Brajendranath Dey (23 December 1852 – 20 September 1932) was an early Indian member of the Indian Civil Service.Indiasaga Who's Who
/ref>

Early life and education

De studied at

Hare School Hare School is one of the oldest schools in Kolkata, India, teaching grades one to twelve under the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. It is a state government-administered boys sc ...

, Calcutta, and then Canning Collegiate School and Canning College, Lucknow. Always ranking at the top of his class in school, he was placed in the first division in all his final examinations. He came first from his school in the Entrance examination of Calcutta University and fourth in the first division in the First Arts (F.A.) examination of Calcutta University. A student of English (Honours), he ranked sixth in the first division in his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) examination. Since he was a first divisioner, he was allowed to take the Master of Arts (M.A.) examination of the Calcutta University soon after the completion of his B.A. (Honours) examination. He was ranked second in the M.A. examination and was awarded the silver medal of Calcutta University.Full Text of 'Tabaqat-i-Akbari'
/ref> Later, he travelled to England for his higher studies, on the advice of his grand-uncle,

Peary Charan Sarkar Peary Charan Sircar (also spelled Pyari Churn Sircar or Pyari Charan Sircar in contemporary documents; 1823–1875), was an educationist and textbook writer in nineteenth century Bengal. His series of Reading Books introduced a whole generation o ...

and his father's mentor, Raja Dakshinaranjan Mukherjee, the taluqdar of Shankarpore, United Provinces and for some time assistant commissioner of Lucknow. In England, he joined University College, London to appear in the Open Competitive Services examination. Having taken the examination successfully, he joined the Indian Civil Service in 1873, emerging 17th in a batch of 35 successful probationers selected from a total of 360 candidates. He was the 8th Indian member of the

ICS ICS may refer to: Computing * Image Cytometry Standard, a digital multidimensional image file format used in life sciences microscopy * Industrial control system, computer systems and networks used to control industrial plants and infrastructu ...

. Subsequently, he was called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

by the

Honourable Society of the Middle Temple The Honourable Society of the Middle Temple, commonly known simply as Middle Temple, is one of the four Inns of Court exclusively entitled to call their members to the English Bar as barristers, the others being the Inner Temple, Gray's Inn a ...

on 7 June 1875. He was admitted to

St. Mary Hall, Oxford St Mary Hall was a medieval academic hall of the University of Oxford. It was associated with Oriel College from 1326 to 1545, but functioned independently from 1545 until it was incorporated into Oriel College in 1902. History In 1320, ...

, where he spent one year, from 1874 to 1875, on a Boden Sanskrit Scholarship, having attended the lectures of Professor

Max Mueller Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (English Springer Spaniel), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of OBE) * Max (gorilla) (1 ...

and Mr. Ruslan.Oxford University Calendar, 1875, p. 366 He was the first Indian ICS officer to have studied in a college in Oxford. His second son-in-law was Sir

Sarat Kumar Ghosh Sir Sarat Kumar Ghosh or Ghose, ICS (3 July 1879 – 8 January 1963) was an Indian civil servant and a jurist. Background and education He was the son of Rai Bahadur Tarini Kumar Ghosh, Inspector General of Registration of the Government of B ...

, Chief Justice of Jaipur and Kashmir and the only interim Chief Justice of the High Court of Rajasthan, his fifth daughter and son-in-law were the social reformer Saroj Nalini Dutt, MBE, and

Gurusaday Dutt Gurusaday Dutt (1882–1941) was a civil servant, folklorist, and writer. He was the founder of the ''Bratachari'' Movement in the 1930s. Early life and education Gurusaday was the son of the Ramkrishna Dutta Chaudhuri and Anandamayee Debi. ...

, Secretary, Local Self Government and Public Health, Government of Bengal, his sixth son-in-law was Lieutenant Colonel Jyotish Chandra De,

IMS Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Gry Tofte Ims (born 1986), Norwegian footballer * Rolf Anker Ims (born 1958), Norwegian ecologist See also * IMS (disambiguation) Ims is a Norwegian surname. Notable people wit ...

,Lives Less Forgotten: Lieutenant Colonel Jyotish Chandra De
/ref> 2nd Indian Principal of the Calcutta Medical College, his seventh son-in-law was Captain (Hon.) Dr. Paresh Chandra Datta, first Chief Medical Officer of the B.R. Singh Memorial Hospital, Calcutta then of the East Bengal Railway and Director of Public Health, Government of West Bengal and his third son was Major (Hon.) Basanta Kumar De, Traffic Superintendent General and then Commercial Traffic Manager of the BNR. Two of his grandsons were Ranajit Datta, chairman and managing director of Braithwaite, Burn and Jessop Limited and the historian Barun De, chairman, West Bengal Heritage Commission. Two of his great-grandchildren were the singer

Uma Bose Uma Bose (Hashi) (22 Jan 1921 - 22 Jan 1942) was a musical prodigy. Early life She was born in Calcutta to Prabha Bose (née Mitra) and Dharani Bose. Her father, who built the Mackinnon Mackenzie building in Calcutta and was a councillor of the ...

Lives Less Forgotten: Uma Bose
/ref> and the cameraman Subrata Mitra.Lives Less Forgotten: Subrata Mitra
/ref>

Career

Administrative

He took up his first posting in the civil service as assistant magistrate and collector of Arrah, Behar in 1875. He served in districts where the rulers of erstwhile zamindari estates, such as Darbhanga and Dumrao, had a strong presence. After serving in a number of districts in Behar, he was posted in Raniganj, Bengal in 1881. He officiated as the district magistrate and collector of Bankura, Burdwan and Faridpore. He served as the full district magistrate and collector of

Khulna Khulna ( bn, খুলনা, ) is the third-largest city in Bangladesh, after Dhaka and Chittagong. It is the administrative centre of Khulna District and Khulna Division. Khulna's economy is the third-largest in Bangladesh, contributing $53 b ...

