Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

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Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
Calcutta, Bengal, British India
Pen nameKamalakanta
OccupationWriter, poet, novelist, essayist, journalist, government official
LanguageBengali, English
Alma materUniversity of Calcutta
Literary movementBengal Renaissance
Notable worksDurgeshnandini
Kapalkundala
Devi Chaudhurani
Anandamath
Bishabriksha
Signature
Website
Bankim-Rachanabali administrated by eduliture

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (also Chatterjee)

Indian Independence Movement. Chattopadhayay wrote fourteen novels and many serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treatises in Bengali. He is known as Sahitya Samrat (Emperor of Literature) in Bengali.[9][10][11][12][13]

Biography

Chattopadhayay is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as the broader Indian subcontinent.[7] Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, broke away from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India.[7]

BankimChandra Chatttapadhyay in his early age

Chattopadhayay was born in the village of Kanthalpara in the town of

Jessore. After merging of the services in 1863, he went on to become Deputy Magistrate & Deputy Collector, retiring from government service in 1891. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was the first in-charge (Sub-divisional magistrate) of the Arambag subdivision in its earlier days. The ruins of a fort at Gar Mandaran provided the setting for Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Durgeshnandini, published in 1865. His years at work were replete with incidents that brought him into conflict with the colonial government. He was, however, made a Companion of the Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire (CMEOIE) in 1894.[16]
He also received the title of Rai Bahadur in 1891.

Literary career

Chattopadhyay's earliest publications were in

Sangbad Prabhakar.[17] He began his literary career as a writer of verse before turning to fiction. His first attempt was a novel in Bengali submitted for a declared prize. He did not win and the novelette was never published. His first fiction to appear in print was the English novel Rajmohan's Wife.[18] Durgeshnandini, his first Bengali romance and the first ever novel in Bengali, was published in 1865.[19] His essay ‘Shakuntala, Miranda ebong Desdemona’ (1873) is considered as the first attempt of comparative analysis of different literatures in Bengali and is studied closely in school of comparative literature of Jadavpur University. [20]

Second edition of Anandamath (1883)

One of the many novels of Chattopadhyay that are entitled to be termed as historical fiction is Rajsimha (1881, rewritten and enlarged 1893).

British East India Company; ultimately, however, he accepted that the British Empire could not be defeated.[21] The novel first appeared in serial form in Bangadarshan, the literary magazine that Chattopadhyay founded in 1872. Vande Mataram became prominent during the Swadeshi movement, which was sparked by Lord Curzon's attempt to partition Bengal into a Hindu majority West and Muslim majority East. Drawing from the Shakti tradition of Bengali Hindus, Chattopadhyay personified India as a Mother Goddess known as Bharat Mata, which gave the song a Hindu undertone.[22]

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee on a 1969 stamp of India

Bankim was particularly impressed by the historical

Gaudiya Vaishnava cultural efflorescence of the 14th and 15th centuries in Bengal. Chattopadhyay's commentary on the Bhagavad Gita was published eight years after his death and contained his comments up to the 19th Verse of Chapter 4.[23]
In a long essay on Sankhya philosophy, he argues that the central philosophical foundation of the overwhelming part of religious beliefs in India, including even Buddhism, lies in the philosophy of Sankhya. He was a critique of the philosophy in the sense of its emphasis on personal vairagya (renunciation) rather than political and social power.[24]

Meeting with Ramakrishna

  • Bankim was highly educated and influenced by Oriental thoughts and ideas. Ramakrishna in contrast, did not have knowledge of English. Yet they had a nice relation between them. Once
    British government
    .

Legacy

  • Tagore
    penned in the memory of his mentor:

"Bankim Chandra had equal strength in both his hands, he was a true sabyasachi (ambidextrous). With one hand, he created literary works of excellence; and with the other, he guided young and aspiring authors. With one hand, he ignited the light of literary enlightenment; and with the other, he blew away the smoke and ash of ignorance and ill conceived notions"

"The earlier Bankim was only a poet and stylist, the later Bankim was a seer and nation-builder"

  • After the Vishabriksha (The Poison Tree) was published in 1873, the magazine, Punch wrote:
"You ought to read the Poison Tree
of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee."[25]
  • His novel Anushilan-Tattva inspired Pramathanath Mitra to start Anushilan Samiti.
  • Bankim Puraskar (Bankim Memorial Award) is the highest award given by the Government of West Bengal for contribution to Bengali fiction.

