astronomy

Harinath De

Harinath De is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harinath De rather than just read about it. In short: Harinath De (12 August 1877 – 30 August 1911) was an Indian linguist, polyglot, Indologist and an academician, who later became the first Indian librarian of the National Library of India (then Imperial Library) from 1907 to 1911. In a life span of thirty-four years, he learned 34 languages.

Key takeaways

Harinath De belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harinath De to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harinath De from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Harinath De (12 August 1877 – 30 August 1911) was an Indian linguist, polyglot, Indologist and an academician, who later became the first Indian librarian of the National Library of India (then Imperial Library) from 1907 to 1911. In a life span of thirty-four years, he learned 34 languages.

Early life and education He was born in Ariadaha of Kamarhati (in present North 24 Parganas district) near Kolkata, West Bengal. His father Roy Bahadur Bhutnath De was a government official in Raipur, Central Provinces (now Chhattisgarh), where the family of young Narendranath Dutta (future Swami Vivekananda) also stayed in the same building, briefly from 1877 to 1879. He attended Raipur High School, and went to study at Presidency College, Kolkata (then in the University of Calcutta), followed by Christ's College, Cambridge A polyglot and linguistic prodigy, he was expert in 34 languages, including many eastern and western languages such as Chinese, Tibetan, Pali, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, English, Greek, Latin, out of which he was M.A in 14.

Career De was the first Indian Education Service officer among Indians. He was Professor of English of Dhaka University and of Presidency College, Kolkata. He was appointed the first lecturer of the newly created department of Linguistics of Calcutta University in 1907. He was appointed the second librarian and first Indian librarian of the Imperial Library, after the death of John Macfarlane, who was previously Assistant Librarian of the British Museum, London, who was the first librarian of the newly merged Imperial Library.

Literary career In 1902 He published a new edition of Macaulay's Essay on Milton. In 1903 he edited and published a new version of Palgrave's Golden Treasury. Then he translated Rihla, the travelogue written by Ibn Battuta and Jalaluddin Abu Zafar Muhammad's book Al-fakhri to English. He also worked on Arabic grammar. The most important works of him included an English–Persian lexicon, translation of a part of Rig Veda with original slokas, editing of Lankabatar Sutra, Nirbanbyakhya Shastram, etc. He also translated a few Sanskrit plays to English like Vasavdatta of Subandhu and Abhigyan Shakuntalam of Kalidasa. His works, 88 volumes on literature, linguistics and Hinduism, are now part of the National Library of India, known as the Harinath Dey Collection.

Death He died of typhoid on 30 August 1911 at the age of 34.

Works Select Papers, Mainly Indological, compiled and edited by Sunil Bandyopadhyay. Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, 1972.

References

Further reading M. N. Nagaraj (1977). Harinath De: centenary volume. National Library. Sunil Bandyopadhyay (1988). Harinath De, philanthropist and linguist (National biography). National Book Trust. Ezra Greenspan; Jonathan Rose (2001). Book History-Vol. 4. Penn State Press. ISBN 0271021519.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harinath De

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harinath De claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harinath De before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harinath De ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harinath De

In research: Harinath De appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harinath De in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harinath De is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1877 births, 1911 deaths, Academic staff of Presidency University, Kolkata, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harinath De outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harinath De in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harinath De means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harinath De out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harinath De in simple terms?

Why does Harinath De matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harinath De?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harinath De.