Sisir Kumar Das (1936-2003) was a renowned linguist, poet, playwright, translator, comparatist and a prolific scholar of Indian literature. He is widely regarded as the "doyen of Indian literary historiographers". Das was responsible for building an integrated history of Indian literature that included many languages, a task that many important scholars of Indian literature considered to be "a historian's despair". Das' scholarly work comprised ten volumes, and his three volumes of A History of Indian Literature (Western Impact: Indian Response 1800-1910; Struggle for Freedom: Triumph and Tragedy 1911-1956; From Courtly to Popular 500-1399) are credited with devising new methods to situate diverse Indian literary cultures in history. Another significant work in Das' scholarly oeuvre is the multi-volume English Writings of Rabindranath Tagore, which he edited.