Bibliography

Fiction
  • Durgeshnandini (March 1865)
  • Kapalkundala (1866)
  • Mrinalini (1869)
  • Vishabriksha (The Poison Tree, 1873)
  • Indira (1873, revised 1893)
  • Jugalanguriya (1874)
  • Radharani (1876, enlarged 1893)
  • Chandrasekhar (1875)
  • Kamalakanter Daptar (From the Desk of Kamlakanta, 1875)
  • Rajani(1877)
  • Krishnakanter Uil (Krishnakanta's Will, 1878)
  • Rajsimha (1882)
  • ISBN 978-81-222013-0-7
  • Devi Chaudhurani (1884)
  • Kamalakanta (1885)
  • Sitaram (March 1887)
  • Muchiram Gurer Jivancharita (The Life of Muchiram Gur)
Religious Commentaries
  • Krishna Charitra (Life of Krishna, 1886)
  • Dharmatattva (Principles of Religion, 1888)
  • Devatattva (Principles of Divinity, Published Posthumously)
  • Srimadvagavat Gita, a Commentary on the Bhagavad Gita (1902 – Published Posthumously)
Poetry Collections
  • Lalita O Manas (1858)
Essays
  • Lok Rahasya (Essays on Society, 1874, enlarged 1888)
  • Bijnan Rahasya (Essays on Science, 1875)
  • Bichitra Prabandha (Assorted Essays), Vol 1 (1876) and Vol 2 (1892)
  • Samya (Equality, 1879)

Chattopadhyay's debut novel was an English one, Rajmohan's Wife (1864) and he also started writing his religious and philosophical essays in English.

See also

References

  1. ISBN 978-1-4391-3721-5
    .
  2. ISBN 978-1-59339-492-9
    .
  3. ^ "Remembering Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, writer of the national song Vande Mataram".
  4. ^ "History & Heritage". north24parganas.gov.in. Archived from the original on 1 November 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  5. ISBN 978-0-87779-042-6
    .
  6. ^ Bhabatosh Chatterjee (1994). Bankimchandra Chatterjee: Essays In Perspective. Public Resource.
  7. ^ a b c Staff writer. "Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist", The Daily Star, 30 June 2011
  8. ^ Khan, Fatima (8 April 2019). "Bankim Chandra — the man who wrote Vande Mataram, capturing colonial India's imagination". ThePrint. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  9. ^ Chakraborty, Dr. Dulal (2007). History of Bengali Literature (in Bengali). Bani Bitan.
  10. ^ "Remembering Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, the face of Bengal renaissance, on his birth anniversary". The Indian Express. 27 June 2017. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  11. ^ "'Harbinger of Indian renaissance': Indians remember 'Sahitya Samrat' Bankim Chandra Chatterjee on his 183rd birth anniversary". Free Press Journal. Retrieved 1 September 2021.
  12. ^ Chattopadhyay, Sachis Chandra (1952). Bankim's Biography (in Bengali). Calcutta. p. 9.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  13. ^ Bhattacharya, Amitrasudana (1991). Bankima-chandra-jibani (in Bengali). Calcutta: Anand Publishers. p. 25.
  14. ^ Chattopadhyay, Sachishchandra, Bankim-Jibani, 1952, Pustak Bipani, p 9
  15. ^ "Shri Bankim Chandra Chattopadhayay". West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education. West Bengal Council for Higher Secondary Education.
  16. ^ "Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay – Penguin Books India". Archived from the original on 28 November 2011. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
  17. ^ Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (Chatterjee), from BengalOnline.
  18. ISBN 9788126013425
    .
  19. ^ "Literary lion - Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay: The Statesman Notebook". The Statesman. 8 July 2019. Archived from the original on 22 July 2019. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  20. ^ "Jadavpur University B.A Syllabus - Comparative Literature" (PDF). Jadavpur University.
  21. ^ "किसकी वंदना है वंदे मातरम – Navbharat Times". Navbharat Times. 28 January 2012. Retrieved 11 February 2018.
  22. ISBN 9788183241595
    .
  23. ISBN 0-88706-298-9
  24. ^ Partha Chatterjee, "Chapter 3 The Moment of Departure: Culture and Power in the Thought of Bankimchandra" in National Thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse? (Delhi:Oxford University Press, 1986), 54-84.
  25. ^ Lemon, Mark; Mayhew, Henry; Taylor, Tom; Brooks, Shirley; Burnand, Sir Francis Cowley; Seaman, Sir Owen (1885). "London Charivari". Punch Publications Limited.

Further reading

External links

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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article "Chatterji, Bankim Chandra".
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