numerous articles on maritime activity as wellas on more modera subjects, such as Bengali language and Bengal's peasantry. Although his scholarly writings were inspired by a deep sense of patriotism, he never allowed such enthusiasm to overshadow the most stringent demands of critical scholarship.
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