Founded in August 1956, with Prof. Gaurinath Sastri, the celebrated Principal of the Govt. Sanskrit College, Calcutta as the Teacher-in-Charge (1956-1958) and then Prof. Sadananda Bhaduri (who later donated his collection of books to the Departmental library) as its first Head of the Department (1958-1961), Jadavpur University’s Department of Sanskrit, with its day and evening sections, started flourishing with a bang during the tenure of Prof. Ramaranjan Mukherji, who, twice pivot of the Department for a long time (1961-1970, 1971-1972), took an active interest in its multiple activities till his last days. After a brief spell of joint Headship of Prof. Sitanath Goswami and Prof.Gopikamohan Bhattacharya in 1970, the former singly headed this Department twice (1970-1971, 1973-1980) for another long period, after which the Headship became rotational. The subsequent Heads were Prof. Ms. Sukumari Bhattacharji (the first woman to lead the Department, in 1981), Dr. Nirmalkanti Basu (1981-1983), Prof. Bhabaniprasad Bhattacharya (the first teacher to occupy the chair twice and the only teacher to complete his/her tenures since the introduction of rotatory Headship, in 1983-1985, +), Prof. Rabisankar Banerji (1985-1987), Prof. Nandita Bandyopadhyay (1987-1989), Dr. Himansu Narayan Chakravarti (1989-1991), Prof. Manabendu Banerjee (1991-
1993), Prof. Bijoya Goswami (1993-1995, +), Prof. Sarbani Ganguli (1995-1997), Prof.Bhabaniprasad Bhattacharya (1997-1999), Dr. Abhijit Ghosh (1999-2001, +), Prof. Pradyot Kumar Datta (2001-2003), Prof. Lalita Sengupta (2003- 2005), Prof. Rita Chattopadhyay (2005-2006, +), Prof. Ms. Debarchana Sarkar (2006-2008), Prof. Tapan Sankar Bhattacharyya (2008-2010), Prof. Piyali Praharaj (2010), Prof. Bijoya Goswami (2010), Prof. Rita Chattopadhyay (2011), Prof. Lalita Sengupta (2011-2012), Dr. Abhijit Ghosh (2012-2013), Prof. Tapan Sankar Bhattacharyya (2013-2019), Dr. Ashok Kumar Mahata (2019-2021) and the present Head being Prof. Kakali Ghosh (2021-). As well as such stalwarts as among others the illustrious Prof. Sushil Kumar De, Dr. Kunja Gobinda Goswami, Prof. Prabodh Chandra Lahiri, Prof. Bishnupada Bhattacharya, Prof. Hemanta Gangopadhyay, Prof. Sanjukta Gupta and Dr. Chinmayi Chatterjee, luminaries like Mahamahopadhyay Srijib Nyayatirtha and noted traditional scholars like Pandits Dinesh Chandra Sastri, Bidhubhushan Tarkatirtha, Bhutesh Chandra Smrititirtha, Narmada Kumar Tarkatirtha and Ms. Durgabati Bandyopadhyay were also associated with this Department, in some way or other. 2 The Department earned in 1989 the University Grants Commission-recognized then rare distinction of Department of Special Assistance, with Prof. Rabisankar Banerji as its Coordinator for a life time, subsequently led by Prof. Manabendu Banerjee (acting) and Prof. Bijoya Goswami. Since 1997, it has had also a University-funded Centre for Indology, being first coordinated by Prof. Manabendu Banerjee, then by Prof. Nandita Bandyopadhyay (Joint Coordinator Prof. Debarchana Sarkar), then by Prof. Debarchana Sarkar and now by Prof. Tapan Sankar Bhattacharyya. Above everything else, after the Sanskrit Department of the University of Poona in the late 1960s, this Department became the second Centre of Advanced Study in Sanskrit in India in 2005, chiefly through the all-out tireless efforts of Prof. Ramaranjan Mukherji, Prof. Bijoya Goswami was its Coordinator (Joint Coordinator Prof. Lalita Sengupta) during its first phase, and the second phase of CAS-Sanskrit has been started on April 2013 And Prof. Debarchana Sarkar was the coordinator and the Joint Coordinator was Prof.Tapan Sankar Bhattacharyya. Twice, in 1969 and 1997, the Department hosted the prestigious All-India Oriental Conference (Local Secretaries: resp. R. R. Mukherji and R. S. Banerji). Since 1996-1997, it has been regularly organizing Refresher Courses in collaboration with the UGC and the
Academic Staff College of the University in umpteen thrust areas of Indology for university and college teachers from various parts of the country, with many Indian and foreign scholars of international repute acting as resource persons. It has also organized many successful national and international conferences, seminars as well as workshops on manifold Indological, especially Sanskrit-oriented topics. The UGC-sponsored Assistance for Strengthening of Infrastructure for Humanities and Social Sciences programme started in the Department since 2005, with the Head of the Department as its Coordinator, ex officio. The Department has printed and reprinted numerous scholarly works, and its research organ AnvīksFā has been a regular publication since 1966 (till date in all 41 volumes, often divided into two parts, its two past issues edited resp. by Prof. Rita Chattopadhyay and Prof. Lalita Sengupta being humble tributes to the hallowed memories of the Department’s chief architect late Professor Padmashri Mahamahopadhyay Ramaranjan Mukherji, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt. and the entire Department’s beloved teacher, late lamented motherly and sisterly Prof. Nandita Bandyopadhyay, M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt.). Prof. Tapan Sankar Bhattacharyya also awarded the rare degree, D.Litt. in the year of 2012, from the Burdwan University. Prof. Rita Chattopadhyay, after superannuation, has been elected for Emeritus Fellowship of Jadavpur University in 2016 The quality of teaching-learning methodologies followed by the Department is amply reflected by the fact, inter alia, that in last five years no less than 100 of its ex-students were selected by the West Bengal College Service Commission and Public Service Commission for Lectureship in colleges under various state universities. And, this Department has started attracting foreign students for quite a few years: Prof. Rita Chattopadhyay taught the Diploma and Advanced Diploma Courses to a German and a South Korean student in the recent past, and Dr. Abhijit Ghosh taught M.A., B.A. Honours & Extra-Departmental courses in 2007 and M.A. & B.A. Honours courses in 2008 to students from the Faculty of Oriental Studies of the La Sapienza University in Rome who opted for Sanskrit courses, subsequent to the signing of a Memorandum 3 of Understanding on student exchange program between the Jadavpur and the La Sapienza Universities. In 2019 July to December semester, Tancredi Padova from Bologna University, Italy learned Vedanta course XIII, taught by Dr. Kakali Ghosh under
student exchange program. In short, the Department, offering no less than 9 courses, continues to thrive with 08+03(Guest)+2(External Part Time) teachers, some 500 students in its two sections and an excellent Departmental library, of which the Librarian for long till her retirement was Dr. Shyamali Basu, now succeeded by Ms. Sruti Mallick, B.Sc., B. Lib-Sc., friend extraordinary for the library- users.