, where he was befriended by Dr. Krishnadhan Ghosh, the civil surgeon of the district, and the father of Aurobindo Ghosh. He became the magistrate and collector of

Balasore Balasore or Baleswara is a city in the state of Odisha, about north of the state capital Bhubaneswar and from Kolkata, in eastern India. It is the largest town of northern Odisha and the administrative headquarters of Balasore district. It i ...

in Orissa and then of Malda and Hooghly."Mr. B. De", in ''Bengalee'', 7 September 1910; see also ''Indian Daily'' News, 3 September 1910 He was the first Indian to be elected as chairman of the Hooghly Municipal Corporation. He was an (acting) commissioner of the Burdwan Division."Late Mr. B. De.: Passing Away of an Old Civilian" in ''Liberty'', Friday, 30 September 1932 As the district officer of Hooghly, he started the Duke Club there which was meant to be exclusively for Indians. One of his Commissioners once told him not to entertain the thought of wanting to join a British club in the district. After retirement he remained actively involved in the work of the Calcutta Improvement Trust.'Late Mr. B.De: Passing Away of An Old Civilian' in ''Liberty'', Friday, 30 September 1932"Late Mr. B. De, Calcutta Corporation Tributes", in ''Liberty'', Saturday, 1 October 1932

Academic

While still in service he translated

Kalidas Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and ...

's 'Vikramarvasi' and 'Manichudabadana' from Sanskrit to English. He edited an English-Bengali dictionary and published an article on inter dining in the Madras Social Reformer (1910). In his post-retirement years he served as a vice-president of the council of the Asiatic Society, Calcutta."Birth Centenary of B.De Celebrated" in ''The Statesman'', Wednesday, 24 December 1952"He Rehabilitated Persian in Bengal: Tributes to Late B.De: Birthday Celebration" in ''Amrita Bazar Patrika'', Wednesday, 24 December 1952 He was the translator and editor, in two volumes, Nizamuddin Ahmad's ''Tabaqat-i-Akbari''. The third volume, which he had left fully prepared, was published posthumously by Baini Prasad and also M. Hidayat Hosain."Mr.B.De Dead Retired Member of the Civil Service" in ''The Statesman'', 30 September 1932Sudha Sharma, ''Status of Muslim Women in Medieval India'', Allahabad
/ref>

Legacy

A road in Chinsura, Hooghly is named after him.Map of Chinsura, Hooghly, Bengal
/ref> At the time of his centenary celebration in 1952, his second son, Basanta Kumar De, Esq., a senior officer of the BNRLives Less Forgotten: Basanta Kumar De
/ref> took the initiative to publish in three articles sections of his reminiscences in the '' Calcutta Review''. This work was entrusted to Tapan Raychaudhuri, then of the Department of Islamic History and Culture of the University of Calcutta.Mrinalini Sinha, "Reconfiguring Hiararchies: The Ilbert Bill Controversy, 1883-84", in Reina Lewis and Sarah Mills, ''Feminist Post-Colonialist Theory: A Reader'', New York and London, Routledge, 2003, p. 456
/ref> In 2001, approximately 2,000 photographs of himself and his family members were given in loan by one of his grandsons, Barun De,"Situating an Eminent Historian Eminently" – Sabyasachi Bhattacharya
Retrieved 2015-03-21.Lives Less Forgotten: Barun De
/ref> to the photographic archives of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. Later, when the archive was shifted to the newly established Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, CSSSC, Calcutta, the photographs too were deposited there.Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, (Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, 2009), p. 7

Publications

A member of a Kayastha family of Bengal, he was a scholar of Persian and Sanskrit. He edited and translated a few works from those languages into English. They were as follows: *(ed. & tran.),

Kālidāsa Kālidāsa (''fl.'' 4th–5th century CE) was a Classical Sanskrit author who is often considered ancient India's greatest poet and playwright. His plays and poetry are primarily based on the Vedas, the Rāmāyaṇa, the Mahābhārata and t ...

's play Vikramorvasi, 'Vikramorvaçi', Canto I., in '' Calcutta Review'', Oct. 1884, pp. 440–2. * (ed. & tran.), ''The Tabaqat-i-Akbari of Khwaja Nizamuddin Ahmad: A History of India from the Early Musalman Invasions to the Thirty-eighth year of the Reign of Akbar'' (in 3 Vols.), (Calcutta, reprint, 1973) * "Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service", in ''Calcutta Review'', (1953–5).Reminiscences of an Indian Member of the Indian Civil Service' in the Calcutta Review
/ref>

References

External links

The Asiatic Society, Calcutta
{{DEFAULTSORT:De, Brajendranath 1852 births 1932 deaths Alumni of St Mary Hall, Oxford Bengali historians 19th-century Bengalis 20th-century Bengalis Bengali Hindus Brahmos Historians of South Asia Indian barristers Indian civil servants Indian Civil Service (British India) officers Indian orientalists 19th-century Indian historians People from Hooghly district Persian–English translators Sanskrit–English translators Hare School alumni University of Calcutta alumni University of Lucknow alumni 20th-century Indian historians Scholars from Kolkata 19th-century Indian lawyers 20th-century Indian lawyers Members of the Middle Temple 19th-century translators 20th-century Indian translators Indian scholars 20th-century Indian scholars 19th-century Indian scholars