Saratchandra Mitra

Saratchandra came from a family with origins in Hogulkuria in Sutaniti Taluk where his ancestor Rammohan Mitra had moved to after leaving his original home at Borisha due to raids made by the Mahrattas. Saratchandra's father was Narasinghachandra Mitra, a legal adviser and pleader to the Hathwa Raj, and his mother was Nistarini Dasi. Saratchandra's older brother Amulyachandra died young and sister Sailabala Dasi was married to Purnachandra Chaudhuri of Simla. at the University of Calcutta but he retired in 1926 due to ill health and loss of vision. His position was then briefly taken by the American trained Biraja Sankar Guha who however moved out of the university to join government service. == Writings ==

Saratchandra's interests were in travel, history, folklore, biography, and anthropology. He was influenced by the Ethnographic Survey of India which had begun in 1905 under Herbert Risley as well as the Linguistic Survey of India by George Grierson. He wrote on a range of subjects such as The Legends of Buddha in Indo-Hellenistic Art (In a Bombay-based magazine East and West, August 1913) which was reviewed by the Evening Gazette of Aberdeen. During his postings and travels in North Bihar he collected information from the local people. He was a prolific writer and published nearly 183 papers in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Bombay, 97 in the Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, 37 in the National Magazine, Calcutta, 34 in Man-in-India (Ranchi), 21 each in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and the Hindustan Review and many more in university journals. He also wrote under a pseudonym "Aescyem" (for his initials) to the Calcutta Review. He was a corresponding member of the Anthropological Society of Bombay from 1895. In 1912 the Society decided to reprint Mitra's collected writings as a book. and was an early promoter of outdoor natural history education in schools. Among the topics that Mitra explored where folk rhymes, drolls, tales, riddles, and beliefs. He took a particular interest in myth and lore around plants and animals and recorded a range of didactic and aetiological myths. == Personal life==

Saratchandra married Sarasibala Ray, daughter of the Subordinate Judge of Gaya district, Dineshchandra Ray. They had three sons. ==References==