Chatterji Chatterji Indian philologist-orientalist and public figure. Date of Birth: 26.11.1890 Country: India

Biography of Sunithi Kumar Chatterjee

Sunithi Kumar Chatterjee was an Indian philologist, orientalist, and social activist. He was born in 1890 in West Bengal, India. Chatterjee graduated from the Calcutta Presidency College in 1913 and went on to pursue further studies in Indo-European, Indian, Iranian, Slavic, Austro-Asiatic, and classical linguistics at the University of London, the University of Paris, the Collège de France, and the School of Living Eastern Languages between 1919 and 1922.

After completing his studies, Chatterjee became a professor at the University of Calcutta in 1922. He was known for his extensive research in phonetics and morphology of the Bengali language, the development of Indo-Aryan languages, especially Prakrits, the influence of substrate languages like Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic, and the lexicon of middle and new Indo-Aryan languages.

Chatterjee's groundbreaking work, "The Origin and Development of the Bengali Language" published in 1926, laid the foundation for the development of Indian linguistics at a modern scientific level. His linguistic studies incorporated historical, cultural, anthropological, ethnographic, and philosophical data. He published around 900 works in Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, and English.

In addition to his linguistic contributions, Chatterjee was also an author of books on literary topics in Bengali. He wrote about his travels with Rabindranath Tagore in Malaya, Indonesia, and Thailand. Chatterjee was a member of various committees on education, culture, and language and served as the Chairman of the Legislative Council of West Bengal from 1952 to 1965.

Chatterjee was honored as an honorary member of numerous academies, institutes, and scientific societies in Europe, Asia, and America. In 1969, he became the Chairman of the International Phonetic Association in London and also served as the Chairman of the West Bengal division of the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society.

Sunithi Kumar Chatterjee's contributions to linguistics and his dedication to education and culture made him a highly respected figure in India and beyond. He passed away in 1977, leaving behind a lasting legacy in the field of linguistics.