Prafulla Chandra Ray: Father of Indian Chemistry

Prafulla Chandra Ray gave away most of his salary and savings during his own lifetime. He founded India’s first pharmaceutical company with just ₹700. He also helped build the country’s first real chemistry research tradition, from almost nothing. Students called him Acharya, teacher, not out of formality but genuine respect.

Must Know

• Prafulla Chandra Ray was born on 2 August 1861, in Raruli-Katipara, now in Bangladesh. He’s known as the “Father of Indian Chemistry.”
• Ray earned his DSc from the University of Edinburgh in 1887. He returned to India and joined Presidency College, Calcutta, as Assistant Professor of Chemistry in 1889.
• In 1896, Ray discovered mercurous nitrite, a stable chemical compound. This was among the earliest major original chemistry research done in modern India.
• Ray founded Bengal Chemical Works in 1892 with just ₹700 in capital. It became Bengal Chemical and Pharmaceutical Works Ltd in 1901, India’s first pharmaceutical company.
• Ray researched and published “The History of Hindu Chemistry,” a two-volume work (1902 and 1908). It documented ancient India’s own metallurgical and medical chemistry knowledge.
• Ray died in Calcutta on 16 June 1944, at age 82.

Good to Know

• Ray gave away much of his salary, savings, and pension throughout his life. He supported the Sadharan Brahmo Samaj, Brahmo Girls’ School, and the Indian Chemical Society, among other causes.
• Students and colleagues addressed him as “Acharya,” a title of deep respect for a teacher. It reflected his reputation well beyond his formal academic titles.
• Ray helped build India’s early chemistry research culture largely from scratch. He trained a generation of chemists at Presidency College and later the University of Calcutta.

Test Yourself

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1. Prafulla Chandra Ray, known as the ‘Father of Indian Chemistry,’ earned his DSc in 1887 from which university?

University of Cambridge

University of Edinburgh

University of Oxford

University of London

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Great to Know

• Founding a pharmaceutical company wasn’t a side project separate from Ray’s research career. It reflected a deliberate belief that Indian chemistry needed a domestic manufacturing base, not just academic papers, to matter for the country.
• Ray’s History of Hindu Chemistry pushed back against a common colonial-era assumption. Many believed Indian scientific tradition was purely mystical or philosophical, with no real empirical chemistry behind it. His research documented genuine, technically sophisticated ancient Indian chemical practice.
• Ray’s personal frugality and constant philanthropy weren’t incidental to his scientific reputation. In an era with little institutional research funding, his own money directly subsidised the students and causes that helped Indian science grow.
• His students carried that legacy forward. Asima Chatterjee earned her doctorate under Ray in 1944, becoming the first Indian woman to do so. She later developed real anti-epileptic and anti-malarial drugs from Indian plants.