Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay | |
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| Born | (1894-09-12)12 September 1894 Barakpur,Bengal Presidency,British India |
| Died | 1 November 1950(1950-11-01) (aged 56) |
| Occupation | Writer, novelist, songwriter |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Citizenship | India |
| Alma mater | Surendranath College |
| Notable works | |
| Notable awards | Rabindra Puraskar (posthumous) (1951) |
| Spouse |
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| Children | Taradas Bandyopadhyay |
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| Website | |
| bibhutibhushan | |
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (listenⓘ; 12 September 1894 – 1 November 1950)[1] was an Indian novelist and short story writer in theBengali language.[2][3][4] His best known works are the autobiographical novelPather Panchali (Song of the Little Road),Aparajito (Undefeated),Chander Pahar (Mountain of the Moon) andAranyak (of the forest).
The Bandyopadhyay family originated in the Panitar village nearBasirhat, located in theNorth 24 Parganas district of modern-dayWest Bengal. Bandyopadhyay's great-grandfather, who was anAyurvedic physician, eventually settled in Barrackpore village, nearGopalnagar,Banagram (now Bangaon), North 24 Parganas.[5] However, Bandyopadhyay was born in Muratipur village, nearKalyani inNadia, at his maternal uncle's house. His father, Mahananda Bandyopadhyay, was aSanskrit scholar and story-teller by profession. Bandyopadhyay was the eldest of the five children of Mahananda and his wife Mrinalini. His childhood home was at Barrackpore village, nearGopalnagar,Banagram (now Bangaon), North 24 Parganas. ofWest Bengal.
From the fifth grade, Bandyopadhyay studied atBongaon High School, one of the oldest institutions inBritish India, and was considered as a talented student. Following a first division placement in the Entrance and Intermediate Arts examinations, Bandyopadhyay completed his undergraduate degree in economics, history, andsanskrit at theSurendranath College (then Ripon College) inKolkata. He was admitted to themaster's degree (MA) and Law classes, but could not afford to enroll for the postgraduate course at theUniversity of Calcutta, and joined as a teacher in a school inJangipara,Jangipara D N High School,Hooghly.[6][7]
Bandyopadhyay worked in a variety of jobs to support both himself and his family before becoming a writer. His first job was as a teacher, but he also served as a travelling publicist forGoraksini Sabha, and later as a secretary forKhelatchandra Ghosh, a role that included the management of hisBhagalpur estate. He became involved with Khelatchandra, a prominent name in music and charity, while tutoring his family. He also taught at the Khelatchandra Memorial School.[6] Eventually, Bandyopadhyay returned to his native place. He started working as a teacher in the Gopalnagar Haripada Institution, which he continued alongside his literary work, until his death. He wrote and publishedPather Panchali while staying atGhatshila, a town inJharkhand.[8]
Bandyopadhyay's works are largely set in rural Bengal, with characters from that area. Several of his novels are set inBongaon, includingPather Panchali,Adarsha Hindu Hotel,Ichamati, andBipiner Sansar while hisAranyak is set in a forest in Bhagalpur.[9] In 1921, Bandyopadhyay's first published short story, "Upekshita" appeared inPrabasi, at the time one of Bengal's leading literary magazines. However, he did not receive any critical attention until 1928, when his first novelPather Panchali (also known in English asSong of the Little Road) was published (initially as a serial, then as a book in 1929).Pather Panchali brought Bandyopadhyay to prominence in Bengali literature, and the novel and its sequelAparajito, were subsequently translated into numerous languages.[6] Additionally, these two were made into films bySatyajit Ray, and together withApur Sansar, formed the highly successfulApu Trilogy.[citation needed] Ray referred aspiring scriptwriters to the works of Bandyopadhyay, and praised him by saying, "His lines fit the characters so well, they are so revealing that even when the author provides no physical description, every character seems to present itself before us simply through the words it speaks".[citation needed] His creationTaranath Tantrik was popular for the Bengali reader and the series was extended by his son Taradas.[10]
Amit Chaudhuri has translated a few excerpts from the novel for inclusion in the anthology,The Picador Book of Modern Indian Literature. In his introduction to these excerpts, Chaudhuri wrote, "Unique for its tenderness and poetry ...Pather Panchali rejects both nineteenth-centuryrealism andsocial realism (the social milieu described in it would have logically lent itself to the latter) for an inquiry into perception and memory."[11] The complete text ofAparajito has been translated into English by Gopa Majumdar. The novelAranyak has been translated into English in January 2017 by Suchismita Banerjee Rai, and it has been published by Mitra and Ghosh Publishers based inKolkata. His novelsAshani Sanket andIchhamati have been translated into English respectively asDistant Thunder andIchhamoti by Chhanda Chattopadhyay Bewtra and published by Parabaas.
Martin Seymour-Smith, in hisGuide to Modern World Literature (1973), describes Bandyopadhyay (he uses the form Banerji) as "perhaps the best of all modern Indian novelists", going on to write that, "probably nothing in twentieth-century Indian literature, in prose or poetry, comes to the level ofPather Panchali".[12] He was posthumously awarded theRabindra Puraskar in 1951, a literary award inWest Bengal, for his novelIchhamati.[6]
Bandopadhyay died on 1 November 1950, inGhatshila. The cause of death was identified as aheart attack.[13] His house in Ghatshila, named Gouri Kunj[14] after his wife has been preserved by theGovernment of Jharkhand.[15]
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