Mahendra Lal Sarkar

Mahendralal Sarkar
Born	2 November 1833 Paikpara village, Howrah district
Died	23 February 1904 Calcutta
Occupation	Physician, academic
Spouse(s)	Rajkumari

Mahendralal Sarkar (other spellings: Mahendra Lal Sarkar, Mahendralal Sircar, Mahendralal Sircir) (1833–1904) was a homoeopath doctor, social reformer, and propagator of scientific studies in nineteenth-century India. He was the founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science.

Mahendralal Sarkar was born at Paikpara village in Howrah district, near Calcutta (now known as Kolkata) in the Bengal Province of British India. He lost both his parents early in life, his father when he was five years old and his mother when he was nine years old. His mother had shifted to his maternal uncles' house earlier, and subsequently he was brought up by his maternal uncles, Iswar Chandra Ghosh and Mahesh Chandra Ghosh in their house at Nebutala in Calcutta. First he was sent to a "gurumasai" or tutor to learn Bengali, and subsequently to another tutor named Thakurdas Dey, to learn English. On learning some English he secured admission in Hare School as a free student in 1840. In 1849, he passed the junior scholarship examination and joined Hindu College, where he studied up to 1854. At that time, Hindu College did not have facilities for teaching science and as he was bent upon studying medicine, he transferred to Calcutta Medical College.

At Calcutta Medical College he was so esteemed by his professors that in the second year of his course he was invited by them to deliver a series of lectures on optics to his fellow students, a task he performed honourably. He had a brilliant career at that college, where, besides winning several scholarships, he passed the final examination in 1860 with the highest honours in medicine, surgery and midwifery. In 1863, he took the degree of M.D. with special success. He and Jagabandhu Bose were the second MDs of the Calcutta University after Chandrakumar De (1862).

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