Biography of Prafulla Chandra Ray Regarded as the father of chemical science in India, Prafulla Chandra Ray was born on the 2nd of August, 1861 in Raruli-Katipara village in the Jessore district of the then Bengal Presidency of British India (in present-day Bangladesh). He was the founder of India’s first pharmaceutical company, Bengal Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals, established in 1901 in Kolkata. This eminent Bengali was the author of the book A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of Sixteenth Century. For his work, he was honoured with the first-ever Chemical Landmark Plaque outside Europe by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Prafulla Chandra Ray died on the 16th of June, 1944.