Shivanath Shastri
| Sivanath Sastri | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
31 January 1847 Chingripota village |
| Died | 30 September 1919 (aged 72) Kolkata |
| Occupation | Religious and social reformer |
| Spouse(s) | 1. Prasannamoyee 2. Birajmohini |
Sivanath Sastri (as spelt by himself, but also spelt as Shibnath Shastri, Shib Nath Shastri, Shibanath Shastri, Shivanath Shastri) (Bengali: শিবনাথ শাস্ত্রী Shibonath Shastri) (1847–1919) was a scholar, religious reformer, educator, writer and historian. He played an active role in the society of his times and kept a wonderful record of events but for which it would have been difficult to know and understand his turbulent age. His views have, occasionally, been criticised. He was not merely a detached historian but also an active participant of the age.
Son of Harananda Bhattacharya, a native of Majilpur, in 24 Parganas, he was born in the house of his maternal uncle at Chingripota village, 24 Parganas, on 31 January 1847. The family were Vedic Brahmins, possibly migrated from the South. According to family hearsay, they had come from Jajpur in Orissa and settled in Majilpur. Most of the members of the family were learned and poor, and many of them engaged in priestcraft.
Sivanath started attending the local pathsala and when an English school was established at Majilpur with the support of the local zemindar, he joined it. During his childhood, one of the villagers, Brajanath Dutta and his son, Shib Krishna Dutta, used to subscribe to the Tattwabodhini Patrika and discuss religious and social matters with learned people. They had later influenced other villagers, such as Umesh Chandra Dutta, to convert to the Brahmo Samaj.
At the age of nine, he went to Kolkata and joined Sanskrit Collegiate School. Sivanath used to stay near to the house of his maternal grand father. His maternal uncle, Dwarakanath Vidyabhusan, was a learned person teaching in the Sanskrit College. They were close to Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar, who used to visit their house regularly. As a child, he went and attended the first widow remarriage at Sukea Street on 7 December 1856. In 1858, Dwarakanath Vidyabhusan started the newspaper Somprakash. The press and other arrangements were set up in the house itself. Thus, Sivanath Sastri grew up in a varied environment of education, initiative and reform.
Sivanath used to attend lectures of Debendranath Tagore, Keshub Chunder Sen and Ajodhyanath Pakrashi in the Bhawanipur branch of the Brahmo Samaj as early as 1862. The movement had already affected his native village and when the Brahmos opened a girls’ school in the village, his mother admitted his sisters in the school. However, when the zemindar of the village saw that the Brahmos were progressively gaining ground in the village, he started opposing them directly and asked all the guardians not to send their daughters to the school. Everybody acceded but the two sisters of Sivanath Sastri continued to go to school.
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