Amareshwar Thakur (1887-1979)

Amareshwar Thakur was born in Nagarbandi-Bhagyakul of Vikrampur on December 1, 1887. His Father's name was Ramakrishna. He lost his father at a tender age of 5 and fell in a deep financial crisis. But he was a meritorious student by nature and won scholarship in every examination and thus continued his education. At 17 (seventeen) he went to his Grandfather's place at Calcutta. He had his M.A. in Sanskrit and joined Ripon College as a lecturer. Besides teaching he pursued his own studies and had another Masters in Pali, Philosophy and in a different stream of Sanskrit and won gold medals twice. When Sanskrit was introduced as a subject of post graduation, he joined Calcutta University. Amareshwar Thakur retired as Head of Sanskrit Department after serving for long 35 years.

During his lifetime he was awarded “Jogesh Chandra Research Award” for his research and brilliance. He was conferred with P.H.D. by Calcutta University for his research on “Hindu Law of Evidence” in 1927. Later he was awarded with “Vedantshastri”.

Amareshwar Thakur established “Sanskrit Sahittyo Parishad”. He was also the editor of the magazine published by the forum. It took him a labor of 10 years to publish “Jaskacharjer Nirokto” in four volumes. He was the editor of “Balmiky Ramayan” in 60 volumes. He also took the initiative of publishing 40 rare books of Calcutta Sanskrit Series with notes and translations. He also wrote the English preamble of “Mammat Bhatta Kabbyaprakash”. He died on January 24, 1979.

:: Added & updated 28-07-2005 @ 1515 GMT