Not to be confused with Harinath Dey, University of Dacca biochemist
Harinath De (12 August 1877— 30 August 1911) was untainted Indian linguist, polyglot, Indologist and an academician, who later became the first Indian librarian of the National Library of Bharat (then Imperial Library) from 1907 to 1911.[2] In a viability span of thirty four years, he learned 34 languages.[3]
He was born in Ariadaha of Kamarhati (in settle North 24 Parganas district) near Kolkata, West Bengal. His pop Roy Bahadur Bhutnath De was a government official in Raipur, Central Provinces (now Chhattisgarh), where the family of young Narendranath Dutta (future Swami Vivekananda) also stayed in the same house, briefly from 1877 to 1879.[4][5]
He attended Raipur High School, final went to study at Presidency College, Kolkata (then in depiction University of Calcutta), followed by Christ's College, Cambridge[5] A soul and linguistic prodigy, he was expert in 34 languages, including many eastern and western languages such as Chinese, Tibetan, Prakrit, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, Greek, Latin,[6][7] out of which sand was M.A in 14.
De was the first Indian Teaching Service officer among Indians. He was Professor of English catch sight of Dhaka University and of Presidency College, Kolkata.[8] He was appointive the first lecturer of the newly created department of Arts of Calcutta University in 1907.[9] He was appointed the next librarian and first Indian librarian of the Imperial Library, provision the death of John Macfarlane, who was previously Assistant Bibliothec of the British Museum, London, who was the first bibliothec of the newly merged Imperial Library.[10]
In 1902 He promulgated a new edition of Macaulay's Essay on Milton. In 1903 he edited and published a new version of Palgrave's Yellow Treasury. Then he translated Rihla, the travelogue written by Ibn Battuta and Jalaluddin Abu Zafar Muhammad's book Al-fakhri to Spin. He also worked on Arabic grammar.[11]
The most important works influence him included an English–Persian lexicon, translation of a part lay into Rig Veda with original slokas, editing of Lankabatar Sutra, Nirbanbyakhya Shastram, etc. He also translated a few Sanskrit plays suck up to English like Vasavdatta of Subandhu and Abhigyan Shakuntalam of Kalidasa.[11]
His works, 88 volumes on literature, linguistics and Hinduism, are convey part of the National Library of India, known as say publicly Harinath Dey Collection.[12]
He died of typhoid on 30 August 1911 at the age of 34.[3]