Nalini Kant Bhattasali (1888 – 1947) was an archeologist, art historian, numismatist and writer. N K Bhattasali was born on January 24, 1888 in the village of Nayananda in the Munshiganj subdivision of Dacca District. He graduated from Dacca College in 1909 and obtained his Masters degree in history in 1912. In the same year, his original research on King Lakshmanasena of Bengal and His Era was published in the Indian Antiquary.
Nalini Kant Bhattasali began his career as headmaster of
Balurghat and Ichapur high schools, and later also served as a lecturer of
history in Comilla Victoria College. He made Bengal his special field of study,
and in 1914 he presented the paper ‘A Forgotten Kingdom Of Eastern Bengal’ at
the Asiatic Society of Bengal.
N K Bhattasali took charge of the Dacca Museum in July,
1914. From a meager collection of six ancient sculptures and some coins, he
transformed this small museum into an institution of national fame. He explored
the countryside of Bengal and undertook excavation work near the ruins of
Rampal in 1916 to enrich the museum.
He also made a significant contribution to the field of
Bengali paleography. He edited four medieval texts. He collected many palm leaf
and paper manuscripts now preserved in the Dacca University and the Dacca
Museum. He prepared a critical edition of Krittibasi Ramayana. His doctoral thesis
(1934) was on Iconography of Buddhist and Brahmanical Sculptures in the Dacca
Museum. This book remained a basic work for Pala and Sena images of Bengal.
Besides art, archeology, and paleography, N K Bhattasali also wrote stories,
plays, and poems, and penned eleven books.