Dhirendranath Choudhury

Dhirendranath Choudhury (Bengali: ধীরেন্দ্রনাথ চৌধুরী) (1870-1938) was an erudite scholar, an eminent teacher and a religious reformer.

Early life

Son of Madhab Choudhury of Nagarpur in Mymensingh, now in Bangladesh, was born in the month of Bhadro, 1277 Bengali era. Attracted towards philosophy and religion from a young age, he started contributing philosophical articles in Brahmatattwa. He joined the Theological Society while he was a college student. On completing his master of arts, he married Binodini, a niece of the noted scholar Mahesh Chandra Ghosh, according to Brahmo rites, a daring task in those days. During the days of Swadeshi movement in the early part of the twentieth century, his house at Cuttack was the meeting place of many activists.

Teaching and writing

After teaching for some time in Brajamohan College at Barisal, he joined Hindu College, Delhi, as professor of philosophy. As living so far away from Bengal was bearing upon him he joined Edward College at Pabna as professor of philosophy, before opting to be a missionary of Sadharan Brahmo Samaj. As a missionary, he travelled extensively to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai on lecture tours. He was conferred the title of Vedantabagish for his vast erudition in the Vedas and philosophy.

Amongst the books he wrote were: Sanskar O Sanrakshan, Mahapurush Prasanga, Dharmer Tattwa O Sadhan, Maitrupanishad and In Search of Jesus Christ.

Later life

He settled down at Hazaribagh in later life and followed Mahesh Chandra Ghosh as secretary of Hazaribagh Brahmo Samaj in 1930. After serving for four years, he handed over responsibility of the position to another great missionary, Manmathanath Gupta. In those days, Hazaribagh had a lively Brahmo community with such local devotees as Braja Kumar Niyogi, Kharga Singha Ghosh and Khsitish Chandra Ghosh, and a host of people from Kolkata who went and stayed there or visited regularly. The latter included the poet Kamini Roy, Dr.P.K.Roy, Sarala Roy and Jnananjan Niyogi. He died on 17th Baisakh (April-May), 1345 Bengali era. A childless widow, Binodini Choudhuri, lived in Hazaribagh, for about quarter of a century thereafter, serving the Brahmo Samaj.

References

Sansad Bangali Charitabhidhan (Biographical dictionary) in Bengali edited by Subodh Chandra Sengupta and Anjali Bose