Dictionary of Indian Biography/Bhandarkar, Ramkrishna Gopal
BHANDARKAR, RAMKRISHNA GOPAL (1837–)
Orientalist and social reformer: born July 6, 1837: educated at Ratnagiri and Elphinstone College, Bombay: M.A., 1866: Dakhshina Fellow there 1859, and later in the Dekkan College, Poona, till 1864: in the Bombay Education Department, 1864–93: Head-master of Hyderabad (Sind) and Ratnagiri High Schools, 1864–9: acting Professor of Sanskrit and Oriental Languages in Elphinstone College, Assistant Professor many years, till 1881: Professor of Sanskrit at Dekkan College, Poona, 1882–93: Fellow of Bombay University from 1866; Syndic, 1873–81; Vice-Chancellor, 1893–5: Hon. LL.D., 1904: Member of the Governor-General's Legislative Council, 1903–4, when the Universities Act was passed: Member of Bombay Legislative Council, 1904–5: Fellow of Calcutta University, 1887: Member of learned Societies, e.g. R.A.S. London, 1874; R.A.S. Bombay, 1865; German Oriental Society, 1887; American Oriental Society, 1887; Asiatic Society of Italy, 1887; of Imperial Academy of Science, St. Petersburg, 1888: Foreign member of the French Institute, 1895: also of the International Congress of Orientalists, London, 1874; and of Vienna, 1886, which he attended: C.I.E., 1887: retired from service, 1893: Hon. Phil. Dr. Gottingen University: has contributed largely to the Journals and Transactions of learned Societies, especially in Bombay, on philological and antiquarian subjects: also to the Indian Antiquary: first lecturer on the Wilson Lectureship, Bombay University: reported on his searches for Sanskrit MSS. in the Bombay Presidency: edited the text of the Sanskrit Malati-Madhava: and has written Sanskrit educational works: is a leader of the enlightened religious movement of the Prathna Samaj in W. India: as a social reformer has practically supported the re-marriage of widows, and in politics is a moderate progressive.