Born in 1876, Kumar Sarat Kumar Roy was the third son of Raja Pramathanath Roy of Dighapatia, Rajshahi District of Undivided Bengal. Sarat Kumar was a student of the Presidency College from 1893-1899 and obtained Masters degree in Physics in 1899. His teacher Ramendra Sundar Trivedi initiated him to literary activities. He became an active member of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat, Calcutta. During his stay in Calcutta he came into contact with personalities like Bankimchandra, Rabindranath and Nabinchandra Sen. Sarat Kumar took important part in different sessions of the conferences of the Bangiya Sahitya Sammelan. While attending the third session (1910) at Bhagalpur, Sarat Kumar vistied the archaeological sites around Bhagalpur along with Akshay Kumar Maitreya, Rama Prasad Chanda and Rakhaldas Banerji. In the same year, he, with the help of Rama Prasad and Akshay Kumar, founded the Varendra Research Society at Rajsahi. he was also instrumental in the establishment of the Varendra Research Museum in 1919. He served as the Vice-President of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishat for a couple of years and was elected as the life-member of the institute. He was also a member of the Royal Asiatic Society, Calcutta and the Bengal Legislative Council apart from being the President of the Varendra Research Society for a long spell.
Sarat Kumar published a few books and a number of valuable essays. He died on 12th April, 1945 at Calcutta. Sarat Kumar will be remembered for his sustained patronage to archaeological and historical research at the Varendra Research Society. It is largely because of his vision, archaeology in Bengal developed beyond the closed confines of the officialdom. Sarat Kumar financed the first non-official archaeological excavation at Paharpur and arranged training of young scholars in archaeological methods. Archaeology of Bengal owes its resilence to the munificence of Sarat Kumar to a large extent.
Sarat Kumar is now an almost forgotten name, known only to a handful of professional archaeologists and historians. It is important that we invoke the life and work of Sarat Kumar.
It was a matter of great satisfaction for all of us that we could arrange an annual lecture in memory of Sarat Kumar with the support of Mr. Tapash Kumar Ray, grandson of Sarat Kumar.
The first lecture was delivered by Dr. Gouriswar Bhattacharya of Free University, Berlin on 20th March, 2002. We are happy that the lecture is now available in print.
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