 Sir Jadunath Sarkar (1870-1958)Sir Jadunath Sarkar, CIE, FRAS (Bengali: ?????? ?????; 10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was a prominent Indian historian and a specialist on the Mughal dynasty.
Sarkar was educated in English literature and worked as a teacher for some time but later shifted his focus to history research writing. He was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, in a Bengali Kayastha family to Rajkumar Sarkar, the local Zamindar on 10 December 1870. In 1891, he graduated in English from Presidency College, Calcutta.[5] In 1892, he topped the Master of Arts examination, in English at Calcutta University and in 1897, he received the Premchand-Roychand Scholarship.[5]
In 1893, he was a faculty of English literature at Surendranath College). In 1898, he was appointed at Presidency College, Calcutta after getting selected in the Provincial Education Services.[5] In between, from 1917 to 1919, he taught modern Indian history in Benaras Hindu University and from 1919 to 1923, both English and history, at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. In 1923, he became an honorary member of the Royal Asiatic Society of London. In August 1926, he was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University. In 1928, he joined as Sir W. Meyer Lecturer in Madras University.
He has been called the "greatest Indian historian of his time" and one of the greatest in the world, He has also been described as "a star historian of modern India on medieval Indian history, who brilliantly caught the spirit of the age and devoted himself to the neglected field of Indian historiography."[8] He has also been appreciated as "unquestionably the greatest Indian historian of his time and one of the greatest in the world".
Sarkar was honoured by Britain with a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire CIE and knighted in the 1929 Birthday Honours list.[13] He was invested with his knighthood at Simla by the acting Viceroy, Lord Goschen, on 22 August 1929.[14]
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