The great Bengali linguist, philologist, educationist, and writer Dr Muhammad Shahidullah was born in Peyara village, 24 Pargana, West Bengal on 10 July 1885 to a devoutly religious family. Shahidullah passed his school final Entrance exam in 1904 from Howrah Zilla School. In 1906, he passed the FA exam from Presidency College in Kolkata and took admission at Hughli College. He received the Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours in Sanskrit in 1910 from City College, Kolkata, and Mastersin Arts in 1912 in Comparative Philology from the University of Calcutta. He also obtained his BL degree two years later in 1914.
Shahidullah began teaching in Jessore Zila School in 1908. After working as the headmaster of Sitakunda High School for some time in 1914, he practiced Law at Bashirhat in 24 Parganas. In 1915 he was elected vice-chairman of the town's municipality. He was Sharatchandra Lahiri Research Fellow under Dinesh Chandra Sen at the University of Calcutta and joined the University of Dhaka as a lecturer in 1921 in Sanskrit and Bangla. From academic point of view, his time at the University of Dhaka made the most important period of his life.
He earned his PhD degree from Sorbonne University in 1928 for his research on dialects of the Charyapada. He was the first Indian Muslim to receive this doctorate degree. He also received a diploma for his fundamental research in phonetics from the University of Paris the same year. After completing his doctorate, he returned home and started teaching. During his period at the University of Dhaka, he did research on the origins of the Bengali language.
In 1925, he presented his thesis that Bangla as a language originated from Gaudi or Magadhi Prakrit. Muhammad Shahidullah went to Europe for higher studies in 1926, and learnt Vedic Sanskrit, Buddhist Sanskrit, Comparative Philology, and Tibetan and ancient Persian language at University of Paris, and ancient Khotni, ancient Vedic Sanskrit and Prakrt at Freiburg University in Germany.
He was principal of Bogra Azizul Huq College from 1944 to 1948. He then returned to the University of Dhaka, serving as head of the Bangla Department and dean of the Faculty of Arts and taught there for six years. He worked as head of the Bangla and Sanskrit Department of the University of Rajshahi.In addition to teaching, he worked as editor of the Urdu Abhidhan Prakalpa or Urdu dictionary project of the Karachi-based Urdu Development Centre, Purba Pakistani Bhasar Adarsha Abhidhan Prakalpa or Standard dictionary of languages of East Pakistan project, and Islami Bixwakos Prakalpa or Islamic encyclopaedia project.
He was a resident teacher of Salimullah Muslim Hall and provost of Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall. He became a member of the Islamic University Commission, and of the executive committee of the Islamic Academy. He also served as the chairman of the Bangla Academy Bangla Almanac Arrangement Committee. He was also made permanent chairman of the Adamjee Literature Award and Daud Literature Award committees.
Muhammad Shahidullah played an important role in the 1952 language movement. He was the first to establish the reasons why Bangla, instead of Urdu, should be the state language of Pakistan. Earlier, he was secretary to the Bengal Muslim Literary Society and had presided over many meetings and conventions, including the second Bengal Muslim Literary Convention, Muslim Literary Society Convention in Dhaka, All-Bengal Muslim Youth Convention in Calcutta, All-India Oriental Studies Convention, Philology, and East Pakistan Literary Convention. He also represented UNESCO at the International Seminar on Traditional Culture in South-East Asia in Madras and was elected its chairman.
His writings on language, literature and culture were published in many magazines and newspapers; and he himself edited many such publications. He worked as an associate editor of Al Eslam and was joint editor of Bangiya Mussalman Sahitya Patrila, a literary magazine of the Muslims of Bengal from 1918 to 1921. He edited and published the first children's magazine of Muslim Bengal, Angur. In addition, he edited a monthly called The Peace, the monthly literary magazine Bangabhumi and the fortnightly Taqbir.
He served as an editor for the Islami Bishwakosh project for a while. Muhammad Shahidullah's mastery of different languages was extraordinary and outstanding. He was fluent in 24 languages and had an outstanding knowledge of 18 languages including Bengali, Urdu, Persian, Arabic, English, Assamese, Oriya, Maithili, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Marathi, Kashmiri, Nepali, Sinhala, Tibetan, Sindhi, Sanskrit, Pali etc.
Muhammad Shahidullah delved deep into the history of Old and Middle Age Bangla literature, wrote extensively on these subjects, and gave pointers to solve much specificity of Bangla language and literature. He also took active interest in Bangla folk literature. Apart from research works, he wrote for children and also translated and edited a number of books. Noteworthy among his books are Sindabad Saodagarer Galpa, Bhasa O Sahitya, Bangala Byakaran, Diwan-i-Hafiz, Shikwah O Jawab-i-Shikwah, Rubaiyat-i-Omar Khaiyam, Essays on Islam, Amader Samasya, Padmavati, Bangla Sahityer Katha, Vidyapati Shatak, Bangla Adab Ki Tarikh, Bangla Sahityer Itihas, Bangala Bhasar Itibritta, Quran Sharif, Amarkabya, Sekaler Rupkatha etc.
The dictionary of regional dialects published under his editorship is another noteworthy work associated with him. He edited Traditional Culture in East Pakistan in collaboration with Muhammad Abdul Hai. His Buddhist Mystic Songs is a translation and an edited version of the Charyapada. He was the first to note that Charyapada is completely written in Bangla and to highlight the religious philosophy of the work.
Shahidullah was made Professor Emeritus by the University of Dhaka for his lifetime contribution in research on language and literature. He was also awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government in 1967 for his academic contribution to language and literature. In 1980 the Government of Bangladesh awarded him the Independence Award posthumously.
He was a pious Muslim, and all his books on religion reflect his deep faith in Islam. He was awarded the 'Pride of Performance' Award by the Pakistan government. Dr Shahidullah died in Dhaka on 3 July 1969 and was buried on the campus of Shahidullah Hall of Dhaka University. Shahidullah Arts Builing in Rajshahi University is named after him. In 2004, he was ranked number 16 in BBC's poll of the Greatest Bengali of all time.
The writer is asst. officer, Career & Professional Development Services Department, Southeast University
