User:Debi Pranam/sandbox

KAVIRAJ PRASANTA  DASGUPTABold text

Born	Dhanantari    Kaviraj  Prasanta   Dasgupta  was    born  in  1932   at    Chupi Purbasthali, Burdwan,  in  a  family  of  renowned  Kaviraj  Shiromani  Shyamadas  Bachaspati  (founder  of  Shyamadas  Vaidya  Sastrapith,  a  college  for  post  graduation  in  Ayurved  Science,  Kolkata),  Dharmadas  Charakacharyya  (first  principal  of  Benaras  Hindu  University  Ayurved  College)  and  Shyamadasji’s  worthy  son  Kaviraj  Bimalananda  Tarkatirtha. Revered father  Amiyanath  was  also  a  Kaviraj  and  served  Maharajas  of  Bikaner  and  Keonjhar  States  as  “Raj  Vaidya”.

Schooling/Post  Primary   schooling   was   at    Annada    Prasad    Pathsala    and     Nilmani Graduation	Bramachari High  school  of  Purbasthali  and  later  at  Nabadwip. His post  graduation  was  done  from  the  University  of  Kolkata.

“Dhanantwari 	He   studied   Ayurved   Sastra  and   in  no    time   became     a   wizard  in     Title”  by 	his  field. Howrah   Pandit   Samaj   did  not   hesitate   to   confer   the  title Howrah Pandit 	“Dhanantari” due to   his  unique   contribution  in  the   field   of   medical Samaj                 science. Very soon  his  name  and  fame  spread  beyond  the  boundaries    of     West  Bengal  and  he  became  a  prominent  figure  for  his  unique  knowledge  of  “Pulse  beat”  and  thousands  of  patients  suffering  from  acute  diseases  came  forward  for  treatment. You may  call  it  a  miracle  and  it  happens  with  most  of  his  patients  who  recovered  almost  from  death-beds. In fact  these  patients  almost  worship  him  as  God.

2/I

Being a  great  patriot,  philanthropist,  a  visionary  and  a  dedicated  social  reformer,  he  chose  the  path  for  spreading  the  light  of  scientific  education  and  the  values  of  cultural  and  spiritual  heritage  of  India. To transform  this  noble  idea  into  reality,  being  a  Bachelor,  right  from  the  day  one  of  his  career  he  kept  aside  90%  of  his  total  earnings  for  development  of  his  villages  at  Purbasthali  and  balance  10%  for  his  livelihood.

Emphasis on      He  Emphasized    that   Primary   Schools    must    have   proper  sanitation Primary School system  first;  therefore  thrust  was  given  for  building  new  class  rooms,  modern  toilets  and  potable  drinking  water,  electric  lights  and  fans  for  all  primary  schools  first  followed  by  High  and  Higher  Secondary  Schools  (both  boys  and  girls);  over  all  about  83  schools  have  already  completed  and  6  are  under  construction.

Sports	For spreading  sports  activity  a  number  of  Club  Houses  were  renovated/newly  constructed. He also  donated  PLAYGROUNDS  to  clubs  viz. ‘Akinchan Athletic  Club  and  Milan  Sangha  (for  Muslims)  at  Purbasthali  providing  financial  assistance  to  them  to  run  tournaments  of  football  and  other  sports. Championship trophies  are  donated every  year  in  the  name  of  his  parents  to  encourage  the  local  sports  persons. Temples and  post  offices  were  also  renovated  to  give  a  modern  look.

Burning Ghat	A  burning  ghat  and  an  “EDGAH” (a  mass  prayer  place  for Muslims) & Edgah             with  24  hour   drinking  water  “KHANKASARIF”  (Rest  House  for  Haj  pilgrims)  were  also  built. Financial assistance  was  also  given  to  a  				  2/II

large number  of  poor  students  for  their  proper  education. He also  ensured  marriages  of  daughters  of  poor  parents  besides  free  treatment  and  medicines  to  the  scores  of  ailing  villagers. Technical 	His   activities   were    not   confined  to   Purbasthali   alone,   he   donated Education	profusely for  building  a  Technical  wing  and  a  Seminar  Hall  at  Praktani  Bhavan  (ex – students  of  Bakultala  High  School,  Nabadwip). In Technical  wing  students  are  given  vocational  training  in  subjects  like  Computers,  Fashion  designing,  Tailoring (Embroidery),  Mobile  Engineering  and  various  other  subjects. On completion  of  their  training,  the  students  have  started  earning  for  their  livelihood. Bakultala Girls  School,  Nabadwip  also  received  financial  aids for  constructing  additional  class  rooms/hall. Another organization  called  “Manimala”  at  Nabadwip  wherein  he  had  donated  Rs. 50,000/- (Fifty  Thousand)  for  their  betterment.

