The Modern Review/Volume 38/Number 3/Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar

Sir Ramakrishna Gopal Bhandarkar

By the death of Dr. Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar India loses a great orientalist of International reputation. He was an eminent educationalist. Besides being a teacher, he prepared a series of books which have helped large numbers of students in and outside Bombay Presidency to learn Sanskrit with comparative ease.

He did not generally take part in political or semi-political movements. But when more than fifteen years ago, the disabilities a persecutions to which our countrymen in South Africa were subjected became known in India, he came out of his seclusion and presided over a great protest meeting held in Poona.

He was a great religious and social reformer. He was the venerable leader of the Prarthana Samaj movement in the Bombay Presidency. His Marathi sermons and other religious discourses are a source of edification and inspiration to their many readers. He dies full of years and honours, being over 88 at the time of his death. It is greatly to be regretted that he has had to pay the penalty of longevity in the shape of many bereavements, the latest being the death a few months ago of his son Rao Bahadur Dr. Prabhakar Bhandarkar, a ripe Marathi scholar who served the Indore State ably and long first as the Maharaja’s physician and subsequently as Minister of Education.

The following is an extract from a biographical sketch supplied by the Associated Press:

In 1868, he was appointed temporarily to the Sanskrit chair at the Elphinstone College. His method of teaching and his masterly exposition of the subject soon brought crowded classes. In 1872 the Sanskrit chair fell permanently vacant, but contrary to all expectations, Bhandarkar was super-

 

Sir Ramkrishna Gopal Bhandarkar
Born—6th July, 1837. Dead—24 August 1925

-seded and the professorship was given to Dr. Peterson, who was junior to him by ten years. This was a great blow to Bhandarkar but he bore it patiently and continued to work as Dr. Peterson’s assistant. In 1879, he acted for Prof. Keilhorn as professor of Sanskrit in the Deccan College, Poona, and on his retirement from service towards the close of 1881 was made a pucca professor and entered the graded service of the Bombay Education Department. He retired from Government service in 1893.

Besides serving the university as a professor and an examiner, Bhandarkar, as a member of the syndicate (1873-1882) took a leading part in regulating its affairs. After his retirement, he was appointed Vice-Chancellor.

The literary activity of Bhandarkar began with the starting of the Indian Antiquary in 1872 by James Burgess with a view to bring together the results of the researches of Oriental scholars. He was for a long time member of the Bombay branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and identified himself entirely with it. During the years 1872, 1873 and 1874 he was engaged in a spirited controversy with Prof. Weber of Berlin on the question of the age of Patanjali. In May, 1874, he contributed a long article on the ‘the Vedas in India’. He was invited to join the International Congress of Orientalists which met in London in 1874. For domestic reasons he could not accept the invitation but he sent a paper on the Nasik Inscriptions’, which was acclaimed as one of the best treatises and considerably enhanced his reputation. Next year he was made an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1876 was instituted Wilson philology lectureship and Bhandarkar was the first lecturer. His lectures in this connection are of permanent value and interest. In 1879 the Bombay Government entrusted him with the work of conducting searches for sanskrit manuscripts. He used periodically six volumes of reports regarding his operations. They still form a vast storehouse of historic information on various topics and are of permanent interest to all students of early Indian history. His editing, in this connection, of old Jain manuscripts led to a resuscitation of the history of the Jain sect, of which little was known till then. In the course of his search he was able to gather materials which he subsequently utilized for the publication of his Outlines of Vaishnavism.

In 1885 the University of Gottingen (Germany) honoured Bhandarkar by conferring on him the degree of Ph. D. Next year he visited the great Congress of Orientalists held at Vienna. After this many learned societies in Europe and America vied with each other in honouring him. He was generally recognized as the leading Sanskritist in India. In 1884 had been published his well-known Early History of the Deccan. One of his greatest works is Vaishnavism, Saivism and Minor Religious Sects published so late as 1913. Towards the middle of 1915, many loving disciples and admirers of Bhandarkar conceived the idea of founding an Oriental institute which would offer facilities to research workers and at the same time commemorate the memory of Bhandarkar. The scheme soon materialised, thanks to the aid of Sir Ratan and Sir Dorab Tata and the Bhandarkar Institute was formally inaugurated by Lord Willingdon in July, 1917. A band of scholars trained under his influence are here continuing the work of Bhandarkar.