Dineshchandra Sen (1866-1939), the scholar extraordinary, was welcomed in the arena of Bengali authordom by such literary giants as Rabindranath Tagore, Ramendrasundar Trivedi, Haraprasad Sastri, Hirendranath Datta, Nagendranath Basu and Ramananda Chatterjee immediately after the publica- tion of the first part of his Bangabhasha O Sahitya (Bengali Language and Literature). Tagore, who reviewed the book in Banga- darsan, observed: we have seen in this book of Dinesh Babu a gigantic semblance of the Great Tree of History of Bengal with its multifarious branches and ramifications ...History has lived again in its pages'.
Perhaps this book alone was enough to give Dineshchandra literary immortality. But, after a brief interlude of writing a series of prose narrative retelling famous mythological stories of hoary past, Dineshchandra took another plunge into the rare- fied field of painstaking research leading to the discovery of a number of delectable East Bengal ballads. This work also received unreserved praise from both the East and the West. Such outstanding writers and savants as Romain Rolland, Dr Sylvain Levi and Dr Dusan Zbavitel paid their highest compliments to Dineshchandra for these hitherto obscure ballads.
Narayan Chaudhuri, a renowned Bengali scholar and critic, seeks to trace the growth of the literary career of this fine scholar as wellas to evaluate his outstanding contribution to Bengali literature-all in the brief compass of this monograph. The book may Inspire the literary historians and researchers of today and tomorrow during their hard days of unremitting toil.
DINESHCHANDRA SEN (1866-1939) will be remembered by his countrymen for his many-sided contributions to the domain of Bengali letters but he will be chiefly remembered as the first major writer who compiled the history of the Bengali language and literature from its carliest written records till then available to the present times, that is, upto the advent of the Britishers in India, in a strictly chronological order and more or less comprehensive manner. It is not that he was first in the field to have attempted such a task; he had quite a number of predecessors in this particular type of work who set the stage ready for his entry therein. Among them mention may be made of Iswarchandra Gupta, Rajendralal Mitra, Harishchandra Mitra, Harimohan Mukherjee, Mahendranath Chatterjee, Gangacharan Sarkar, Rajnarain Basu, Ramgati Nyayaratna, Bankimchandra Chatterjee and lastly, Ramesh- chandra Datta. Iswarchandra Gupta, renowned poet and editor, in the pages of his journal Sambad-Prabhakar chronicled the lives and careers of a large number of bards and poetasters who were rather slightingly called kaviwallahs in the then decadent conditions of Bengali society but nevertheless a force to reckon with in the areas of popular folk entertainment, in a systematic way as far as practicable; whereas Ramgati Nyayaratna deserved special note due to the fact that his Bangla Bhasha O Sahityabishayak Prastab (A Dissertation Concerning Bengali Language and Literature), though brief and incomplete in its treatment, was the first serious effort to construct a coherent account of the subject on the basis of facts and data SO far discovered. Bankimchandra and Rameshchandra also wrote on the subject but their writings, though valuable, were in English and hence could not reach a wider reading public interested in tracing the growth and development of the Bengali language and literature from its genesis to date.
For privacy concerns, please view our Privacy Policy
Send as free online greeting card
Email a Friend
Manage Wishlist