{{Short description|Indian scholar and leader of the Calcutta conservative Hindu society}} {{Use dmy dates|date=May 2025}} {{Use British English|date=May 2025}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix= ''Maharaja Bahadur'' | name = Radhakanta Deb<br />{{no bold|রাধাকান্ত দেব}} | honorific_suffix= KCSI | image = Radhakanta Deb-রাধাকান্ত দেব Academic Oil Portrait.png | image_size = | caption = Radhakanta Deb, c. 1860 | birth_date = 10 March 1784 | birth_place = Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Kolkata, India) | death_date = {{Death date and age|1867|04|19|1784|03|10|df=y}} | death_place = Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India | occupation = | successor = Narendra Krishna Deb | predecessor = Gopimohan Deb | spouse = | notable_works = ''Shabda Kalpadruma (1803)'' }}
Raja Sir '''Radhakanta Deb''' Bahadur {{small|KCSI}} (10 March 1784 – 19 April 1867) was a scholar and a leader of the Calcutta conservative Hindu society, son of Gopimohan Deb of Shovabazar Raj who was the adopted son and heir of Maharaja Nabakrishna Deb of Shovabazar Raj.<ref name="ChakrabartiChakrabarti2013">{{cite book|author1=Kunal Chakrabarti|author2=Shubhra Chakrabarti|title=Historical Dictionary of the Bengalis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QVOFAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA155|accessdate=5 April 2017|date=22 August 2013|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8024-5|pages=154–155}}</ref><ref name=Banglapedia>{{cite book |author=AF Salahuddin Ahmed |chapter=Dev, Radhakanta |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Deb,_Radhakanta |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |editor=Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |year=2012 |edition=Second}}</ref>
==Life== An accomplished scholar, Radhakanta was proficient in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. He published ''Shabda Kalpadruma'', a Sanskrit language dictionary. Hara Kumar Tagore another contemporary Sanskrit scholar and scion of Tagore family had assisted him in compiling ''Shabda Kalpadruma''.<ref>Sengupta, Subodh Chandra and Bose, Anjali, p. 611</ref> He also wrote articles that were published in Ishwar Chandra Gupta's newspaper Sambad Prabhakar.<ref>{{cite book |author=Indrajit Chaudhuri |chapter=Sangbad Prabhakar |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Sangbad_Prabhakar |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |editor=Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh |year=2012 |edition=Second}}</ref>
Radhakanta Deb always showed a marked interest in promoting education, particularly English education among the Hindus; he also advocated female education.<ref name=Banglapedia/> Radhakanta Deb was actively involved in the establishment and activities of the Calcutta School Book Society in 1817 and the Calcutta School Society in 1818.<ref name=Banglapedia/> Radhakanta was an active member of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India since its establishment in 1818. He was founder-president British Indian Association in 1851, a position he held till his death.<ref name=Banglapedia/> He helped David Hare and funded founding of the Hindu College in Calcutta.<ref name="ChakrabartiChakrabarti2013"/> He was knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India (KCSI) on 24 May 1866,<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=23119 |supp=|page=3128|date=25 May 1866}}</ref> and died barely 11 months later.
Despite his contribution to the cause of education, he was a strong upholder of social conservatism. Although ''sati'' was not practised in his own family, he came forward to defend the custom when the Government contemplated its abolition. When Lord William Bentinck's government had finally abolished ''sati'' by regulation in December 1829, Radhakanta Deb, along with his conservative Hindu friends, was the leader a society called Dharma Sabha (founded by his father Gopi Mohun Deb), protested against this measure by presenting a petition to the Governor-General on behalf of the orthodox section of the Hindu community.
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == *''Shabda Kalpadruma'' by Radhakanta Deb Bahadur **in Bengali script: [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.316233 Volume 1] • [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.340120 Volume 2] • [https://archive.org/details/dli.bengal.10689.2703 Volume 3] • [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.316234 Volume 4] • [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.340121 Volume 5] • [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.340122 Volume 6] • [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.340123 Volume 7] **''[https://archive.org/details/shabdakalpadrumam Śabdakalpadrumaḥ]'' in Devanagari script
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Deb, Radhakanta}} Category:1784 births Category:1867 deaths Category:Indian Sanskrit scholars Category:19th-century Indian scholars Category:Bengali Hindus Category:Founders of Indian schools and colleges Category:Bengali zamindars Category:Bengali-language writers Category:19th-century Indian linguists Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Star of India Category:Indian knights Category:19th-century Indian philanthropists Category:Linguists from Bengal Category:Educators from West Bengal Category:Bengali knights