Sarat Chandra Mitra

Saratchandra Mitra (Sarat Chandra Mitra in his English writings, sometimes as Çarat Candra Mitra) (15 November 1863 – 15 December 1938) was a Bengali folklorist and scholar who studied and wrote extensively on plants and animals in Indian lore. Although trained in legal practice, he was appointed in later life as the founding head and professor of the department of anthropology at the University of Calcutta.

Biography Saratchandra came from a family with origins in Hogulkuria in Sutaniti Taluk where his ancestor Rammohan Mitra had moved to after leaving his original home at Borisha due to raids made by the Mahrattas. Saratchandra's father was Narasinghachandra Mitra, a legal adviser and pleader to the Hathwa Raj, and his mother was Nistarini Dasi. Saratchandra's older brother Amulyachandra died young and sister Sailabala Dasi was married to Purnachandra Chaudhuri of Simla. at the University of Calcutta but he retired in 1926 due to ill health and loss of vision. His position was then briefly taken by the American trained Biraja Sankar Guha who however moved out of the university to join government service. and was an early promoter of outdoor natural history education in schools.

Among the topics that Mitra explored where folk rhymes, drolls, tales, riddles, and beliefs. He took a particular interest in myth and lore around plants and animals and recorded a range of didactic and aetiological myths.