Baidyonath Bhattacharya (23 November 1907 – 15 August 1978) popularly known as Bani Kumar was a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

broadcaster,

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

, radio script writer from

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

and a contemporary of Pankaj Mallick and

Birendra Krishna Bhadra Birendra Krishna Bhadra (1905–1991) was a radio broadcaster, playwright, actor, narrator and theatre director from Kolkata, India and a contemporary of Pankaj Mallick and Kazi Nazrul Islam. He worked for the All India Radio, India's Nation ...

. He worked for the

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

, India's National Radio broadcaster for several years during its early, starting 1930s, and during this period he produced and adapted several plays songs etc. He is most known for his script writing and composition of India's oldest radio programme, '' Mahishashura Mardini'' (1931), a collection of

shloka Shloka or śloka ( sa, श्लोक , from the root , Macdonell, Arthur A., ''A Sanskrit Grammar for Students'', Appendix II, p. 232 (Oxford University Press, 3rd edition, 1927). in a broader sense, according to Monier-Williams's dictionary, is ...

s and songs broadcast by

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

(now Kolkata) at 4:00 am, in the dawn of

Mahalaya Mahalaya is the last day of offering tribute to our departed forefathers, i. e pitripaksha and the beginning of the devipaksha. At the time of the cataclysm, when the earth became a great cause-sea, Lord Vishnu laid Anantanag on that sea and fell ...

Early life

Bani Kumar's original name is Baidyanath Bhattacharya. He was born on November 26, 1907 in Kanpur village of

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

. His father, Bidhu Bhushan Bhattacharya was a

sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

scholar and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

and mother Aparna Bhattacharya. Bani Kumar was the eldest son of their two sons and two daughters. Their ancestral house was at

Antpur Antpur is a village in the Jangipara community development block of the Srirampore subdivision in the Hooghly District in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is around 20 km from Tarakeswar. Haripal is nearest railway station from Antpur. ...

Hooghly district Hooghly district () is one of the districts of the Indian state of West Bengal. It can alternatively be spelt ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli''. The district is named after the Hooghly River. The headquarters of the district are at Hooghly-Chinsura (''C ...

Academic life

Bani Kumar received his primary education at Howrah District School. There he concentrated on poetry with the influence of a teacher and poet Karunanidhan Bandyopadhyay. He then graduated in English from Presidency College. His father and grandfather had a knowledge of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

, so he studied Sanskrit and got the title ''Kābya Sarasbatī''.

Career

He could not afford to study under the stress of the domestic life, he started working in the mint. He left the job and joined the radio station when the Calcutta Radio Station was established at 1 No. Garstin Place in the year 1927. At that time

Raichand Boral Rai Chand Boral (19 October 1903 – 25 November 1981) was an Indian composer, considered by music connoisseurs to be the Bhishma Pitamah, the father of film music in India. He was awarded the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest award in India ...

, Pankaj Mallick,

and other artists joined there in the interest of Nripendranath Majumdar, the officer in charge of the Indian ceremonial division of the radio station. Baidyanath joined as a writer staff artist and began his radio career under the name of ''Bani Kumar''. He is best known as the creator and compositor of the

Mahisasuramardini Durga ( sa, दुर्गा, ) is a major Hindu goddess, worshipped as a principal aspect of the mother goddess Mahadevi. She is associated with protection, strength, motherhood, destruction, and wars. Durga's legend centres around comb ...

radio program.

References

{{authority control 1907 births 1978 deaths Male actors from Kolkata University of Calcutta alumni Indian male radio actors Indian male dramatists and playwrights All India Radio people 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Dramatists and playwrights from West Bengal Writers from Kolkata 20th-century Indian male writers