Encouraging   	To  encourage  body  building  as  part  of  mass  education  for  maintaining Body building sound  mind  and  health,  he  constructed  new  rooms  and  renovated  “Boys’  Union  Club”  at  Nabadwip  with  various  new  apparatus  donated  by  him. A new  wing  was  also  built  for  health  conscious  young  women,  a  unique  set  up;  not  heard  of  before  in  Nabadwip. This Gymnasium  has  now  become  one  of  the  best  gyms  in  Nadia  district  and  the  local  youth  (men  and  women)  are  immensely  benefitted.

“Shiksha Mela” For generating  awareness  of  education  as  part  of  daily  life,  local  enlightened  people,  mostly  school  teachers  and  librarians,  organized  “SHIKSHA  MELA”  in  the  name  of  Kaviraj  “PRASANTA”  every  year  in  Purbasthali. Various schools,  libraries  and  other  educational  institutes  participated  in  the  mela,  which  is  unique  in  nature. 2/III

Upgradation of 	He  also  observed  that  the  local  libraries  are  in  a  very  bad shape  and Libraries	need immediate  upgradation. So a  number  of  libraries  were  renovated/  given  modern  touch  and  additional  rooms  were  built  to  accommodate  more  number  of  reference  books,  including  providing  silent  space  for  reading  and  consulting  reference  books,  which  were  of  great  help  to  local  students.

Title of  “Dan	An   organization   named   “Anandolok    Sangeet     Mahavidyalaya”      of  Churamani”  	of  Purbasthali  has  conferred  him  the  title  of  “DAAN  CHURAMANI”,   for  his  enormous  contribution  for  overall  development  of villages  of  Purbasthali  Thana. A citation  given  in  his  honor,  in  Bengali,  is  attached.

Felicitation by  	At  Netaji  Indoor  Stadium,   an  organization  named  “National  Thinkers’ “Thinkers’ 	Forum”, honored  Kavirajji  for  his  distinguished services  to  the  society Forum” Kolkata	and a  silver  plate  and  shawl  were  presented  to  him  by  the  then       Honorable  Deputy  Home  Minister  of  Central  Government,  Swami   Chinmayanandji.

Felicitation By 	“Mitra  Mandir”,  formed  in   1988,   by   a   select  group    of   enlightened “Mitra Mandir” Calcuttans, engaged  in  promoting  music,  fine arts,  literature  and  social Kolkata: 	services, felicitates  eminent  personalities  of  West  Bengal  every  year. On their  18th  foundation  ceremony  on  25th  March  2007  at  Birla  Academy  of  Fine  Arts,  Kolkata,  they  felicitated  Kaviraj  Prasanta  along  with  Ustad  Abdul  Rashid  Khan,  Buddhadev  Guha,  Dipali  Nag,  Dwijen

2/IV

Mukhopandhyay, Dr  A  K  Gupta,  Dr  H  S  Maiti,  Prof  (Dr)  Indranath  Choudhuri,  Jogesh  Dutta,  Rudra  Prasad  Sengupta  and  Shuvaprasana Bhattarcharjee. This programme  was  presided  over  by  Justice  Shri  Shyamal  Kumar  Sen,  the  then  Chairman  of  West  Bengal  Human  Rights  Commission.

Felicitation By 	Even  the  Corporate  World was  not   for   behind   in   felicitating   Kaviraj Sail  Retired 	Prasanta. Retired Officers’  Association   of    Steel    Authority    of   India Officers’	Limited, Kolkata  wing,  honoured  him  with  a  shawl  and  a  silver Association	 plaque for  his  outstanding  contribution  to  the  society.

Renovation of 	To   take    care    of   the    religious   sentiments   of    the    local   religious Kali Dhyan 	minded people  of  Purbasthali,  he  has  constructed  an  imposing  “Kali Manch	 Dhyan Mancha”  after  demolishing  the  old  dilapidated  small  mandir. The height  of  the  temple  is  over  40  feet  and  is  built  with  white  marble. The idol  of  “Kali”  and  “Radha  Krishna”  have  been  installed  on  the  ground  floor  while  Lord  “Shiva”  is  on  the  first  floor. The temple  is  open  to  all,  irrespective  of  caste,  creed  and  religion. This was  inaugurated  by  Bhramhalokanandaji  Maharaj  of  Golpark  and  Tatwatitanandaji  Maharaj  of  Southern  Avenue  centres  of  Ramakrishna  Mission,  Kolkata  on  19th  March  2015. This was  attended  by  distinguished  artists  like  Srikumar  Chattopadhyay,  Swagatalakshmi  Dasgupta  and  Anol  Chattopadhyay. They made  the  audience  spell  bound  with  their  amazing  performance. The mandir  is  fully  illuminated  to  facilitate  “Hari  Naam  Sankirtan”  every  evening. This has  already  attracted  lots  of  tourists. Locals feel  that  it  will  become  one  of  the  pilgrimage  centres  of  West  Bengal  very  soon.

