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10 William College. This group includes Ramram Basu (1757?-1813), Chandicharan Munshi (1760?-1808), William Carey (1761-1834), Mrityunjay Vidyalankar (1762?- 1819), Golaknath Sharma (?-1803), Tarinicharan Mitra (1772?-1837?), Rajiblochan Mukhopadhyay, Haraprasad Roy, Kashinath Tarkapanchanan (?-1851) and so on. Among them, perhaps, Carey contributed most, because he founded the Fort William College and patronized its pundits. The age began in 1801 with the publication of Ramram Basu’s Raja Pratapaditya Charitra – the first ever prose book in Bangla. Rammohun Roy (1774?-1833) remarkably bore their inheritance. He was a social reformer and founder of the Brahmo Samaj, and was also engaged in a longlasting debate with the Fort William College scholars on primitive religious and social norms. He expressed his reformist thoughts in miscellaneous languages – Persian, Arabic, English, Bangla etc. His Bangla works include translations from Vedanta. Among other mapmakers of prose, Bhabanicharan Bandyopadhyay (1787-1848) drew satirical social sketches. And Hanna Katherine Mullence wrote the story Fulmoni O Korunar Biboron (1852) based on a Christian theme. The radical philosopher and educationist Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809- ’31) made the pioneering role in that historical era. He was a storm-petrel in our cultural life. As an ideal educator, he procreated an advanced generation. He was the proponent of the Enlightenment values like bourgeois humanism, secularism and nationalism in our country. He was a conveyor of the Romantic spirit that had turned upside down the English culture in the early 19 th century. Derozio made Thomas Paine’s (1737-1809) The Rights of Man and The Age of Reason popular with his pupils, who eventually became a new vibrant generation of free thinkers. He taught them to judge everything on the scale of reason derived from conscience, not necessarily as he or other superiors instructed. In fact it was not Derozio’s own philosophy but Reason that reigned over the period. His influence is evident on many of his contemporary litterateurs especially who graduated from the Hindu College. Vidyasagar was influenced by his rational and secular ideas, and Bankim took his nationalistic zeal. In fact it was Derozio’s rationalistic teaching that gave birth to an epoch that bore reason in its prose writings. He took the consciousness of scholastic level to its maturity. Rammohun was an iconoclast – a rebel within the halo of religion; he did not try to exceed it. He rebelled against the shape and nature of Hinduism, not against the concept of religion itself. It was Derozio whose scientific teaching on rational ethics brought about the most alarming changes in those days’ Bengali life. He, along with his students, made effective role against widow-burning, polygamy, childmarriage and orthodox Hinduism, and spoke in favor of remarriage of widows and also for women’s education and freedom. He was accused of being the main contributor to Bengali youths’ inclination to drinking; his newly found work titled On Drunkenness gives testimony to his favor of wine-addiction. Such activities of Derozio made a deep impact on those days’ Bengali psyche. Derozio’s most famed disciples and pupils, who were known as the Young Bengal, first appeared in the field of literature through Enquirer and Gananwesan, two famous literary journals of the age. At least three Bengali writers – Dakshinaranjan Mukhopadhyay (1812-’87), Krishnamohan Bandyopadhyay (1813-
11 ’85) and Piarichand Mitra (1814-’83, whose pseudonym was Tekchand Thakur), were Derozio’s pupils. The first two of them compiled encyclopedia. Another leader of the era was Iswarchandra Vidyasagar (1820-’91). He too was an educationist and used his pen mainly for scholastic purpose. But his literary endeavor is also evident in his works. He pioneered the creed of the era for shaping Bangla prose and can be acclaimed the founder of its first standard form. Vidyasagar fulfilled Derozio’s unaccomplished dream through his movement for widow-marriage and women’s education. His Shakuntala (1854) and Sitar Banabas (1860) have even some features of fictional work. The attempt of the Fort William College scholars of creating Bangla prose finally achieved the goal through him. And following his path, many other educated persons joined the mission of advancing Bangla prose. Among them, Kaliprasanna Simha (1840-’70) made a huge prose translation of Mahabharata. Akshaykumar Datta (1820-’86) is another unforgettable name. Inspired by late Derozio’s secular outlook, he was one of the chief propagandists of materialism. His Bharatbarshiya Upashak Sampraday (1870,’83) is an essay full of information about the Hindu sects. But poetic achievement of the phase is not very affluent. Ramnidhi Gupta (1741-1839) composed secular love songs called Tappa. And Iswarchandra Gupta (1811-’59) composed satirical poems. Outside the urban mainstream, mystic Baul song was developed in the countryside by Fakir Lalan Shah (1774?-1890). His songs are exuberant in inner depth and remind us of the great mystic poets of medieval Persia. He was influenced mainly by Sufi and Sahajiya philosophies. Although he composed his songs with medieval style, history aligns him with the artists of the early modern era. The Heroic Age (1858-’90) The failed independence war of 1857-59 (which was called ‘Sepoy Mutiny’ by the British rulers) created nationalistic fervor all over India. A new search for national identity was seen in the educated class of a new generation. Also the radical movement of the early modern era changed into reactionary views in the late 19 th century. The secular radicalism propagated by the Derozians gave birth to a counter-reformation, the introducer of which trend was Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay (1838-’94) and which found its culmination in the Hindu revival finally mapped by Vivekananda. Moreover, extremely modern views on social norms were replaced by conservative and rigid outlooks. Rigorousness on moral codes and stiff social values were restored in a large measure; the age saw a rebirth of religiosity. Bygone attitudes concerning love and sexual relationships came back. In Bangla literature, it was an era of rise of heroic passion and of a resurrection of religious beliefs and theocratic nationalism. Bankim and other writers made new explanations of Hindu scriptures. They emphasized religious values and identity and ignored the Derozean ideal of secularism. Above all, idealism was
Page 1 and 2: Bangla Literature: A Critical Overv
Page 3 and 4: 3 By that time, Buddhism was in the
Page 5 and 6: 5 not flourish here. Krittibas’s
Page 7 and 8: 7 Chaitanya’s era as the mystic f
Page 9: 9 slowly merging. Even after the Ba
Page 13 and 14: 13 were two late representatives of
Page 15 and 16: 15 Panju Shah (1851?-1914) and Haso
Page 17 and 18: 17 Panchagram (1943), Hashuli Banke
Page 19 and 20: 19 Also a new trend of historical n
Page 21 and 22: 21 3 Great Bengali Writers Jayadeva
Page 23 and 24: 23 lovers’ pains. According to hi
Page 25 and 26: 25 This poem is a reflection of the
Page 27 and 28: 27 Michael’s epic has a prehistor
Page 29 and 30: 29 lovers. And at the end of the no
Page 31 and 32: 31 An intense ray is dispersed into
Page 33 and 34: 33 Shey.(S/he) is a novel out of th
Page 35 and 36: 35 Tasher Desh (The Play-Cards’ L
Page 37 and 38: 37 autobiographical novel. It is a
Page 39 and 40: 39 fighter and eventually a martyr
Page 41 and 42: 41 He died a premature death out of
Page 43 and 44: 43 the tiresome journey of Man is n
Page 45 and 46: 45 Giving the child a farewell kiss
Page 47 and 48: 47 Sunil’s poems are a unique pla
Page 49 and 50: 49 Akhtaruzzaman Elias (1943-’97)
Page 51 and 52: 51 He warns mankind of a possible f
Page 53 and 54: 53 • A writer who wrote in two li

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