Suniti Kumar Chatterji Biography 
Suniti Kumar Chatterjee was an Indian linguist and educationist. He has received Padma Bhushan award and Padma Vibhushan award from Government of India. He was born on 26th November 1890 at Shibpur in Howrah. His father was Haridas Chattopadhyay, an affluent Brahmin.
He studied at Mutty Lal Seal’s Free School in 1907 and completed his Entrance examination. He got sixth rank in the examination and got admission in F. A. in the Scottish Church College. He finished his Honors degree in English literature from Presidency College at Kolkata and stood first in the class in the year 1911.
He completed his Master’s degree in English literature in 1913. He started his career as the lecturer of English at Vidhyasagar College in Kolkata. He joined the University of Calcutta as the assistant professor of English in the Post Graduate Department in 1914. He served there until 1919 and went to University of London to study Phonology and Indi-European Linguistics and Persian and other languages.
He went to Paris and started his work at the Sorbonne. He returned back to India in 1922 and joined University of Calcutta as the Khaira Professor of Indian Linguistics and Phonetics. He retired in the year 1952 and he was made as the Professor Emeritus. In 1965 he served as the National Research Professor of India for Humanities.
He said that Ramayana has its origin in the Buddhist Dasaratha Jataka and this led to great controversy. This controversy started with his extempore at Asiatic Society in Kolkata in January 1976.
He went to many countries like Malaya, Sumatra, Java and Baili and delivered lectures about Indian culture and fine arts. He served as the Chairman of the West Bengal Legislative Council and as the President of Sahitya Akademi.
Some of his publications are The Origin and Development of Bengali Language, Bengali Phonetic Reader, Indo- Aryan and Hindi, Ramayana: Its Character, Genesis, History and Exodus: A Resume, etc. He died on 29th May 1977 in Kolkata.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 05, 2012
