Mahesh Chandra Ghosh

Mahesh Chandra Ghosh (Bengali: মহেশ চন্দ্র ঘোষ) (1868–1930) was a Bengali Indian philosopher. He was conferred the title of Vednataratna for his immense knowledge of the religious scriptures and philosophy.

Life

He was the son of Ramjay Ghosh of Pabna (now in Bangladesh), he initially studied first arts and then graduated from City College, Kolkata. He joined New School at Barddhaman as a teacher and then moved on to Hazaribagh. He became head master of Hazaribagh Zilla School, a position he held till retirement.

When his elder brother, Radhacharan Ghosh, joined the Brahmo Samaj, he became his follower. In those days, it meant social ostracism but the spirited brothers did not worry about that. However, the environment at Hazaribagh was more mahesh and the local Bengali community extended support to the Brahmo Samaj irrespective of their personal beliefs and attachment to creeds. He succeeded Sashi Bhusan Ghosh as Secretary of Hazaribagh Brahmo Samaj and served for a long period from 1916 to 1930. It was during his term as Secretary that the small Brahmo community at Hazaribagh split and a separate Nava Bidhan Mandir (affiliated to the group led by Keshub Chunder Sen and his followers) was established. It was a fall-out of the bitter feelings then prevailing amongst Brahmos owing allegiance to different units.

A lifelong bachelor, he used to practice homeopathy and distribute free medicines to the poor.

Erudition

He was vastly learned in history, oriental and occidental philosophy, religion and scriptures, and knew several languages. He had deep knowledge of the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Buddhism and Christianity. He wrote extensively in newspapers and magazines. Some these were collected and published in book form as Buddhaprasanga.

He had a large collection of books in his personal library. The noted Bengali author Subodh Ghosh, then a young man in search of knowledge, was a regular visitor to the library. During the period, Hazaribagh was a place of regular visit for learned people from Kolkata. They used to go there for change of climate. Many of them gathered at his house or rather library for exchange of ideas. Even amongst the local population there were great scholars such as the poet Kamini Roy and Kharga Singha Ghosh, a learned professor in St. Columba’s College. It was not only the climate that attracted people from outside but also the warmth of hospitality of the local population and the environment of learning and devotion.

References

Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) in Bengali edited by Subodh Chandra Sengupta and Anjali Bose