2/V

Building of 	For changing  the  economy   of  the  villagers,   he   had,   with   the  active Technical 	cooperation of  the  State  Government,  a  plan  to  set  up  an  Agro-based College:	Polytechnic College  at  Purbasthali  for  studying  various  trade  oriented  subjects  like  Computer,  Electronics,  Fisheries,  Poultry,  Dairy  and  Horticulture. No doubt  this  would  have  opened  up  employment  facilities  to  its  local  students  graduating  successfully  from  the  polytechnic  college,  for  which  the  then  Governor  of  West  Bengal  had kindly  waived  off  both  registration  fees  and  stamp  duties  for  acquisition  of  lands. But this  honest  endeavour  was  frustrated  by  the  last  minute  decision  of  the  West  Bengal  government  (2007-2008).

Medical Centre Being a  physician,  he  also  realized  the  utmost  need  of  building  a  medical  centre  at  Purbasthali  for  meeting  the  medical  requirements  of  the  local  villagers  who  are  forced  to  go  to  Katwa,  Kalna  or  Krishnanagar  for  treatment. Several meetings  were  organized  in  presence  of  a  set  of  local  doctors  including  doctors  from  Nawadwip  and  Kolkata – prominent  figure  was  Mr  Dev  Kumar  Saraf  of  Anandolok  Medical  Centre,  Salt  Lake,  Kolkata. Lots of  exercise  were  done  in  this  regard,  including  visits  to  Ranigunj  and  Baduria  centres  of  Anandolok,  with  Mr  Dev  Kumar  Saraf. For this,  sufficient  land  were  acquired  for  building  medical  centres,  doctors  and  nurses’  quarters,  for  their  stay  at  Purbasthali. But this  prospect  of  having  a  medical  centre  at  Purbasthali,  did  not  materialize  due  to  the  apathy  of  the  local  and  surrounding  doctors  of  Purbasthali,  Nabadwip,  Krishnanagar,  including  Anandolok,  Kolkata.

2/VI

Setting up of 	However, this  failure  did  not  deter  his  undaunted   spirit   for  spreading B.Ed College 	higher  education  to  the  students  for  which  “Prasanta  Dasgupta  College  of  Education  (B.Ed)”,  has  now  been  set  up  at  Vidyanagar,  Purbasthali. It is  third  year  running  and  the  first  batch  of  about  100  students  had  qualified  themselves  with  honour  and  started  practices  of  teaching  in  various  colleges/schools. This institution,  in  no  time,  will  become  one  of  the  renowned  institutions  of  West  Bengal  in  spreading  education.

Setting up of 	In this college building, he has also set up “Prasanta Das Gupta  Agriculture Agricultural 	 Research  and    Training     Centre”      to   guide   the   local   farmers   for Research &	 selecting right  type of  fertilizers,  right  type  of  soil  through  soil  testing Training Centre facilities to  ensure  better  productivity  and  yield.

Charitable 	To assure  an  uninterrupted  flow  of  development  in  Purbasthali,  he  has Trust	 set up  a  TRUST  entitled  “PRASANTA  DASGUPTA  CHARITABLE  TRUST”  to  look  after  his  dreams  to  build  Greater  Purbasthali  consisting  of  256  villages. A corpus  Fund  of  about  Rs. Five Crores  has  been  set  aside  for  this  purpose.

It will  not  be  out  of  place  to  mention  names  of  some  of  the  most  eminent  personalities  with  whom,  during  his  long  medical  career,  had  the  opportunity  to  know  them  closely  and  most  of  them  were  under  his  treatment:

2/VII

Eminent 		1. Sarbapalli Dr  Radhakrishnan,  ex  President  of  India. Personalities		2. Indira Gandhi,  ex  Prime  Minister  of  India. 3. In  his  childhood  he  met  Rabindranath  Tagore, Mahatma  Gandhi,     Netaji  Subhas  Bose  (at  his  village  house  at  Chupi) 4. Chandra  Sekhar,  ex  Prime  Minister  of  India 5. P.V. Narasima  Rao,  ex  Prime  Minister  of  India 6.  K. P.  Tripathi, 7.  Arjun  Singh,  ex  Minister  of  Indira  Gandhi  cabinet

