[INDOLOGY] Sukumari Bhattacharji

[George Thompson]

Dear List,

My attempt to cut and paste the message failed [sorry: I am dealing with a
new laptop computer which doesn't do what I want it to do].

The message was:

Dear friends,

I did not know Prof. Bhattacharji personally, but I very much admired her
work.  I mourn with you who were her friends and colleagues

Best wishes,

George


On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 3:25 PM, George Thompson <gthomgt at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear List,
>
> I meant to send this message to the entire list yesterday.  Instead, I
> sent it to one list member by mistake.
>
> >>>>>
>
> Dear friends,
>
> I did not know Prof. Bhattacharji personally, but I very much admired her
> work.  I mourn with you who were her friends and colleagues.
>
> George
>
>
>
> On Sun, May 25, 2014 at 10:16 PM, George Thompson <gthomgt at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> Dear friends,
>>
>> I did not know Prof. Bhattacharji personally, but I very much admired her
>> work.  I mourn with you who were her friends and colleagues.
>>
>> George Thompson
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 25, 2014 at 3:07 PM, Rosane Rocher <rrocher at sas.upenn.edu>wrote:
>>
>>>  Dear Colleague,
>>>
>>> Thank you for sharing this sad news and for your sketch of the life of
>>> Sukumari Bhattacharji.  She reached out to us when we were on a nine-month
>>> research stay in Calcutta in 1969–1970 and she was full of the impending
>>> publication of her *Indian Theogony*.  We visited with her on
>>> subsequent stays in Kolkata, one of which times caused us to ride the Metro
>>> for the first time.  In addition to being a dedicated scholar, she was a
>>> strong woman and a lady.
>>>
>>> Rosane and Ludo Rocher
>>>
>>> On 5/25/14 11:00 AM, Dipak Bhattacharya wrote:
>>>
>>>  <indology at list.indology.info>
>>>
>>> 25 5 14
>>>
>>> Dear Friends,
>>>
>>> I sadly announce the death of Professor Sukumari Bhattacharji on 24 May
>>> afternoon at the age of 93 at her residence in Kolkata. One of the
>>> brightest students of the Calcutta University she worked for her doctorate
>>> at Cambridge and was awarded the degree. The work appeared as *The
>>> Indian theogony *in 1970. Coming from a Protestant Christain family of
>>> Central Bengal Sukumari could never adjust herself to situations that she
>>> regarded as not in conformity with her principles. She faced many adverse
>>> situations but never succumbed to circumstances. She took her MA in English
>>> language and literature and married a Hindu Brahmin, Dr.Amal Bhattacharya
>>> who taught at the Presidency College. Sukumari again got herself admitted
>>> to the Sanskrit MA course at the University of Calcutta. A yājñika Vedic
>>> scholar is said to have objected to her - a woman and Christaian -
>>> attending Veda classes. This was ridiculed down by the authorities that
>>> saved her from humiliation. She attended the classes and was declared first
>>> at the final examination. She became a Marxist by principle but avoided
>>> active politics. Till the early sixties she taught in one of the most
>>> prestigious Women's College in Calcutta, namely the Bethune College. She
>>> was admired for her scholarship and spirited non-conformism by many
>>> contemporary philologists of Calcutta that included S.K.Chatterji,
>>> Durgamohan Bhattacharyya and Ramaranjan Mukherjee. I later came to know
>>> that Durgamohan and Ramaranjan had been instrumental in getting her
>>> selected as Reader in Sanskrit (Associate Professor) at the Jadavpur
>>> University. Later she became Professor.
>>>
>>> When a hot debate was raging over her depiction of women's life in
>>> ancient India, she asked in a letter to a newspaper why she would not have
>>> the choice to declare that she did not believe in any religion. The
>>> rightists in Calcutta used abusive language against her and falsely accused
>>> her of plagiarism on Zimmer. Others showed that it was not so. A famous
>>> historian is said to have remarked that she got a prestigious prize only
>>> because of her remark that only prostitutes had been free women in ancient
>>> India
>>>
>>> Her siding with the leftists too did not last. From 2005 to the end
>>> Sukumari was shunned by all -- the right and the left. The sole grace was
>>> that publishers did not shun her. Sukumari was not sorry.
>>>
>>> Her non-conformist character placed Sukumari in opposition to a number
>>> of Indologists including Professor Gonda. Perhaps Burrow had remained fond
>>> of her.
>>>
>>> Dipak Bhattacharya
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> INDOLOGY mailing listINDOLOGY at list.indology.infohttp://listinfo.indology.info
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
>>
>>
>


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