The Brahmanas are Vedic śruti works attached to the Samhitas of the Rig, Sama, Yajur, and Atharva Vedas. They are a secondary layer or classification of Sanskrit texts embedded within each Veda, which explain and instruct on the performance of Vedic rituals. In addition to explaining the symbolism and meaning of the Samhitas, Brahmana literature also expounds scientific knowledge of the Vedic Period, including observational astronomy and, particularly in relation to altar construction, geometry. Divergent in nature, some Brahmanas also contain mystical and philosophical material that constitutes Aranyakas and Upanishads.
The Aranyakas are a part of the ancient Indian Vedas concerned with the meaning of ritual sacrifice. They typically represent the later sections of the Vedas, and are one of many layers of Vedic texts. The other parts of the Vedas are the Samhitas, Brahmanas (commentary), and the Upanishads.
The Atharva Veda or Atharvana Veda (Sanskrit: अथर्वणवेदः, Atharvaṇavedaḥ is the "knowledge storehouse of atharvāṇas, the procedures for everyday life". The text is the fourth Veda, and is a late addition to the Vedic scriptures of Hinduism.
The Vedas are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism.
A shakha is a Hindu theological school that specializes in learning certain Vedic texts, or else the traditional texts followed by such a school. An individual follower of a particular school or recension is called a śākhin. The term is also used in Hindu philosophy to refer to an adherent of a particular orthodox system.
Bhashacharya Acharya Suniti Kumar Chatterjee was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second-highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan.
Rakhal Das Banerji, also Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay, was an Indian archaeologist and an officer of the Archeological Survey of India (ASI). In 1919, he became the second ASI officer deputed to survey the site of Mohenjo-daro by Sir John Marshall, director-general of the ASI, and returned there in the 1922-23 season. He was the first person to propose the remote antiquity of the site—which he did in a letter to Marshall in 1923—and in effect of the Harappan culture. After leaving the ASI, he held the Manindra Chandra Nandy professorship of Ancient Indian History and Culture at the Banaras Hindu University from 1928 until his premature death in 1930.
Romesh Chunder Dutt was an Indian civil servant, economic historian, translator of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Dutt is considered a national leader of the pre-Gandhian era, and was a contemporary of Dadabhai Naoroji and Justice Ranade.He was one of the prominent proponent of Indian economic nationalism.
Brajendranath Dey was an early Indian member of the Indian Civil Service.
Arthur Berriedale Keith was a Scottish constitutional lawyer, scholar of Sanskrit and Indologist. He became Regius Professor of Sanskrit and Comparative Philology and Lecturer on the Constitution of the British Empire in the University of Edinburgh. He served in this role from 1914 to 1944.
Mahamahopadhyay Pandit Mahesh Chandra Nyayratna Bhattacharyya was an Indian scholar of Sanskrit, and the principal of the Sanskrit College between 1876 and 1895. A friend and colleague of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, he played an important role in the Bengal Renaissance. He was one of the most eminent Bengalis in Kolkata of the nineteenth century.
Raja Rajendralal Mitra was among the first Indian cultural researchers and historians writing in English. A polymath and the first Indian president of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, he was a pioneering figure in the Bengali Renaissance. Mitra belonged to a respected family of Bengal writers. After studying by himself, he was hired in 1846 as a librarian in the Asiatic Society of Bengal, for which he then worked throughout his life as second secretary, vice president, and finally the first native president in 1885. Mitra published a number of Sanskrit and English texts in the Bibliotheca Indica series, as well as major scholarly works including The antiquities of Orissa, Bodh Gaya (1878), Indo-Aryans and more.
Hara Prasad Shastri, also known as Hara Prasad Bhattacharya, was an Indian academic, Sanskrit scholar, archivist and historian of Bengali literature. He is most known for discovering the Charyapada, the earliest known examples of Bengali literature.
Niharranjan Ray (1903–1981) was an Indian Bengali historian, well known for his works on the history of art and Indian history.
Haridas Bhattacharyya (1891–1956) was a Bengali Indian philosopher, author and educationist, known for his works on comparative religion.
Bhattacharya, Bhattacharyya, and Bhattacharjee are three common spellings of a Bengali Brahmin and Assamese Brahmin surname. In Bengal, Bhattacharjees, together with Banerjees, Chatterjees, Gangulys and Mukherjees, form the Kulin Brahmins.
Padmanath Bhattacharya was an Indian historian. His works generally centred on the ancient Kamrup region. The Padmanath Vidyabinod Memorial Awards are named after him.
Sushil Kumar De was a Bengali writer from the early decades of the 20th century. Trained as a lawyer, with degrees in English and Sanskrit Poetics, he wrote extensively on Sanskrit Literature, Philosophy, Poetics, History of Bengali Literature, besides editing critical editions for a large number of Sanskrit and Bengali texts from manuscripts.
Rajendra Chandra Hazra was a scholar and Sanskritist known for his studies of Puranic literature. During an academic career spanning over four decades he wrote about 10 books and over 200 research articles on subjects ranging from his central interest in Smriti literature to "the Vedas, Vyākaraṇas, Kāvya, anthology, archaeology, world-history, paleography, and the Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika systems of philosophy."
Jatindramohan Bhattacharya was an author and researcher of Bengali and Assamese literature. He served as the professor of Bengali at the University of Calcutta for many years.
