![]() Two of Bibhutibhusan's lesser contemporaries were Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903-76) and Sailajananda Mukhopadhyaya (1900-1976). Although Sengupta was very prolific and popular, he did not always succeed artistically. His best works include Bede (The Gypsy, 1928) and Prachir O Prantar (The Wall and the Distance, 1932). He is well known for a host of short stories that he wrote over an extended writing career. Mukhopadhyaya's fame rests mainly on his sympathetic depiction of the life of the coal miners in the place he came from, Bardhaman District. His treatment is often realistic, and the stories tragic. His best-remembered works include two short story collections, Kaylakuthi (The Coal Miner's Office, 1930) and Din Majur (Day Laborer, 1932), and the novels Jhoro Haoa (Stormy Wind, 1923) and Solo Ana (Sixteen Annas, 1925). ![]() A contemporary of Manik Bandyopadhyaya was Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, who hailed from Birbhum district in West Bengal, and also used the familiar locale of his home as a setting for his stories. Like most Bengali fiction writers, Tarasankar wrote short stories as well as novels. His novels are marked with a remarkable clarity of expression, a keen sense of drama, and a heartfelt sympathy for rural folk. The last explains why the best of his stories and novels are set in village surroundings. His noted novels are Dhatri Debata (The Nursing Deity, 1939), Kalindi (1940), Ganadebata (Dieux Populi, 1942), and Hasuli Baker Upakatha (The Legend of the Hasuli Bend, 1947). Almost all of his novels have been turned into commercially successful films. His short story "Jalsaghar" (The Music Room, 1937), a touching tale of the last days of an impoverished aristocrat, was turned into an acclaimed film by Satyajit Ray. Narayan Gangopadhyaya (1918-70) was another noted fiction writer who emerged at around the same time as Tarasankar and Manik Bandyopadhyaya. Although he, too, started with rural life as his primary material, very soon he was dealing with life in metropolitan Kolkata. Two of his important novels, out of dozens, are Upanibes (The Colony, 1943) and Megher Upar Prasad (Castles upon Clouds, 1963). He also wrote several short stories and one-act plays for adults and children. Another major writer from this period is Narendranath Mitra (1916-75), whose works include Bini Sutor Mala (1962) and Andgata (1972), a collection of short stories. ![]() Rajsekhar Basu (1880-1960), mainly a philologist and a major translator of ancient literary masterpieces of India, is better known among Bengali readers as Parashuram, a pseudonym he used for his creative writing that was predominantly satirical. One of his well-known stories, Mahapurush, about an amateur sleuth who uncovers a holy man's fraud, was made into a short film by Satyajit Ray. Among his major translation works are the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, along with Kalidasa's famous Sanskrit poem Meghaduta into Bengali prose. Sibram Chakrabarti (1909-80) was one of the most popular humorists Bengali literature has known, along with Syed Mujtaba Ali (1904-74). The most dearly remembered humorist in Bengali literature, however, is Sukumar Ray (1887-1923), who is the progenitor of the nonsense-rhyme genre in Bengali. His famous book of nonsense poems, Abol-Tabol (Gibber-Gabber, 1923), continues to be one of the first books read to a Bengali child. Sukumar Ray also wrote several other humorous tales and plays and was the editor of Sandesh, a magazine for children founded by his father, Upendra Kishor Raychaudhuri (1863-1915). Sukumar Ray was the father of Satyajit Ray. Among the older writers, predominantly novelists and short story writers, who continue to write or have passed away only recently are Annadasakar Ray (1904), Jarasandha (1904), Jajabar (1909), Satinath Bhaduri (1906-65), Kamal Kumar Majumdar (1915-79), Bibhutibhusan Mukhopadhyaya (1896-1987), Prabodhkumar Sanyal (1907-83), Subodh Ghos (1909-80), Manoj Basu (1901-79), Gopal Haldar (1902-93), Saradindu Bandyopadhyaya (1899-1970), who is best known for his detective and semi-historical novels, Bimal Mitra (1912) Saktipada Rajguru, and Asutos Mukhopadhyaya (1920). Two other major novelists from this period are Dhurjatiprasad Mukhopadhyay (1894-1961) and Adwaita Mallabarman. Of the two, Mallabarman died prematurely but will be remembered for his singular work Titas Ekti Nadir Naam (Titas Is the Name of a River, 1962), brilliantly filmed in the early 1970s by Ritwik Ghatak. ![]() Among the women prose writers who have made a major contribution to the genre are Asapurna Debi (1909), Mahasweta Devi (1926), Maitreyi Debi (1914-88), and Lila Majumdar (1908). Ashapurna Devi is known for her remarkably perceptive and intimate study of the role of the woman in a patriarchal, middle-class milieu, best represented in her semiautobiographical trilogy, Pratham Pratisruti (The First Promise), Subarnalata, and Bakul Katha (Bakul's Story). Daughter of the Kallol generation writer Manis Ghatak Mahasweta Devi has contributed to Bengali prose writing with her extensive work on the sub-altern aboriginal peoples of Bengal and adjacent Bihar. Her noteworthy works in this area are Aranyer Adhikar (The Rights of the Forest, 1978) and Cotti Munda Ebang Tar Tir (Cotti Munda and His Arrows, 1981). She has also written extensively on the urban situation, best represented by Hajar Churasir Ma (Mother of 1084, 1986), which was also made into a play, and short stories like "Stanyaayini" (Breast-Giver, 1977) and "Rudali" (Weepers, 1980). Maitreyi Debi is best known for her semiautobiographical novel Na Hanyate (It Does Not Die, 1975) and her informative recollections on Tagore. Lila Majumdar has written extensively for children. Among other major women prose writers are Pratibha Basu, from the older generation, and Nabanita Deb-Sen, who is also a poet from the younger. Bengali prose literature has always boasted a high output in prose productions of all standards throughout the twentieth century. The legacy of Rabindranath Tagore, Sarat Chandra, Bibhutibhusan, and Manik Bandyopadhyaya has been carried forward bravely by forthcoming generations. |