Background
Krishna Kanta Handique was born on July 20, 1898 in a Tai-Ahom family in Jorhat town of Assam, to Rai-Bahadur Radha Kanta Handique.
founder philanthropist president scholars
Krishna Kanta Handique was born on July 20, 1898 in a Tai-Ahom family in Jorhat town of Assam, to Rai-Bahadur Radha Kanta Handique.
He was educated at Cotton College, Guwahati (1913-1915), Sanskrit College, Calcutta (1915-1917), Calcutta University (1917-1919), Oxford University, Paris University and Berlin University (1920-1927). He also studied and learned many languages like Latin, Greek, French, German, Russian, Italian and Spanish.
He was a recipient of the civilian honour of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan
He is known to have known 13 languages: 8 European languages and 5 Indian languages including Pali and Prakrit. He is well known for his munificence to literary and educational foundations. He bequeathed his massive personal library to Guwahati University making available to the public rare and valuable books in 11 languages of the world.
He also gave the copyright of all his books to Deccan College Procter and Gamble & Research Institute, Pune.
The Jaina Samskriti Samrakshaka Sangh, Maharashtra and Prakrit Test Society, Ahmedabad. Krishna Kanta Handique was the President of Asam Sahitya Sabha during the Guwahati conference in 1937 at the young age of 39, President of Classical Sanskrit Section, XVI All India Oriental Conference, Lucknow in 1951 and was elected the general President of the Srinagar Session of the same in 1961.
The Indian Posts and Telegraphs Department issued a commemorative stamp in honor of Professor Handique on October 7, 1983.
The Government of Assam has instituted the prestigious Krishna Kanta Handique Memorial Award in his honour in the field of promotion of Sanskrit language and literature.