Sir Jadunath Sarkar, son of Rajkumar Sarkar, a zamindar belonging to Kayastha family of Rampur in the Rajshahi district of Bangladesh was born on 10th December 1870. Since his father was a zamindar he got good education – double honors in B.A. (History and English) and Masters Degree in English Literature, but earned his reputation as a historian. He changed his loyalty to the muse of Clio, though he continued teaching English till his retirement. He produced not less than 26 volumes on history on various topics. His first book was ‘India of Aurangzeb’ 1901. With this he put his hand to the plough (7 years of labor) and laid it down only in 1958 as he rolled up his life but with a posthumous publication ‘military History’ in 1960.
He secured double honors in
B.A. in English and history although he could not get a scholarship of Rs 50
per month (though Rs 12 was substantive for expenses). He passed the MA degree
in English scoring 93% marks, which created sensation. He was offered a scholarship
to go abroad. He refused to go out of India as he wanted to prepare for the
Raychand Premchand Scholarship. (Exam was extremely tough and involved
knowledge of many subjects). He did well and got a scholarship of Rs 7000. He
was appointed as a lecturer in English at Ripon College, Calcutta. Das, one of
his students observes, regarding his ability as teacher, ‘Put all the English
and Indian professors on one side of the scale and place Jadunath alone on the
other, and the latter will balance them’.
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