Our Prime Inspiration: Acharya Devendra Nath Sharma

The Legend That is Acharya Devendra Nath Sharma

(Story of a lifelong learner)

Vice Chairman Central Hindi Insitute;Chairman, Inter University Board, Govt of Bihar; Vice Chancellor, Patna and KS Darbhanga Sanskrit University; Professor and Head of the Hindi Department of Patna and Bihar Universities; First Hindi Scholar honoured with National Fellowship of University Grant Commission (UGC); Chairman of the panel of Indian Languages of UGC for many years; Chairman/Member of many committees of the Commission; Member of the expert committee of Commission for Scientific and Technical Terminology, GOI on Literary Criticism and Linguistics; Member of Hindi Advisory Committee of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Rural Development etc.; Member of Hindi Panel of National Council of Educational Research and Training; Visiting Professor, JNU etc.

Member of the Adjudication Committee of the Gyanpeeth Award; Member of Agricultural Universities Review Committee of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research; Expert-Member of the committee constituted by the Government of India for reform of the Devnagari script; Reviewer of Historical Grammar of Hindi prepared under the auspices of Banaras Hindu University with the help of University Grants Commission; A key organizer of the Third Vishwa Hindi Sammelan; Member of Bihar Rashtra Bhasha Parishad and Bihar Hindi Pragati Samiti; Involved in various capacities with Sahitya Academy; Bangiya Hindi Parishad; Kashi Naagari Pracharini Sabha; Prayag Hindi Sahitya Sammelan; Hindustani Academy; Bharatiya Sanskriti Sansad; Bharatiya Bhasha Parishad; etc.

President of Bharatiya Hindi Parishad Gwalior (1971) and Vallabh Vidyanagar, Gujarat (1974) Sessions. Member of Pravar Samiti (Selection Board), Bharatiya Gyanpeeth Puraskar. Judge of Mangalaprasad Purashkar, Uttar Pradesh Hindi Samiti Puraskar, Madhya Pradesh Shasan Puraskar, Rajasthan Sahitya Academy Puraskar, Bihar Rashtra Bhasha Parishad Puraskar, Bihar Rajbhasha Puraskar etc.

Inaugurator/President/Chief guest of numerous Literary/Linguistic/ Cultural seminars of national level.

Member of committees constituted for the selection of Vice-Chancellor of several universities.

Keynote address in the Special Interest Group Session of Educationists in Assembly of World Peace at Czechoslovakia.

Educational/Cultural visit to England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Russia, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Korea, Mauritius, Nepal etc.

Honours (a select list) Award by Uttar Pradesh Hindi Samiti, Honoured by Purvottar Hindustani Sammelan, Rajbhasha Vibhaga, Awarded by Bihar Government as Varishth Hindi Sevi, Awarded with Subrahmanyam Bharati Puraskar by Kendriya Hindi Sansthan.

Acharya Devendra Nath Sharma was born in the family of renowned educationists and scholars. His father Pt. Shivsharan Sharma was a reputed scholar of Languages and Sanskrit.(It is reported that he was learning Urdu in his closing years of life!)Pt Shivsharan Sharma had specialized in Kavya(Poetry) ;Vyakaran(Grammar) and Schools of Philosophy such as Nyaya, Sankhya, Vedanta . He was the Head of Dharm Samaj Sanskrit Mahavidyalaya at Motihari. Impressed by the radiance of the wisdom of Pt Shiv Sharan Sharma and his scholarship Mahamana Pt. Madan Mohan Malaviya had invited him, as an Acharya, to Banaras Hindu University.

Acharya Devendra Nath Sharma was endowed with multidimensional personality. He was a gifted teacher and orator, efficient administrator and innovative research supervisor. He was a sensitive and loving human being whose principles and values were very important to him. He never compromised on the basic beliefs.

He was essentially a lifelong learner, beginning from the grass roots and spreading himself out into many diverse eco-systems, with aplomb.

He was endowed with superb creative ideation and writing skills, and blessed with critical and analytical scholarly faculty. He excelled in both the ideational critical domains of writing. He was a profound scholar of Hindi, Linguistics, Phonetics and Sanskrit. He inherited the knowledge of Sanskrit .Among Indian languages, he was proficient in Urdu, Pali  , Marathi, Gujarati, Bangla . Among Non- Indian Languages he was also adept at English, Russian, French, and German. He translated Chekhov’s stories into Hindi from Russian.

