Sukumari Bhattacharya

Sukumari Bhattacharji (12 July 1921 – 24 May 2014) was a Sanskrit scholar, author (Bengali and English), and indologist.

Born in Kolkata, Bhattacharji initially studied English due to scholarship restrictions but later pursued a master's degree in Sanskrit privately. She joined Jadavpur University as a professor and was known for her proficiency in multiple languages. Bhattacharji's most notable work, The Indian Theogony: A Comparative Study of Indian Mythology from the Vedas to the Puranas, was based on her doctoral thesis and published by Cambridge University Press. As a social activist, she co-founded the non-profit organization Sachetana in 1982 to aid underprivileged girls. Historian Romila Thapar regarded Bhattacharji as one of the foremost indologists of her time.

Biography Sukumari Bhattacharji was born to Christian parents Sarasi Kumar and Santabala Dutta in Kolkata. This lead her not to pursue Sanskrit for her Masters. She studied English from Calcutta University. She married Prof. Amal Kumar Bhattacharji and joined as professor of English at Lady Brabourn College. Later in the year 1954, she pursued master's degree in Sanskrit privately. Budhadeb Basu had invited her to teach in the comparative literature department, Jadavpur University in the year 1957, where she continued as the professor at the Sanskrit department later. Bhattacharji was known to be conversant with Sanskrit, Pali, Greek, French, German etc.

She was also a declared Marxist and involved and conversant with contemporary left activism. As the part of her social activism with collaboration with Yasodhara Bagchi, she had formed Sachetana in 1982 to provide aid to the under privileged girls for making them self-sufficient. Legends of Devi Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit literature The Ramayana and the Mahabharata : comparative popularity History of Classical Sanskrit Literature Religion, Culture and Government Fate and Fortune in the Indian scriptures

Reception Historian Romila Thapar considered Bhattacharji as one of the 'foremost Indologists of her times'. The comparative analysis of the Indian Mythology and European mythology by Bhattacharji has been regarded as a valuable work as well.