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.
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