Bhairav Chandra Sarkar, Pyari Charan's father, had become quite wealthy as a ship chandler serving the East India Company, and the family was a fairly good example of the new bhadralok class.

Sarkar was and educated at David Hare's Pataldanga School,[1] and admitted to Hindu College, but shortly afterwards his father and then one of his brothers died.

In the same year (1843) his essay 'On the Effect upon India of the New Communication with Europe by Means of Steam' appeared in the Department of Public Instruction's Report on Education.

[citation needed] In 1863 Sarkar was appointed as a temporary lecturer at Presidency College, Kolkata, and in 1867 he was made permanent.

There was some opposition to this as he had never completed his education, but in those days this was not so unusual as it later was to become, and Sircar's abilities were plainly evident to the authorities.

[citation needed] He continued his campaigning for women's rights, donating two and a half thousand rupees (then a huge sum of money) to the Widow remarriage Fund in 1869.

[1] In 1875 Sarkar's friend and colleague at Presidency College, E. R. Lethbridge, proposed a revision of the books and began negotiations with Thacker and Spink of Calcutta to republish them.

He set up a vocational training centre for the children of women workers and was instrumental in opening many new schools.

[5] He took charge of editing the government newspaper Education Gazette in 1866, but resigned from that position when he was not allowed to publish certain news.