Harinath De: The scholar who knew 34 languages

As Rafiqul Ali of Brainware University writes in Unveiling the Essence of Harinath De, “Everyone agrees, Harinath De is amongst the greatest linguists of all time.”

Early life

De’s story begins with his family’s modest yet privileged roots. His father, Roy Bahadur Bhutnath De, was a government official whose career took the family from Bemgal to Raipur from 1877-1879. As professor Sayan Sarkar writes in The Neglected Linguist, “From his childhood, De displayed an innate ability to grasp and assimilate languages with ease. Growing up in a multilingual household, he was exposed to a diverse linguistic tapestry, laying the foundation for his future linguistic prowess.”

Back in Bengal, De attended Raipur High School before enrolling at Presidency College, Calcutta, a renowned centre of learning in colonial India. He later pursued advanced studies at Christ’s College, Cambridge, immersing himself in European languages and classical scholarship.

By his death, he had mastered 34 languages, including Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Pali, Prakrit, Tibetan, Chinese, English, Greek, Latin, French, German, Italian, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and several others less commonly documented, such as Hebrew and Russian.

As Sarkar notes, “The list of awards, medals, scholarships received by Harinath De during his academic career is quite long.”

The only language he was unable to master, in his own words, was Chinese (Mandarin.) “I just couldn’t brush my teeth in Chinese,” wrote De as cited by Sarkar.

A pioneering role at the imperial library

In 1907, at the age of 30, De became the first Indian librarian of the Imperial Library in Calcutta, a position he held until he died in 1911. The library, established in 1891 by merging several colonial collections, housed over 100,000 volumes, including rare manuscripts in multiple languages.

According to author MN Nagaraj, De took charge of organising the library’s vast holdings, with a particular focus on manuscripts in Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, and other Indian languages that had been overlooked by previous administrators.

De was also a fellow of Calcutta University and the head of the Department of Linguistics. He was also the first Indian to be appointed by the British as an Education Officer for the Education Department, and he wrote and reviewed nearly all of the Calcutta University’s language examination papers.

A prolific output

De’s academic contributions are preserved in the 88-volume Harinath De Collection at the National Library. His works span editing, translation, and original scholarship across multiple disciplines and languages.

He edited Macaulay’s Essay on Milton in 1902, refining a key British text for Indian students, and Palgrave’s Golden Treasury in 1903, an anthology of English poetry. His translations from Arabic and Persian included Ibn Battuta’s Rihla, a 14th-century travelogue detailing journeys across Asia and Africa, and Jalaluddin Abu Zafar Muhammad’s Al-fakhri, a historical chronicle, both rendered into English. He also compiled an English-Persian lexicon, a bilingual dictionary that aided scholars in bridging linguistic divides.

De’s translations of Sanskrit texts were extensive. He worked on the Rig Veda, translating hymns with their original slokas, Subandhu’s 6th-century prose romance Vasavadatta, and Kalidasa’s classic play Abhigyan Shakuntalam. He wrote in his Rig Veda preface, “The hymns of the ancients are not mere relics; they are the living voice of a civilisation that speaks to us still.” For Vasavadatta, he noted, “The beauty of Subandhu lies in his excess; to trim it is to lose its soul.”

De’s engagement with Buddhist texts further showcased his versatility. He produced editions of the Lankabatar Sutra, a foundational Mahayana scripture, and Nirbanbyakhya Shastram, a commentary on nirvana. In the latter’s introduction, he stated, “To understand liberation, one must first hear its echoes in the words of the past.”

Personal life

Little is known about De’s personal life beyond his scholarly pursuits. However, his academic outfit presents a different story.

According to Sunil Bandyopadhyay in Select Papers, Mainly Indological, De’s work remains a cornerstone of Indological studies. As Nagaraj documents in a letter to a colleague, De wrote, “Languages are not barriers but doors; each one opens a new room in the house of knowledge.”

De’s legacy lives on as a link between Western, Islamic, and Indian customs. His work as the first Indian librarian represents a return to cultural stewardship, and his translations of Buddhist, Arabic, and Sanskrit books continue to be cited by scholars and students. Even though De’s life was cut short at age 34, his life works serve as a lasting tribute to the force of his intelligence in an era of colonial constraints.

Further reading

Unveiling the Essence of Harinath De, Rafiqul Ali, Brainware University, 2025

Select Papers, Mainly Indological, Sunil Bandyopadhyay and Harinath De, University of Michigan, 1972