S. N. Dasgupta

Surendranath Dasgupta
Surendranath Dasgupta
Native name	সুরেন্দ্রনাথ দাশগুপ্ত
Born	October 1887 Kushtia, Nadia, Bengal, British India
Died	18 December 1952 (aged 65) Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality	India
Education	University of Calcutta
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Spouse(s)	Himani Devi
Doctoral advisor	J. M. E. McTaggart
Doctoral students	Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya

Surendranath Dasgupta (Bengali: সুরেন্দ্রনাথ দাশগুপ্ত) (October 1887 – 18 December 1952) was a scholar of Sanskrit and philosophy.

Dasgupta was born in Kushtia, Bengal (now in Bangladesh) in a Vaidya family. His ancestral home was in the village Goila in Barisal District. He studied in Ripon College Calcutta and graduated with honours in Sanskrit. Later, he received his master's degree from Sanskrit College, Calcutta in 1908. He got a second master's degree in Western Philosophy in 1910 from the University of Calcutta.

Prof. Dasgupta married Himani Devi, a beautiful lady and the younger sister of India's pioneer film director and founder of Bombay Talkies Himanshu Rai and had six children with her. Dasgupta had three daughters Maitreyi Devi (Sen) (1914-1989), Chitrita Devi (Gupta) and Sumitra Majumdar. Maitreyi Devi and Chitrita Devi (Gupta) were also famous writers. His sons Subhayu Dasgupta, Sugata Dasgupta and Prof. Subhachari Dasgupta also left behind valuable works in nation building.

His last surviving and youngest child Sumitra Majumdar died in Goa in September 2008.

Dasgupta had taken the Griffith Prize in 1916 and his doctorate in Indian Philosophy in 1920. Maharaja Sir Manindra Chandra Nandi now urged him to go to Europe to study European philosophy at its sources, and generously bore all the expenses of his research tour (1920–22).

Dasgupta went to England and distinguished himself at Cambridge as a research student in philosophy under Dr. J. M. E. McTaggart. During this time the Cambridge University Press published the first volume of the History of Indian Philosophy (1921). He was also appointed lecturer at Cambridge, and nominated to represent Cambridge University at the International Congress of Philosophy in Paris.