Rangalal Bandyopadhyay (Bengali: রঙ্গলাল বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়) (Born 21 December 1827 – died 13 May 1887) was a Bengali poet, journalist, and author.Rangalal Bandyopadhyay

Banglapedia ''Banglapedia:'' ''the'' ''National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh'' is the first Bangladeshi encyclopedia. It is available in print, CD-ROM format and online, in both Bengali and English. The print version comprises fourteen 500-page volumes. The f ...

,Rangalal Bandyopadhyay National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh

Early life

In 1827 Bandyopadhyay was born at Bakulia village, Hooghly district in the Indian state of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

at his maternal grandfather's house. His original home was at Rameswarpur village situated near

Guptipara Guptipara is a census town in Balagarh, a community development block that forms an administrative division in the Sadar subdivision of the Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Geography Guptipara sits beside the Hooghly Ri ...

of Hooghly,

. He lost his father when just a child. After studying at a local school at Bakulia and missionary school, he entered to

Hooghly Mohsin College Hooghly Mohsin College (HMC) began on 1 August 1836 as the New Hooghly College. It was established by Muhammad Mohsin, who also started other colleges. On its 100th anniversary it was renamed Hooghly Mohsin College. It became affiliated to Unive ...

. He was fluent in Bangla, English, and

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 ...

as well as Oriya.

Career life

Bandyopadhyay's poems were first published in '' Sangbad Prabhakar'', the magazine of

Ishwar Chandra Gupta Ishwar Chandra Gupta ( bn, ঈশ্বরচন্দ্র গুপ্ত; 6 March 1812 – 23 January 1859) was a famous Indian Bengali poet and writer. Gupta was born in Kanchrapara, in Bengal. Early life Ishwar Chandra Gupta was born in ...

. He served as editor in both the monthly ''Sangbad Sagar'' in 1852 and the weekly ''Bartavaha'' published in 1856. In 1855 Bandyopadhyay was appointed Assistant Editor of the newly published Education Gazette in which both his prose writings as well as poems were published. For some time in 1860 he taught Bangla Literature at

Presidency College Calcutta Presidency University, Kolkata (formerly known as Presidency College, Kolkata) is a second major public state aided research university located in College Street, Kolkata. Considered as one of best colleges when Presidency College was affili ...

. He joined government service and served variously as

Income Tax An income tax is a tax imposed on individuals or entities (taxpayers) in respect of the income or profits earned by them (commonly called taxable income). Income tax generally is computed as the product of a tax rate times the taxable income. Tax ...

Assessor, Deputy Collector and Deputy Magistrate.

Bibliography

Bandyopadhyay's first, and perhaps most important,

literary Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...

achievement is ''Padmini Upakhyan'' (1858), a historical romance of Rajput

Rani Padmini Padmini, also known as Padmavati, was a 13th–14th century Rani (queen) of the Mewar kingdom of present-day India. Several medieval texts mention her, although these versions are disparate and many modern historians question the extent of o ...

based on Todd's Annals and Antiquities of

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

. It is known as the first

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

narrative romance published just after the

Revolt of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

. In this work, a Charan of Rajputana recounts the story of the sacrificial death of Padmini while showing the site of her

jauhar Jauhar, sometimes spelled Jowhar or Juhar, was a Hindu practice of mass self-immolation by women, in the Indian subcontinent, to avoid capture, enslavement and rape by an invading army, when facing certain defeat during a war. Some reports of ...

. His important poetical works include ''Karmadevi'' (1862), ''Shurasundari'' (1868) and ''Kanchi Kaveri'' (1879), recreated from the same name in odia of poet

Purushottama Dasa Purushottama Dasa (alternatively spelled ''Purushottam Das''; ; ) was a sixteenth century Odia poet and devotee of lord Jagannath. He was very popular for his poem "Kanchi Kaveri", based on a real historical incident. Life & work Purushottam D ...

. In 1872 he rendered Kalidas's ''Ritusanghar'' and ''Kumarsambhav'' into verse. His Nitikusumanjali is another poetical translation of

poems. His Kalikata Kalpalata is considered to be the first historical work about

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 ...

. In 1882 he edited and published Mukundaram's Kavikankan Chandi. The other important books of this poem, which are varied in various fields of Bengali literature, are: *''Padmini Upakhyan'' (1858) *''Karmadevi'' (1862) *''Shurasundari'' (1868) *''Kanchi Kaveri'' (1879) *''Bhek-Musiker Yuddha'' (1858) *''Nitikusumanjali'' (1872) *''Kavikankan Chandi'' (1882)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bandyopadhyay, Rangalal 1827 births 1887 deaths Bengali writers Bengali-language writers Hooghly Mohsin College alumni Writers from Kolkata People from Hooghly district