Jadunath Sarkar

Sir Jadunath Sarkar CIE, FRAS (10 December 1870 – 19 May 1958) was an Indian historian known for his expertise on the Mughal dynasty. He received his education in English literature and initially worked as a teacher before shifting his focus to historical research and writing. He had a deep understanding of the Persian language and wrote all of his books in English. Sarkar served as the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta from 1926-1928 and was also a member of the Bengal Legislative Council from 1929-1932. He was knighted by the British government in 1929.

Bio

Sarkar was born in Karachmaria village in Natore, Bengal, and graduated in English from Presidency College, Calcutta in 1891. He went on to top the Master of Arts examination in English at Calcutta University in 1892 and received the Premchand-Roychand Scholarship in 1897. Sarkar began his teaching career as a faculty member of English literature at Ripon College, Calcutta in 1893, and was later appointed at Presidency College, Calcutta in 1898. He taught modern Indian history at Benaras Hindu University from 1917-1919 and both English and history at Ravenshaw College, Cuttack from 1919-1923. Sarkar was appointed as the Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University in 1926 and later joined Madras University as the Sir W. Meyer Lecturer in 1928.

Work

Sarkar's work on the Mughal dynasty was highly regarded in his time, but later faded from public memory with the emergence of Marxist and postcolonial schools of historiography. Academically, his work has been compared to that of the Aligarh historians, who focused on the mansabdari system and gunpowder technology in the Mughal Empire. Sarkar, on the other hand, concentrated on military tactics and sieges.

Achievements

Sarkar was honored by the British government with a Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire (CIE) and was knighted in the 1929 Birthday Honours list. A research center, the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta, has been established in his house and includes the Jadunath Bhavan Museum and Resource Centre, a museum-cum-archive of primary sources.

List of works

Published works by Sarkar include:

• Economics of British India (1900)
• The India of Aurangzib (1901)
• Anecdotes of Aurangzib (1912)
• History of Aurangzib (in 5 volumes), (1912–24)
• Chaitanya's pilgrimages and teachings, from his contemporary Bengali biography, the Chaitanya-charit-amrita: Madhya-lila (translation from the Bengali original by Krishnadasa Kaviraja, 1913)
• Shivaji and his Times (1919)
• Studies in Mughal India (1919)
• Mughal Administration (1920)
• Nadir Shah in India (1922)
• Later Mughals by William Irvine (in 2 volumes), (edited by Jadunath Sarkar, 1922)
• India through the ages (1928)
• A Short History of Aurangzib (1930)
• The Fall of the Mughal Empire (in 4 volumes), (1932–38)
• Studies in Aurangzib's reign (1933)
• The House of Shivaji (1940)
• The History of Bengal (in 2 volumes), (1943–1948)
• Maāsir-i-ʻĀlamgiri: a history of the emperor Aurangzib-ʻl̀amgir (translation from the Persian original by Muḥammad Sāqī Mustaʻidd Khān, 1947)
• Military History of India (1960)
• A History of Jaipur, c. 1503–1938 (1984)
• A History Of Dasnami Naga Sanyasis