Prabodh Chandra Bagchi
| Prabodh Chandra Bagchi প্রবোধচন্দ্র-বাগচী |
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Dr P.C. Bagchi in his office at Visva Bharati
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| Born |
18 November 1898 Jessore, Bengal, British India |
| Died | 19 January 1956 (aged 57) Santiniketan, West Bengal, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Occupation | Sinologist, Indologist |
Prabodh Chandra Bagchi (Bengali: প্রবোধচন্দ্র-বাগচী) (18 November 1898 – 19 January 1956) or P. C. Bagchi was one of the most notable Sino -Indologists of the 20th century. He was the third Upacharya (Vice-Chancellor) of Visva-Bharati University.
He was born on 18 November 1898, the eldest son of Shri Harinath Bagchi and Smt Tarangini Devi in present-day Bangladesh in Jessore District. He was to lose his mother in his early childhood. He did his schooling in Srikole (Hat Srikol), Khulna District in present Bangladesh. Dr Bagchi was a brilliant student and a favourite of his teachers and Head Master who expected great things of him. In 1914, he appeared for the Matriculation examination. He graduated from Krishnagar Government College in 1918 with honours in Sanskrit. He stood first in his college and received the prestigious Mohini Mohan Roy award. Although he showed promise in Mathematics, he took Sanskrit, the classical language of India, because of his desire to study ancient Indian history. He joined Calcutta University for his post-graduation studies in Ancient History and Culture, obtaining a First Class M.A. in 1920. He was awarded a Gold Medal in the Religion Section and overall had stood first in the University.
After his post-graduation from Calcutta University, he immediately joined the University as a Lecturer after being called by Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee who told him to "Join from tomorrow" (In Bengali, as noted in his personal diary). The period from 1921 onwards was highly significant for Prabodh Chandra Bagchi in fulfilling his dream to become a true Orientalist. He realised the need for reconstructing ancient history and the multifaceted Indian cultural history more scientifically on a broader Asiatic perspective. With this lofty dream in mind, he started learning Chinese and Japanese from Professor Kimura and Professor Masuda of Calcutta University and German from Professor Taraporewala. Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee, the Vice-Chancellor deputed Prabodh Chandra to learn Chinese and Tibetan from Sylvain Lévi, the Professor of Sanskrit and Indian Civilization in the Sorbonne University, Paris who was in Santiniketan on an invitation from Rabindranath Tagore. It was also from Sylvain Lévi and the great poet Rabindranath that Prabodh Chandra imbibed a new approach to research on the Indian cultural history which renewed his endeavour to learn various foreign languages to have access to the original source materials. Instead of fragmented specialised studies he realised that ancient Indian history and culture should be viewed in its entirety so that many obscure areas would be brought into light.
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