Occupation Orientalist | Name Brajendranath De | |
Born December 23, 1852 ( 1852-12-23 ) Calcutta Spouse(s) Nagendranandini De (nee Bose) Died September 20, 1932, Kolkata Children Saroj Nalini Dutt, Basanta Kumar De Education University of Calcutta, St Mary Hall, Oxford, University College London People also search for Saroj Nalini Dutt, Gurusaday Dutt, Basanta Kumar De | ||
Brajendranath De (23 December 1852 – 20 September 1932) was an early Indian member of the Indian Civil Service.
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Early life and education
De studied at Canning College, Lucknow, and later travelled to England, where he was called to the Bar by the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple. He was also admitted to St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he spent one year on a Boden Sanskrit Scholarship. He then joined the ICS, of which he was one of the earliest Indian entrants.
His fourth daughter was Saroj Nalini Dutt and his fifth son-in-law was Jyotish Chandra De, who was a member of the Indian Medical Service. One of his grandsons was Barun De.
Administrative
He was assistant magistrate and collector of Shahabad, Bengal in 1881. He served as the district magistrate and collector of Khulna. He became the magistrate and collector of Balasore in Orissa and then of Malda and Hooghly. He was an acting commissioner of the Burdwan Division.
As the district officer of Hooghly, he started the Duke Club there which was meant to be exclusively for Indians. One of his Commissioners once told him not to entertain the thought of wanting to join a British club in the district.
After retirement he remained actively involved in the work of the Calcutta Improvement Trust.
Academic
In his post-retirement years he served as a vice-president of the council of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta.
He translated and edited, in two volumes, Nizamuddin Ahmad's Tabaqat-i-Akbari. The third volume, which he had left fully prepared, was published posthumously by Beni Prasad.
He was also the translator of Kalidas's 'Vikramarvasi' and 'Manichudabadana' from Sanskrit to English.
Publications
Legacy
In 2001, approximately 2,000 photographs of himself and his family members were given in loan to the photographic archives of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Later, when the archive was shifted to the newly established Jadunath Sarkar Centre for Historical Research, CSSSC, Calcutta, the photographs too were deposited at 'Jadunath Bhavan', where the new Centre is located.