This Day In History – April 14

1891 –  Leader, philosopher, economist, anthropologist, lawyer, teacher and the Chairman of the Committee that drafted the Constitution of India, Bharat Ratna Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was born. His birth anniversary is celebrated as ‘Ambedkar Jayanti’ nationwide.

Babasaheb Ambedkar

1950 – Internationally acknowledged Indian Guru, Venkataraman Iyer, known by the name Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi, passed away.

1962 – Eminent Engineer and Scholar Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya, passed away. Born on September 15, his birth anniversary is celebrated as the ‘Engineer’s Day’. Sir Visvesvaraya graduated from the prestigious College of Engineering, Pune with a degree in Civil Engineering. After completing his studies he joined the Public Works Department, Mumbai before receiving an invitation from the Indian Irrigation Commission.

He employed an intricate system of irrigation in the Deccan area and also developed and patented the automatic weir water floodgates at the Khadakvasla Reservoir, Pune. The system was highly successful and was also installed at the Tigra Dam, Gwalior and at the Krishnaraja Sagar in Karnataka. Sir Visvesvaraya developed a system to protect Hyderabad from floods by River Moosi and another system to protect the port of Vizag or Vishakhapatnam from erosion.

Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya

He was instrumental in founding of the Mysore Soap Factory, the Mysore Iron and Steel Works, the State Bank of Mysore, the Parasitoide Laboratory etc when with the Government of Mysore State. He is regarded as the ‘Father of modern Mysore State’ and was appointed as the ‘Diwan of Mysore’. He played a key role in the establishing the Government Engineering College at Bangalore. In 1911 he was made a ‘Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire’ while in 1915, he was knighted by King George V as a Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire. In 1955, Sir Visvesraya was honoured with the Bharat Ratna.

Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan

1963 – The Father of Hindi Travel literature, Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan passed away. He was one of the most widely-traveled scholars of India. Well versed in several languages like Sanskrit, Kannada, Pali, Tibetan, Persian, Bhojpuri, Urdu, Arabic and many more, he also was an Indologist, a Marxist theoretician, and a creative writer. He was appointed the Professor of Indology by the University of Leningrad in view of his knowledge and command over the subject. He received the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958 and the Government of India honoured him with Padmabhushan in 1963.

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