Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay
1838–1894
Biography
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838–1894) was a Bengali novelist, poet, essayist and journalist of the nineteenth century, and he is generally regarded as the first modern Bengali novelist. Most of his working life was spent as a government official under British rule. He also founded and edited Bangadarshan, an early Bengali literary magazine that helped shape the prose of modern Bengali. Readers still call him the emperor of Bengali literature.
His novels were among the first in Bengali to combine a romantic plot, history and moral argument on a large scale. Anandamath (1882) is the best known. It tells of an order of ascetic rebels who take up arms against foreign rule, and its hymn Vande Mataram was recognised by the Indian National Congress in 1937 as a national song and remains one of the most famous patriotic songs in India. He also wrote essays and commentaries on religion and literature, which made him a major figure beyond fiction.
Three of his works are on this site: আনন্দমঠ (Anandamath), দেবী চৌধুরাণী (Devi Chaudhurani) and ইন্দিরা (Indira). Anandamath is the one most readers meet first, with its rebels and its song. Devi Chaudhurani follows a woman who takes on the role of an outlaw leader to right wrongs, and Indira is a shorter work. Between them they show how Bankim combined adventure, patriotism and social concern in the Bengali novel.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
আনন্দমঠ
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
Bengal in the famine of 1770, when the Company's tax-collectors and a failing Nawab leave the villages to starve. Bankim's best-known novel follows Mahendra, who loses his home and family on the road, and the order of warrior-monks, the Santans, who vow their lives to the…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.ইন্দিরা
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
Indira, a young wife who has been long away at her father's house, is on her way to her husband's village when she is carried off by robbers. She tells the story herself, in a quick, teasing voice, and Bankim's short novel of 1873 is closer to a tale of adventure and lively wit…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.কপালকুণ্ডলা
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
Wrecked on the Bengal coast, a young pilgrim is saved by Kapalkundala, a girl raised by a Kapalika ascetic in the forests by the sea, and takes her home as his wife. Bankim's first great romance follows what becomes of a child of the wilderness among the rules of village life…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.দেবী চৌধুরাণী
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
Prafulla, a village girl turned out by her husband's family, is taken in by a master of the forest bands who trains her in learning and in command. Bankim's 1884 novel follows her rise to the bandit queen Devi Chaudhurani on the rivers of northern Bengal under the Company, and…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.মুচিরাম গুড়ের জীবনচরিত
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
The life of Muchiram Gur, a poor man's son of no talent who rises into the service of the government by flattery and luck, told as a mock biography. Bankim's short satire of 1884 is aimed at the new Bengali official class and its habit of climbing on those above.
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.মৃণালিনী
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
At the end of the twelfth century a young prince, Hemachandra, goes to Nabadwip in search of his lost love Mrinalini while the Turkish raiders of Bakhtiyar Khilji gather beyond Bengal's borders. Bankim's 1869 historical romance sets a lovers' search against the legend of the…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.রজনী
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
Rajani, a blind girl who sells flowers in Calcutta, tells her own story, and the other people in it, among them the young man she loves, each take up the narration in turn. Bankim's 1877 novel is told in several voices and is among the first Bengali books to look at love from a…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.রাজসিংহ
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
A Rajput princess of Roopnagar, a small hill state, refuses the Emperor Aurangzeb's offer of marriage, and the Rana of Mewar is asked to protect her. First published in 1882 and enlarged in 1893, this is the book Bankim himself called his only true historical novel, a war story…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.সীতারাম
by বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায়
In the seventeenth century a Bengali landowner, Sitaram Ray, gathers a following in the marshes of the south and declares a small kingdom in defiance of the Mughal governor. Bankim's 1887 novel follows his ambition, his two wives, and the faith of a woman who has left the world.…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.