A catalogue Raisonne of the collection of sculpture of the Varendra Research Museum the richest repertory of Bengal sculptures has been a long felt need. Annual reports of the Museum prior to 1947 show that there had been several attempts to produce such a catalogue but apparently these always came to nothing. We do not know the reasons for these failures. However, since 1964, when the Rajshahi University assumed the responsibility of the management of the Museum, there has been a continuous awareness of this need among scholars and in the University administration and eventually when Professor M.A. Raqib was the Vice-chancellor the syndicate of the University at its meeting held on 28.07.1987 accepted the recommendation of the Museum Committee and decided to publish the catalogue. The work of preparing it was given to the eminent iconographist and art historian Professor Mukhlesur Rahman who had by then retired as the Director of the Varendra Research Museum. But unfortunately, when the catalogue was in its last stage of preparation Professor Rahman died (1993).
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mukhlesur Rahman
Rahman, Mukhlesur (1924-1993) an art historian. He was born on 1 February, 1924 in village Mugbelai of kamarkhanda upazila in sirajganj district. His father, Maulavi Mizanur Rahman, was a police officer.Mukhlesur Rahman started his education in Vaidya Dogachi Primary School in Kamarkhanda upazila and Middle English School of Burdwan and passed the Entrance Examination in 1938 from Bengal Nagpur High School of Kharagpur.He then went to Ripon College (present Surendranath College) of Calcutta, from where he passed his IA in 1940. He passed his BA Honours in History from the Scottish Church College in 1943 and got his MA in Islamic History and Culture from the Calcutta University in 1945. He got his PhD in 1965 from the School of Oriental and African Studies of London University. The title of his thesis was 'The Origin, Development and Iconography of Mahadevi Durga in Indian Hindu Religion'.He was an able organiser and a successful teacher. Under his able guidance the museum got a new life and he published and edited its Journal, Journal of the Varendra Research Museum. He earned reputation as a researcher in various branches of art history and he has to his credit more than 50 research articles on history, literature and museology published in journals of home and abroad. Matrka and Prthvimata o anyanya pravandha are two of his books published in Bangla. But his best work is the Sculpture in the Varendra Research Museum: A Descriptive Catalogue, published four years after his death in 1998. Mukhlesur Rahman died on 18 December 1993.
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