Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri

Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri (Bengali: নৃসিংহপ্রসাদ ভাদুড়ী Nr̥sinha Prasād Bhāduṛi; born 23 November 1950) is an Indologist and a specialist of Indian epics and Puranas. He is also a writer.^[1][2] As of 2012 he is overseeing a large-scale encyclopaedia project on Indian epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana which will be released around 2015. Due to the difficulty and complexity of the undertaking, it took Bhaduri a decade to conceptualise the project. Indian news article writers stated that encyclopaedia was poised to challenge many long-held beliefs about the epics.^[1][3]

Personal life

Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri was born on 23 November 1950 at village Gopalpur in Pabna (now in Bangladesh). He earned a Master of Arts degree in Sanskrit language from University of Calcutta. He was a reader of Sanskrit at Gurudas College, Kolkata.^[3][4] He retired from his job on 30 November 2010.^[5]

Literary career

Bhaduri is noted for his scholarly but simple interpretations of ancient Indian tales, particularly those appearing in the Indian epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.^[5] He generally writes in Bengali and has written books like Balmikir Ram O Ramayan, Arjun o Draupadi, Krishna, Kunti Ebong Kaunteyo, and others.^[4] For many years he has been writing essays on Hindu epic characters in Bengali magazines (specially Sarodiya issues of Bartaman and Ananda Publishers books like Anandamela, Desh) etc. In his book Dandaniti Bhaduri has dealt with the idea of politics in ancient and mediaeval India.^[6] Bhaduri's regular column Katha Amrita Saman published in Sangbad Pratidin's Sunday supplement issue Robbar which formerly edited by Rituparno Ghosh. Now-a-days Professor Bhaduri wrote various editorial articles in support of ruling government in West Bengal published in Ei samay^[7]

Krishna has been a special interest of Bhaduri. He has written multiple books and essays on the character. In the book Mahabharater Bharat Yuddha Ebong Krishna he has discussed on the role of Krishna in Kurukshetra War.^[8]

Encyclopedia project

As of March 2012 Bhaduri is directing a project on "Encyclopedia of Puranas" which is being sponsored by Bengali book publisher Sahitya Samsad and Netaji Subhas Institute of Asian Studies. Indian article authors said that his work was expected to challenge many long-held beliefs about the epics.^[1] Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey of The Times of India said 'The encyclopaedia will challenge claims of certain Indian scholars, who under Western influences have often tried to "sanitise" the character of Krishna. In Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's Krishnacharitra, for instance, Krishna is supposed to not have even a single consort.'^[1] Jaideep Mazumdar of The Times of India said "the encyclopaedia will shatter the colonial hangover that a lot of the research into our ancient scriptures in recent times have suffered from and will present many historical figures in a new light."^[3]

Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri was quoted in an interview as saying–^[3]

I thought it would be a good idea since all the smaller encyclopedias I came across on the Puranas were incomplete and didn't have proper reference labels. I started poring through the Puranas and making card entries. After sometime, I thought I should include the Mahabharata also since the stories in the Mahabharata have a parampara (continuity and tradition) with the Puranas. For instance, names of some kings, conventions and rituals for marriages, childbirth and funerals that are found in the Vedas find mention in the Mahabharata as well. And gaps in the Mahabharata's stories, I discovered, can be filled from the Puranas and the Vedas. And since the story of Ramayana is found in a gist in the Mahabharata, I finally decided that a complete encyclopaedia of the epics and the Puranas is necessary since all these texts and scriptures complement each other.

Though the project was planned long ago, it started in 2010. According to a report published in The Times of India in August 2012, Debojyoti Dutta, chief of the publication requested Bhaduri to lead the project. Firstly, they planned to make the encyclopaedia on the Mahabharata only, but found it was too difficult to cover only one of the epics. For example the Hindu epic character Krishna is found in a section of the Ramayana too.^[3]

Because of the complexity and difficulty of the project it took Bhaduri one decade to work on the concept alone. Bhaduri took assistance from research scholars of Netaji Subhas Institute of Asian Studies. The team felt they could finish the project by 2013, but later Bhaduri told– "after going full steam we realised that it is going to be more difficult than we thought. I think we will go well into 2015".^[1]

Books

Translated books

References