Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (Emperor of Literature)

(27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894)

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay also known as Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist who standardized and modernized the prose form of Bengali literature, both in fiction and non-fiction, and is known as sahitya samrat (emperor of literature) in Bengali. India's national song Vande Mataram, which had given rise to the concept of the nation as mother and inspired the Indian nation during its struggle for independence, was taken from his novel Anandamath.

Early Life

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay or Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was born on 27 June 1838 in the village Kanthalpara in the town of North 24 Parganas, Near Naihati, in an orthodox Bengali Brahmin family, the youngest of three brothers, to Yadav Chandra Chattopadhyaya and Durgadebi. His father, a government official, went on to become the Deputy Collector of Midnapur. One of his brothers, Sanjib Chandra Chattopadhyay was also a novelist and his known for his famous book “Palamau”.

Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was educated at the Hooghly Mohsin College and later at the Presidency College, graduating with a degree in Arts in 1858. He was one of the first two graduates of the University of Calcutta namely he and Jadunath Bose. He later obtained a degree in Law as well, in 1869.

He was appointed as a Deputy Collector, just like his father, of Jessore, Chattopadhyay went on to become a Deputy Magistrate, retiring from government service in 1891. His years at work were peppered with incidents that brought him into conflict with the ruling British. However, he was made a Companion, Order of the Indian Empire in 1894.

He was married when he was only eleven. At that time his wife was only five years old. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was only twenty two when his wife died. After some time he married again. His second wife was Rajlakshmi Devi. They had three daughters but no son.

Career

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee firstly started to publish his Novel in a newspaper and sell it weekly and later he started to write his own novels and publish it. He began his career as a writer.

As a writer, he had a great talent in him. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay started to write his Novel in the Bengali language. He tried to write many novels in English but his literacy in English was very poor so he decided to move his novel writing to Bengali only. His first Bengali novel was published in 1865.

He shot into the limelight with Durgeshnandini, his first Bengali romance, published in 1865. He then went on to write other famous novels like Kapalkundala in 1866, Mrinalini in 1869, Vishbriksha in 1873, Chandrasekhar in 1877, Rajani in 1877, Rajsimha in 1881 and Devi Chaudhurani in 1884. Although Bankim is known for all of his novels and essays but he is known for ‘Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss) the most as it was from this novel that Rabindranath Tagore took the song ‘Vande Mataram’ and converted into the national song of India.

Death

Superb story-teller, and a master of romance passed away on April 8, 1894. No Bengali writer before or since has enjoyed such spontaneous and universal popularity as Chatterjee. His novels have been translated in almost all the major languages of India.