Parbati Sankar Roy Choudhury

Parbati Sankar Roy Choudhury (Rai Parvatisankara Chaudhuri), (1853–1918) was the zamindar of Teota (now in Manikganj District, Bangladesh) and a philanthropic landholder.

Early life Choudhury was born in 1853, and was the elder son of Joy Sankar Choudhuri of the Teota zamindars, who were one of the well-known zamindars of Bengal. Their ancestral surname was Dasgupta (Dash-sharma). He studied at the Hindu School, Kolkata but never completed his education as he was managing the zamidari estate. As part of the economic reconstruction programme, Parbati Sankar attempted to make use of the material raw resources available within the Teota zamindari (in Goalondo, Faridpur and elsewhere). His name is also associated with the formulation of a concrete and detailed plan (1890s) of extension of the railways to Manikganj, linking it up with the town of Dacca on the east and the river port of Goalando on the west.

Sankar is best remembered, however, for pioneering the 'dharmagola' system of co-operative grain banking, intended to alleviate scarcity and resulting famine. He founded the grain banks with his cousin Raja Shyama Sankar Ray. He spoke on the "Indebtedness of the Bengal peasantry" at an annual session of the Congress (INC) in the early 1900s. He was a member of the Dhaka District Board. He had attempted to convince the British colonial administration of the importance creating a rail line from Dhaka to Manikganj unsuccessfully.

Death Sankar was honoured with the Kaisar-i-Hind Medal in 1912. He died in Calcutta in 1918.

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