GANGADHAR SEN.
The subject of the present sketch takes us back to the good old days when the Medical College did not exist, the Calcutta University did not manufacture M. B's and L. M. S's and when the Kavirajes and Haquims did not enjoy the unenviable reputation of the messengers of death. Gangadhar Kaviraj was a Vaidya by caste and was born in 1798 in the district of Jessore. His early years were wholly spent in the study of Sanskrit Grammar, Rhetoric and Poetry. White yet in the teens he astounded his friends by writing an erudite commentary on Mugdhabodham, the well-known book on Sanskrit Grammar, a commentary which would have done honour to a veteran scholar. In learned disputations which were more common in those days than now, Gangadhar used always to bear the palm and the report of his scholarship spread far and wide. He then betook himself to the study of medicine, which was the profession of his caste. His attainments there were so great, that he was looked upon as the very incarnation of Dhanwantari, the divine physician. His commentary on Charak, the old writer on the Indian system of medicine, is a standard work up to the present time. Besides, he wrote and published many a commentary on the Upanishads, the Gita, the systems of Hindu Philosophy, on Panini and Manu and various other works of Philosophy Medicine and Grammar. In fact a scholar of his range of knowledge is a rarity and a physician of his type is sad to find even to-day. In his hours of leisure Gangadhar used to paint and draw. The models of wood and clay he could prepare were justly famous in beauty of design and grace. There was none who worked harder than he for the amelioration of the Vaidya caste and it was he who first storied the theory of the Brahmanic origin of that caste. Gangadhar died full of years and honors in 1885, leaving behind him many pupils, the most well-known among whom being Mohamahopadhyaya Kaviraj Dwaraka Nath Sen of Pathuriaghata in Calcutta.
