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Vishwanath Datta (1835 — 25 February 1884) was a Bengali Attorney at law,[1] philanthropist and novelist. He was the father of Swami Vivekananda, Mahendranath Dutta and Bhupendranath Dutta.[2]

Vishwanath Datta
Born	1835 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Died	25 February 1884 Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India
Language	Bengali
Nationality	Indian
Subject	Attorney at law, novelist
Spouse	Bhubaneshwari Devi (1841 — 25 July 1911)
Children	Swarnabala, Narendranath, Mahendranath Datta, Bhupendranath
Parents	Durga prasad Dutta (father) Shyamasundari Devi (mother)

Early life

Vishwanath was born in an aristocratic Hindu family of North Kolkata. His father Durgaprasad (1816—1850/55) preferred Sannyas life and left home when Vishwanath was six years old only. There is an interesting incident when he longed to return to Calcutta after five years of wandering for sanyass which Swami Vivekananda used to listen in his childhood. It happened so that, in somewhere between 1845 or 1846 Durgaprasad returned to Calcutta, He was recognised by one of his neighbours who locked him in a tiny room in his house so he cannot escape and remain in a starving condition as Sanyassi. He was locked in this room for 3 days. At last, on the third day the neighbour's wife Sarita Devi took pity on him and helped him escape from the house. Later Vishwanath was brought up by his uncle. He entered in Gourmohan Addy's school or Oriental Seminary. After completion of graduation in 1859 Datta worked as a clerk under an attorney, Charles Peter.[3]

Career

Datta was an enlightened person of the 18th century, free from religious superstitions, known for his charity and liberal outlook.[1] He was well versed in Sanskrit, Hindi, Persian, Arabic and Urdu languages.[4]

He married Bhuvaneswari Devi in 1851 and had nine children. Narendranath Dutta, his sixth child and second son, who later became famous as Swami Vivekananda, was born in 1863.[5]

In 1866 he applied for the post of proctor to Barnes Peacock, the first Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court. His prayer was approved by Justice Walter Morgan (judge). Datta also maintained a law firm in Kolkata named Dhar & Datta. Later he faced serious economic troubles for frequent litigation and lawsuits among Datta family.[6]

Literary works

Datta wrote a Bengali autobiographical novel named Sulochana based on a joint family dispute. In 1882 the novel was first published in Kolkata (then "Calcutta").[7]

References

External links

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