Buno Ramnath

Ramnath Tarkasiddhanta, popularly known as Buno Ramnath, was a prominent logician, scholar and ideal teacher of Nabadwip in the eighteenth century. He was called Buno as he had set up his Chatuspathi in a forest area.

Ramnath was born in the middle of the eighteenth century but historians has a doubt about his birthplace. According to Dr. Alok Kumar Chakraborty, he was the son of Abhayaram Tarkabhushan of the Bhattacharya family of Dhatrigram. Beside that, Joggeshwar Chowdhury said that Samudragarh is the birthplace of Ramnath.

After acquiring an outstanding reputation for his erudition, Ramnath set up Chatuspathi in Nabadwip and taught there. He was always engrossed in the pursuit of knowledge. As the fame of his erudition spread around, countless students came to his tol or chatuspathi to learn from him. Many people including Prasanna Chandra Tarkaratna used to practice Shatra in his Chatuspathi. Among his students, Krishnananda Vidya-Bachaspati Saraswati Maharaj of Dharmadaha Bahirgachhi became famous for composing a book called Antarbyākaraṇa Nāṭya-Pariśiṣṭa from the divan of Maharaja Srishchandra. Even though Ramnath was very poor, he never took any royal grace. When Nadia Raj came to Nabadwip and saw his poverty, he asked him if he had any worldly issues. In his reply he said-

No, I have no problem. I have a few bighas of land, which produces enough grain, and in front of me you can see this Tamarind tree; My wife cooks a beautiful soup with this leaf, I eat it with great satisfaction.

In the eighteen century, a debate meeting was organised at the divan of Maharaja Nabakrishna in Kolkata (then Calcutta) for the purpose of a logical victory. Legalist Shibnath Vidyabachaspati of Nabadwip and Jagannath Tarka Panchanan of Tribeni were present at the meeting. When no one could argue with the stranger logician in the debate held there, Buno Ramnath appeared there and defeated him through argument and maintained the standard of justice of Nabadwip. Being happy when King Nabakrishna wanted to give him a lot of wealth, Ramnath did not touch them and said the crow-shit. Ramnath believed that money is the root of evil.

The identity of Ramnath's poverty can be understood from the common hearsay about his wife. Once the queen of Nadia Raj came to the Nabadwip ghat. When Ramnath's wife was returning from the ghat, the water of her sari sprinkled on the queen. But Ramnath's wife left the place without giving any apology. Being angry Maharani said,

In reply she said-

In 1886, the main Sanskrit learning center of India as well as the undivided Bengal was established at the Tol house of Buno Ramnath. The Banga Bibudha Janani Sabha was set up under the chairmanship of Raja Indrachandra Singh of Paikpara and under the editorship of retired Deputy Magistrate Mahendranath Bhattacharya to revive the Sanskrit practice all over the India. The secretary of Banga Bibudha Janani Sabha, Arun Kumar Chakraborty said-