With the chime of ‘Vande Mataram’ in the air, remembering Rishi Bankim. Searched for the engraving by Babu Ramchandra Das showing the only image of Rishi Bankim Chatterjee without his head gear. I think it appeared in the Journal ‘Bharati' , Bengali date 1317. With his stock white hair, Javed Akhtar came close to him in looks. Alas could not trace it.
Rishi Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay was a famous,Bengali Journalist,Writer and Poet He is famous for India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Freedom Movement. The song first appeared in Anandamath (The Abbey of Bliss, 1882), is a political novel which depicts a Sannyasi (Hindu ascetic) army fighting the soldiers of the Muslim Nawab of Murshidabad. The song Vande Mataram (I worship my Motherland for she truly is my mother) was set to music by Rabindranath Tagore,and was taken up by many Indian nationalists, and is now the National Song of India. The novel first appeared in serial form in Bangadarshan, the literary magazine that Bankim founded in 1872.
When Bipin Chandra Pal decided to start a patriotic journal in August 1906, he named it Vande Mataram, after Bankim Chandra's song. Lala Lajpat Rai also published a journal of the same name.
Bankim Chandra is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as India. He is still held to be one of the timeless and brightest figures of not only Bengal, but also of the entire literati of India. Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, were a breakaway from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India.
Bankim Chandra was born in the village Kanthalpara in the district of Naihati,in an orthodox Bengali Brahmin family, the youngest of three brothers, to Yadav (or Jadab) Chandra Chattopadhyaya and Durgadebi. His family was orthodox, and his father, a government official who went on to become the Deputy Collector of Midnapur. One of his brothers, Sanjeeb Chandra Chattopadhyay, was also a novelist and his known for his famous book "Palamau".
He was educated at the Mohsin College in Hugli-Chinsura and later at the Presidency College, graduating with a degree in Arts in 1857. He was one of the first two graduates of the University of Calcutta . He later obtained a degree in Law as well, in 1869.
Very few know that he was appointed as Deputy Collector of Jessore, just like his father. 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 at a very young of age of eleven, he had a son from his first wife, she died in 1859. He later married Rajalakshmi Devi. They had three daughters.
Bankim Chandra, following the model of Ishwarchandra Gupta, began his literary career as a writer of verse. His majestic talents showed him other directions, and turned to fiction. His first attempt was a novel in Bengali submitted for a declared prize. He did not win the prize, and the novelette was never published. His first fiction to appear in print was Rajmohan's Wife. It was written in English and was probably a translation of the novelette submitted for the prize.Durgeshnondini, his first Bengali romance and the first ever novel in Bengali, was published in 1865.
Kapalkundala (1866) is Chattopadhyay's first major publication. Set in Dariapur in Contai Subdivision as the background of this famous novel.His next romance, Mrinalini (1869), marks his first attempt to set his story against a larger historical context. This book marks the shift from Chattopadhyay's early career, in which he was strictly a writer of romances, to a later period in which he aimed to stimulate the intellect of the Bengali speaking people and bring about a cultural renaissance of Bengali literature. He started publishing a monthly literary magazine Bangadarshan in April 1892, the first edition of which was filled almost entirely with his own work. The magazine carried serialized novels, stories, humorous sketches, historical and miscellaneous essays, informative articles, religious discourses, literary criticisms and reviews. Vishabriksha (The Poison Tree, 1873) is the first novel of Bankim Chandra that appeared serially in Bangodarshan.Bangodarshan went out of circulation after 4 years. It was later revived by his brother, Sanjeeb Chandra Chattopadhyay.
Bankim Chandra's next major novel was Chandrasekhar (1877), which contains two largely unrelated parallel plots. Although the scene is once shifted back to eighteenth century, the novel is not historical. His next novel was Rajani (1877), which features an autobiographical plot, with a blind girl in the title role.In Krishnakanter Will (Krishnakanta's Will, 1878) Chattopadhyay produced a complex plot.It was a brilliant depiction of the contemporary India, lifestyle and corruption.
One of the many novels of Bankim Chandra that are entitled to be termed as historical fiction is Rajsimha (1881, rewritten and enlarged 1893). Bankim Chandra's next novel, Devi Chaudhurani, was published in 1884. His final novel, Sitaram (1886), tells the story of a local Hindu lord, torn between his wife and the woman he desires but unable to attain, makes a series of blunders and takes arrogant, self-destructive decisions. Finally, he must confront his self and motivate the few loyal soldiers that stand between his estate and the Muslim Nabab's army about to take over.Bankim Chandra's humorous sketches are his best known works other than his novels. Kamalakanter Daptar (From the Desk of Kamalakanta, 1875; enlarged as Kamalakanta, 1885) contains half humorous and half serious sketches.
Vande Mataram.