The Department of Sanskrit of Burdwan Raj College began its journey with the inception of the College in 1881 and the honours course started in 1962. With a glorious heritage of more than a century this Department has an outstanding legacy.

Sanskrit is not only an ancient and classical language, it has a golden treasure of humanity, a synchronization of the world of sense with that of super sense. This is because Sanskrit is famous for having traditional 18 vidyasthanas, the discipline/literature of make learning viz.4 Vedas (Rik, Saman, Yajus and Atharvan); 6 Vedangas (Siksa, Chandas, Vyakarana, Nirukta, Kalpa and Jyotish); 4 Upangas (Dharmashastra, Purana, Nyayavistara and Mimamsa) and 4 Upavedas (Ayurveda, Dhanurveda, Gandharvaveda and Arthaveda or Arthashastra). This vidyasthanas help the readers make them the valued human beings. However, since our University Syllabi cover most of these vidyasthanas, through these educational feats, the students’ journey from grossness to the subtleties begins. Hence, our Departmental vision is to the students not only the educated persons but learned human beings as well, so that they can contribute some better parts of their life to the societal needs thereby becoming a major part of the human community.

Thus, the main thrust area of our Department is to teach Sanskrit language better so that the students can grasp the nuances of the texts on vidyasthanas in higher studies in future. They will understand, thus, the philosophical impart hidden in the vidyasthanas thereby becoming a true human being in the society.

Dr Shrimanta Chattopadhyay was awarded Silver Medal and Gold Medals for being topper (1st class 1st) in both B.A, Hons in 1979 an M.A. in 1981 in Sanskrit. He was also the recipient of an award from Jawaharlal Nehru memorial fund, New Delhi for being first in the year of his post graduation. He also received Dr Panchanan Roy & Late Surendra Kumar Roy Endowment Prize for being 1st in the entire Humanities group in the year of his post graduation.

One paper of Dr Chattopadhyay was accepted for presentation at the international conference on Water held on 3-6 June, 2009 at Bali, Indonesia and organized by 3rd South and South-East Asian Association for the study of Culture and Religion (SSEASR).