Asoke Kumar Bhattacharyya (1 February 1919 – 11 June 2016) was an Indian archaeologist, museologist, art historian and professor of Sanskrit. He was the Director of the

Indian Museum, Kolkata The Indian Museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts, is the ninth oldest museum in the world, the oldest and largest museum in India as well as in Asia. It has rare ...

for a decade till his retirement. The Indian government awarded him

Padma Shri Padma Shri ( IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is conf ...

in April 2017 posthumously. Bhattacharyya has to his credit 29 published books on various aspects of art, archaeology, epigraphy and numismatics and hundreds of research articles in journals across the world. In 2012, he was awarded the Acharya Hemchandra Suri Samman Puraskar, New Delhi for his outstanding contribution to Jaina iconography.

Biography

Bhattacharyya was born in north

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

, to professor Harimohan Bhattacharyya on 1 February 1919. He studied in South Suburban School,

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in A ...

, completed him Master of Arts in

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

from

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

in 1941 with major in Epigraphy and iconography. He completed his Master of Arts in Arabic-Persian History in 1952. He was a gold medalist in both of his master's degrees. Meanwhile, he was honoured with Kabitirtha and Purantirtha. He completed

Law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

in 1944. He received the

Premchand Roychand Premchand Roychand was a 19th-century Indian Jain businessman known as the "Cotton King" and "Bullion King" from Bombay. Life Premchand Raichand was born in 1832 in a Porwal Jain family. He was the son of Roychand Dipchand, a merchant from Su ...

Scholarship in 1949. He joined the

Indian Museum The Indian Museum in Central Kolkata, West Bengal, India, also referred to as the Imperial Museum at Calcutta in colonial-era texts, is the ninth oldest museum in the world, the oldest and largest museum in India as well as in Asia. It has rare ...

as assistant curator in 1949. Later on from 1965 to 1975 he was the Director of the

till retirement. He died on 11 June 2016 at his residence in Lake Gardens,

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

Books

His books include:Bhattacharyya, A. K. (Asoke Kumar) 1919-
WorldCat Identities * A Corpus of Dedicatory Inscriptions from Temples of West Bengal, c. 1500 A.D. to c. 1800 A.D. 1982 * A Pageant of Indian Culture : art and archaeology 1995 * Cultural, Historical, and Political Aspects of Perso-Arabic Epigraphy in India 1999 * Indian Contribution to the Development of Far Eastern Buddhist Iconography 2002 * Early and Buddhist Stone Sculpture of Japan 2004 * Buddhist Iconography in Thailand : a South East Asian perspective 2007 * Indian Numismatics And Its Cultural Aspects 2010 * Historical Development Of Jaina Iconography: A Comprehensive Study 2010

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharyya, Asoke Kumar 1919 births 2016 deaths 20th-century Indian archaeologists Indian museologists Indian art historians Recipients of the Padma Shri in other fields Scottish Church College alumni University of Calcutta alumni Indian historians 20th-century Indian historians 21st-century Indian historians 21st-century Indian archaeologists Indian archaeologists Indian Sanskrit scholars Sanskrit scholars from Bengal Sanskrit scholars 20th-century Bengalis 21st-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus Scholars from Kolkata Bengali writers Indian male writers 20th-century Indian writers 21st-century Indian writers 20th-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian male writers Bengali historians West Bengal academics Indian art writers