Rashtrapati award winner Suniti Kumar Pathak dead at 101

Rashtrapati Award winner and renowned scholar in Buddhist studies Suniti Kumar Pathak passed away on Thursday at his residence in Bolpur-Santiniketan in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. He was 101.

Pathak was associated with Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore-founded Visva Bharati University in the Department of Indo-Tibetan Studies. He also served as the dean of the university from 1972 to 1986.

He served as guest faculty in the Department of Buddhist Studies at the University of Calcutta and for Buddhist and Indo-Tibetan Studies at many universities in India and abroad.

Besides the Rashtrapati Award, his academic career was decorated with the Manjushree Award and Sahitya Parishad Award. He received the title of ‘Bhanak’ (reciter of religion) from the Mahabodhi Society.

An author of around 200 books, he was proficient in nine languages. After graduating from Sanskrit College in Kolkata, he studied Pali (Mahajan Goshthi) at the University of Calcutta.

After his post-graduation, he joined the University of Calcutta as a research scholar in the Department of Sino-Tibetan Studies. At one point, he served in the Indian Army as a language teacher, translator, and interpreter.

He retired from Visva Bharati University in 1984 and resided in Bolpur-Santiniketan until his death.

Some of his well-known books include ‘Tantrik Tradition in the Himalayas and Tibet’ and ‘Bilingual Glossary of the Nagananda’, among others. He traveled extensively in remote Himalayan villages, collecting field notes for his research and books.

Interestingly, despite being offered a vehicle by the government for his research-related fieldwork, he declined it. Instead, he preferred to travel on foot through the remote Himalayan villages to collect field notes.