Professor Charu Chandra Dasgupta was born on September 6, 1908, in the Dinajpur district of present-day Bangladesh, into a respected Vaidya family. His father, Hem Chandra Dasgupta was the first Indian full-time professor and Head of the Geology Department at Presidency College. A renowned and visionary educator, Hem Chandra made pioneering contributions to mass education in Bengal. Professor Charu Chandra Dasgupta followed in the footsteps of his father and, from a very early age, distinguished himself in the study of history. He was awarded the prestigious Premchand Roychand Scholarship and eventually the Mowat gold medal. He earned two doctoral degrees: the first from Calcutta University in 1944 and the second from Cambridge University in 1946. He held various professorships including the Head of Department of Ancient Indian and World History at Sanskrit College in Calcutta and later served as the Principal of Darjeeling Government College in West Bengal.
Professor Dasgupta’s scholarship led to significant advances in the field of ancient Indian fine arts and scripts. He authored four books and more than a hundred scholarly articles in various academic journals. Among these is his seminal work, “The Development of Kharosthi Script,” which is still widely regarded as an indispensable source for the study of the Kharosthi Script. As a prolific scholar, Professor Dasgupta’s research interests were broad and spanned various other disciplines including fine arts, sculpture, architecture, numismatics, history, anthropology and conservation of archives. He was an active member of various scholarly and academic societies including the Asiatic Society and Bangiya Sahitya Parisad. At the time of his death on 23rd June 1962, Professor Dasgupta was less than 54 years of age. But despite his relatively short lifetime, his accomplishments as a scholar remain exemplary.
The Dr Charu Chandra Dasgupta Memorial Bursary has been established by the Nahar Foundation & the Dasgupta Family to support students, faculty, and other individuals involved in the study of ancient Indian languages and history.
