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A BRIEF LIFE-SKETCH OF THE AUTHOR

by

LATE BENI MADHAV BARUA

[M.A., D.Lit. (Lond.). Tripitakacharya (Colombo, Hortoris Causa). Professor of Pali and Sanskrit, and Ancient Indian History and Culture in the University of Calcutta.]

Dimbeswar Neog was born at Sibsagar, Assam, about the birth of the twentieth century. He passed his Matriculation and I.Sc. examinations, being placed in each in the first division, and also the B.Sc., B.A., and B.T. degree examinations of the Calcutta University by 1924. He completed his Post-Graduate lectures on English literature in 1926, and headed the list of successful candidates of the M.A. degree examination on Modern Indian Languages with Assamese as the principal subject for the first time. He identified himself with every student and literary movement in Assam and registered himself as an author and editor as early as 1921. He figured as the recipient of various competitive prizes and medals and was regarded as an unofficial "Poet-Laureate in the l school and college in which he studied. Even as a student he published some pioneer works on the folk-literature of Assam and edited several journals. It stands no less to his credit that he has written a large number of thoughtful and thought-provoking articles on a great variety of subjects, historical and philological, literary and scientific, educational and religious, and no few Prefaces and Reviews of literary and research works of great importance. He is the reputed author of about fifty books in Assamese and English, the most noteworthy among them being those on culture and literature and on Valsavism in Assam. He was for some time a Professor of Assamese in the Lady Keane College in Shillong. He is a Life Member of the Assam Literary Association. He is a Member of the All India (P.E.N.) writers' Association. He is also a Member of the Indian History Congress, and contributed some important papers to it on Ancient and Medieval Assam.

University of Calcutta,
9-9-47
B. M. BARUA

Born: Pahartall, Chittagong
21st December, 1838
Died: Maniktola, Caletta
26th March, 1908