8. Sukla (Shyama  Charan  nad  Vidya  Charan),  Central  Cabinet Ministers

9. Dharam  Veera,  ex  Governor  of  West  Bengal

10. Zakaria – ex Union Railway  Minister

11. Bansilal, ex  Minister  of  Central  Government

12. Biju  Patnaik,  ex  Chief  Minister  of  Orissa

13. Hare  Krishna  Mahatab,  ex  Chief  Minister  of  Orissa

14. Lal  Krishna  Advani,  a  Senior  Leader

15. Uma  Bharati

16.  Prabhupad  Bhakti  Vedanta  of  Iscon

2/VIII

17. Swami  Chinmayanandji,  ex  Dy  Home  Minster  of  	       Central  Government

18.  Satya narayan   Sinha,  ex  Chief  Minister  of  Bihar

19.  S  K  Roy,  Industrialist (Peerless  Group)

20.  Justice  V.  K.  Gupta

21. Bangur  Group  – Industrialist

22. R  P  Goenka – Industrialist

23. L  P  Singhania – Industrialist

24. Justice  Hazari

25. Justice Barua

26. Hanuman Prasad  Podder (Gorokhpur)

27. Lala Sridhar, Industrialist

28. Pandit Ravi  Sankar, Sitar

29. Ramsukhdasjee, Guruji

30. Guruji  Pandit  Ravi  Shankar

31. Harbanshrai ji  Bachhan,  Poet

2/IX

32. V.G. Jog,  Artist (Violin)

33. Hariprasad  Chourasiya,  Eminent  Artist (Fluit)

34. Kripaluji Maharaj

35. Shri  Mohanambrata  Bramhachari

36. Javed Akhtar, Lyricist

37. Sabana Azmi,  Actress

38. Debabrata Biswas,  Singer  of  Rabindra sangeet

39. B.M. Birla,  L.N.  Birla, M.P. Birla, K.K. Birla, Eminent Industrialist

40. Nabab Yaar  Bahadur  Jong

41. Swami  Swarupananada  Saraswati

42. Jagadguru Sankarcharyaa, Puri

43. Jagadguru Sankarchar, Dwarkadham

44. Justice Umesh  Banerjee

45. Somnath Chatterjee,  former  Speaker  of  Loksabha

46. Giridharilal Mehta, Industrialist

47. Mr. Mangalam, ex Central  Cabinet  Minister

2/X

48. Jaidayal Dalmia, Industrialist

49. Buta Singh,  former  Union  Minister

50. Acharya  Venova  Bhave

51. Deoria Baba  (Guruji)

52. Subrata Mukherjee, Hon’ble  Minister, Govt. Of West Bengal

Kaviraj Prasanta  is  a  voracious  reader,  besides  medical  science  books,  journals  and  Ayurved  as  a  whole,  he  likes  literature  of  modern  novelists,  short  story  writers. He is  one  of  the  intimate  followers  of  both  Kaji  Nazrul  Islam  and  Rabindranath;  he  could     offhand recite  most  of  their  poems. He was  a  good  Tabla  Badak  and  attended  lots  of  musical  conferences  of  Classical  music viz  Bade  Gulam  Ali  Khan,  Pt. Kanan, Munnabbar Ali  Khan, Daggar  Brothers  etc. In  his  younger  days  he  used  to  play  kabadi,  was  a  talented  Fencing  player, besides  doing “Pranayam”  and  Yoga  everyday. His hobby  is  to  deliberate  with  his brothers  to   explore  possibilities  of  future  enhancement  of  quality  of  life  for  villagers  of  Purbasthali.

“Messiah” of 	The  way  Dhanantari  Kaviraj  Prasanta  is  devoting  his  entire  energy Purgasthali:		and earnings  for  a  nobel  cause  to  reform  the  society,  particularly  the  villages  of  Purbasthali,  no  adjective  is  sufficient  to  explain  the  various  aspects  of  the  personality  of  this  versatile  genius. In short,  he  is  called  the  “MESSIAH OF  PURBASTHALI”. Purbasthali Constituency, Block I  &  II,  consisting  256  villages.

2/XI

Paper	          Various  news  dailies,  viz.,  “Ananda  Bazar  Patrika,”  Kolkata,  “Aaj    Clippings &     Kaal”,  Kolkata  and  “Sambad”,  Katwa,  have,  from  time  to  time,          Photographas      published “BHUMI  PUTRA”,  “VIDYASAGAR  OF  PURBASTHALI”  with many         and  “NABA  RUPOKAR  OF  PURBASTHALI”,  Kaviraj  Prasanta’s  distingused      unbelievable  activities  for  developing  the  villages  of  Purbasthali. Personalitis         Paper clippings of such news, along with perception of local personalities and photographs  are  attached  in  the  file  enclosed.