Articles
ACHARYA PRAFULLA CHANDRA ROY & HIS CONTRIBUTION
by Prabir Kumar Roy EducationistAcharya
Prafulla Chandra Roy has a very significant place in the panorama of Bengali
culture. An exact contemporary of Tagore and Vivekananda, his life's mission
was to teach us to stand on our own legs. Certainly an arduous task at a time
when for the vast majority of Bengali youth clerkhood represented the acme of
achievement in life. Distressed and agitated, the Acharya pointed to many
independent avenues of enterprise which he expounded in one writing after
another. At time it was pisiculture, at other times it was cattle farming; he
even wrote a lengthy essay on the career prospect offered by the profession of
shoe making.
There is an interesting Bengali book penned by the Acharya called Desi Rang
(Our Indigenous Dyes), which deals meticulously with the local methods of
producing pigments. Not satisfied with exposition, he appended small pieces of
handloom cloth dyed in different pigments as specimen at the end of a special
edition of the book. The Acharya was at that time an internationally acclaimed
chemist; his monumental History of Hindu Chemistry had given him the
prestige and position of an unquestionable pioneer in this area of research.
But he was not content with the unruffled life of a scientist; he yearned to
bring the benefits of science to remote corners and especially to poor
localities of the country, to the very homes of the uneducated indigent people.
He asked every one to wield the spade and make a garden of roses and jasmine
with ones own hand. That would unite sense of beauty with the enterprise of
business. Indeed, on many occasions he proudly proclaimed himself a
businessman.
Though he shunned all excesses in his life-style which was austere and even
monkish, he gave away money freely to improve facilities for research at the
Calcutta University; he would also provide financial help to poor but eager
research students. As Professor at the Presidency College and the University of
Calcutta, his fame as a teacher of science reached proverbial level. But his
devotion to science was no exclusive affair; he had an intense appreciation and
love for literature and arts as well. In fact, his initiation to literature was
at a very early age when he started reading literary books of his father's
library. Indeed, his proficiency in Bengali and English literature, his avid
interest in historical studies which were well known among his contemporaries;
even today the handful of readers who are familiar with his writings know it.
He could recite long passages from Shakespeare, Tagore and Michael Madhusudan
Dutta. He was also a good linguist who knew, beside Bengali and English,
French, German, Latin, Greek and Sanskrit.
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About Prabir Kumar Roy 
Educationist
104 connections, 0 recommendations, 247 honor points.Joined APSense since, April 19th, 2011, From Ashoknagar, India.
Created on Dec 31st 1969 18:00. Viewed 0 times.
