He was born Kedarnath Pandey on
9 April,
1893 to a
Bhumihar Brahmin family in
Azamgarh district, in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. His father, Govardhan Pandey, was a religious-minded farmer, a typical profession of Bhumihars, from the village Kanaila of
Azamgarh district in
Uttar Pradesh. His mother, Kulawanti, used to stay with her parents at the village of
Pandaha, where Kedar was born. He was the eldest of four brothers. He spent part of his childhood in Uttar Pradesh and
Bihar states of India. As his mother died at the age of twenty-eight and his father at the age of forty-five, he was brought up by his grandmother. His earliest memories as recorded by him were of the terrible famine in 1897. At age 9, he ran away from home in order to see the world, but later returned.
Sankrityayan only ever received formal schooling at a local primary school, though he later studied and mastered numerous languages independently, as well as learned photography
His travels took him to different parts of India, including
Ladakh,
Kinnaur, and
Kashmir. He also covered several other countries including
Nepal,
Tibet,
Sri Lanka,
Iran,
China, and the former
Soviet Union. He spent some years of his life in the "Parsa Gadh" village of Saran District in Bihar.The entry gate of that village is named as "Rahul Gate". While traveling, he mostly used surface transport, and he went to certain countries clandestinely, like Tibet where he went disguised as a Buddhist
monk. He made several trips to Tibet and brought from there valuable
manuscripts of
Pali and
Sanskrit, several books and paintings. Most of these formed a part of the libraries of
Vikramshila and
Nalanda Universities and were taken to Tibet by fleeing Buddhist monks during 12th century and onwards when the invading Muslim armies had destroyed these universities. Some accounts state that Rahul Sankrityayan employed twenty-two mules to bring back the loads of part of these materials, from Tibet to India.
In honour of him,
Patna Museum,
Patna, has a special section, where a number of these and other items have been displayed.
In Hindi
Novels
- Baisvin Sadi - 1923
- Jine ke Liye - 1940
- Simha Senapathi - 1944
- Jai Yaudheya - 1944
- Bhago Nahin, Duniya ko Badlo - 1944
- Madhur Svapna - 1949
- Rajasthani Ranivas - 1953
- Vismrit Yatri - 1954
- Divodas - 1960
- Vismriti Ke Garbh Me
- Kinner Desh
Short Stories
- Satmi ke Bachche - 1935
- Volga Se Ganga - 1944
- Bahurangi Madhupuri - 1953
- Kanaila ki Katha - 1955-56
Autobiography
- Meri Jivan Yatra I - 1944
- Meri Jivan Yatra II - 1950
- Meri Jivan Yatra III, IV, V - published posthumously
Biography
- Sardar Prithvi Singh - 1955
- Naye Bharat ke Naye Neta (2 volumes) - 1942
- Bachpan ki Smritiyan - 1953
- Atit se Vartaman (Vol I) - 1953
- Stalin - 1954
- Lenin - 1954
- Karl Marx - 1954
- Mao-Tse-Tung - 1954
- Ghumakkar Swami - 1956
- Mere Asahayog ke Sathi - 1956
- Jinka Main Kritajna - 1956
- Vir Chandrasingh Garhwali - 1956
- Simhala Ghumakkar Jaivardhan - 1960
- Kaptan Lal - 1961
- Simhal ke Vir Purush - 1961
- Mahamanav Budha - 1956
Some of his other books are:-
- Mansik Gulami
- Rhigvedic Arya
- Ghumakkar Shastra
- Kinnar desh mein
- Darshan Digdarshan
- Dakkhini Hindi ka Vyaakaran
- Puratatv Nibandhawali
- Manava Samaj
In Bhojpuri
- Teen Natak - 1942
- Panch Natak - 1942
In Nepali (Translation)
- Bauddhadharnma Darshan - 1984
Related to Tibetan
- Tibbati Bal-Siksha - 1933
- Pathavali (Vol. 1,2 & 3) - 1933
- Tibbati Vyakaran (Tibetan Grammar) - 1933
- Tibbat May Budh Dharm-1948
- Lhasa ki or
AMAR JIBON JATRA
VOLGA TEKHEY GANGA