Haraprasad Shastri

Hara Prasad Shastri (; 6 December 1853 – 17 November 1931), also known as Hara Prasad Bhattacharya, was an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist, and historian of Bengali literature. He is most known for discovering the Charyapada, the earliest known examples of Bengali literature.

Early life Hara Prasad Shastri was born in Kumira village in Khulna District, Bengal (now in Bangladesh)

Shastri passed his entrance (school-leaving) examination in 1871, his First Arts (the undergraduate degree) in 1873, received a BA in 1876, and earned Honours in Sanskrit in 1877. He was conferred the title of Shastri when he received a MA degree. The Shastri title was awarded to those who secured a first class (highest grade) and he was the only student in his batch (class) to do so. He then joined Hare School as a teacher in 1878.

He became Principal of Sanskrit College in 1900, leaving in 1908 to join the government's Bureau of Information. From 1921 to 1924, he was Professor and Head of the Department of Bengali and Sanskrit at Dhaka University.

Shastri was instrumental in preparing the Catalogue of the Asiatic Society's approximately ten thousand manuscripts with the assistance of a few others.

Shastri was the collector and publisher of many other old works, author of many research articles, a noted historiographer, and recipient of a number of awards and titles.

Some of his notable works were: Balmikir jai, Meghdoot byakshya, Beneyer Meye (The Merchant's Daughter, a novel), Kancanmala (novel), Sachitra Ramayan, Prachin Banglar Gourab, and Bouddha dharma.

His English works include: Magadhan Literature, Sanskrit Culture in Modern India, and Discovery of Living Buddhism in Bengal.

He also discovered an old palm-leaf manuscript of Skanda Purana in a Kathmandu library in Nepal, written in Gupta script.