Acharya Sharma was endowed with the knowledge of Vyakarana, Sahitya and Darshan (Philosophy) from his respected father. He passed the Sahityacharya in Sanskrit Medium and Master of Arts in modern education system also in Sanskrit. The record marks obtained by him in Master of Arts Examination at Patna University remained unsurpassed for 30 years. He began his career as faculty in Sanskrit in Patna College, and later did his Masters in Hindi and chose Hindi and Linguistics as his field of advanced academic activity.

His love for Indian languages particularly the Indo Aryan and Dravidian genere went hand in hand with his professional activities in Hindi. He firmly believed that it is not possible for India to regain its diminished sense of pride without access to classical languages of the sub-continent including Sanskrit, Tamil etc. It was his opinion that skepticism about Indian culture starts with the decline of Sanskrit and Indian classical languages learning in the educational system of the country. As the president of Sanskrit Academy he envisioned the publication and dissemination of many literary works of Sanskrit along with Hindi/Indian languages translation. He was of the view that the first phase should be to publish ‘Praman Vartik’ by Dharmkirti, ‘Vaiyakaran Siddhant Manjusha‘ by Naagesh, Vakya Padiya by Bhartrihari, ‘Shloka Vartik’ by Kumaril and many other texts like ‘Mahabhashya’ of Patanjali along with easy to follow translation in Hindi/Indian Languages. He had sorted out five hundred most useful aphorisms out of nearly four thousand aphorisms of ‘Ashtadhyayi’ to make the Sanskrit Grammar easy and accessible in a popular sense. These aphorisms were sufficient for anyone to gain a practical knowledge of Sanskrit. He was also conversant with Persian.

Acharya Devendra Nath Sharma did not consider ‘Introduction’ to be necessary for enjoyment and appreciation of creative writing. His views on lifelong learning were unique.

He made long lasting contribution to personal essays and one act plays in Hindi by writing at a time when these styles and craft of expression were in their developmental stage, in the Indian Languages. He thus made important contribution in establishing these as independent styles of creative writing in Hindi. He wrote one-act plays based on social subjects such as ‘Chikitsa Ka Chakkar‘. In his one-act plays on social subject often there is a deep satirical presentation. These one-act plays are still as contemporary as they were seven decades ago. ‘Shahjehan Ke Aansoo‘ is a collection of six one-act plays by Acharya Sharma based on incidents of Medieval period. These one-act plays are inspired by history, but even though they are historical they have eternal values of life and euphemisms of modern problems.

Acharyaji always remained connected with the society, therefore, whatever subject in which he chose to express himself, he always maintained its relevance. At many places he expressed eternal truths of life in a very simple and communicable manner. Consider this dialogue of Babar (in his play “Babar ki Mamta”) on life, “Hazaron aadamiyon ki jaan lene ki taakat hamame thi, lekin aaj ek aadmi ki jaan bachaane ki taakat hamame nahin hai. Kaisi laachari hai? Kisi insaan ko woh cheej lene ka kya hak hai, jise woh de nahi sakta? (I had power to take the lives of thousands of people, but today I have no power to (give) save the life of one person. How helpless am I! What right has a person to take the thing, which he has no power to give?)”

He was a consummate theatre Director . Prithvi Raj Kapoor was his personal guest when he visited Patna in the early 50s with his drama troupe. He closely observed the European Theatre also and tried to combine its characteristics with those of conventional Indian theatre. On one of the visits of the first President of the Republic Dr Rajendra Prasad to Patna he was invited to stage the Sanskrit Play “Mrichkatikam” at the lawns of the Raj Bhavan (Governor’s house) for the President.

During his visit to foreign countries observed the English, Russian and Korean Theatrical tradition. This practical background of Theatrical presentation could be seen clearly while he enacted plays on the stage during festivals of one-act plays. Several of them won awards in this competition. The success of these plays on Aakashvaani (All India Radio) is evidence of the fact that these plays are equally suitable for both the visual and audio presentation. Years later he was invited to head The Bihar Art Theatre. He used an opportunity with the then Chief Minister of Bihar Shri Kedar Pandey, to get land for the Theatre at the prime location of the Gandhi Maidan.

A man of parts, scholar by profession, and catholic by temperament the magic of his brand still evokes nostalgia in those who interacted with him. To read him is to resonate with him.