Yogendra Vidyabhushan

Yogendra (or Jogendra) Vidyabhushan (Banerjee) (1845–1904) was an Indian Bengali scholar in Sanskrit, thinker, journalist and popular author of biographies which stirred patriotic zeal in the readers' heart. Loved by Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, admired by Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, he helped the rise of militant nationalism.

Yogendra was born at the village Simhat in Ranaghat subdivision of West Bengal, at his maternal grandfather's house. Belonging to an orthodox Brahman family, his mother Sonamani (née Chatterjee) was as pious as stern. His father Umesh Chandra Banerjee hailed from the village Suvarnapur in the district of Nadia. A modest landholder, he was fond of religious studies and meditation. Yogendra's younger brother Mahendra was to be a prosperous London-bred physician. After the village school, Yogendra went first to the Zilla School at Barishal and, then, at Barasat. Admitted into Reverend Long's school at Calcutta, he obtained several scholarships. At 13, Yogendra joined the Sanskrit College of the University of Calcutta, where he drew the attention of its principal, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar. Among his classmates were Vijaykrishna Goswami and Shivnath Shastri. In 1872 he and Shivnath passed their M.A. in Sanskrit successfully and both of them received the title of Vidyabhushan.

Yogendra had to face a few sad events before settling as a family man. According to Shivnath's autobiography, in 1868, encouraged by Vidyasagar, widowed Yogendra had married Mahalakshmi, a widow herself. Victim of an epidemic of cholera, she was to die in 1869. In 1871, Vidyasagar asked him again to marry Malatimala, daughter of late Madanmohan Tarkalamkar, Vidyasagar's childhood friend and colleague at the Sanskrit College. This union was blessed with three sons and three daughters.

After eight years of career as professor of Sanskrit, in November 1880, Yogendra was appointed Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector in several districts. Following the popularity of Bangadarshan edited by Bankimchandra Chatterjee, in April 1874 Yogendra published his Aryadarshan, to promote "history, science and philosophy, leaving ample scope for poetry, arts and fiction as well." During eleven years this paper inspired the Bengali reading public. Though Yogendra did not take part in active politics, his spirit of independence was a draw-back for promotion in Government service.

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