Nabinchandra Sen (; 10 February 1847 – 23 January 1909) was a Bengali poet and writer, often considered one of the greatest poets prior to the arrival of Rabindranath Tagore. He commented on the battle of Plassey and the arrival of British Rule in India as "A night of Eternal Gloom".

Life

Nabinchandra was born in Noapara,

Raozan Upazila Raozan Upazila () is an upazila of Chattogram District, in Chattogram Division, Bangladesh. It was established in August,1947. Geography Raozan has 63,375 households and a total area of 246.58 km2. The two main rivers are Karnaphuli River ...

Chittagong Chittagong ( ), officially Chattogram, (, ) (, or ) is the second-largest city in Bangladesh. Home to the Port of Chittagong, it is the busiest port in Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. The city is also the business capital of Bangladesh. It ...

on 10 February 1847 in a Baidya family. He studied at the Chittagong Collegiate School, clearing the school leaving Entrance examination in 1863, In 1865, he passed the FA exam from Presidency College, Calcutta. In 1868, he earned his BA from General Assembly's Institution (now

Scottish Church College Scottish Church College is a college affiliated by Calcutta University, India. It offers selective co-educational undergraduate and postgraduate studies and is the oldest continuously running Christian liberal arts and sciences college in Asia. ...

), and after teaching for a brief period at Hare School, he joined the colonial administrative services as a Deputy Magistrate. Sen retired in 1904, and died on 23 January 1909. He has been considered one of Bengal's greatest writers and poets.

Works

Sen's earliest poems were published in the ''Education Gazette'' edited by Peary Charan Sarker, and his first volume of poetry, ''Abakash Ranjani'', was published in 1871. A second volume of ''Abakash Ranjani'' was published in 1877. ''Palashir Juddha'' (1875), a long epic poem lamenting the betrayal of

Siraj ud-Daulah Mir Syed Jafar Ali Khan Mirza Muhammad Siraj-ud-Daulah (1733 – 2 July 1757), commonly known as Siraj-ud-Daulah or Siraj ud-Daula, was the last independent Nawab of the Bengal Subah. The end of his reign marked the start of the rule of th ...

by his followers and his defeat at the Battle of Plassey, was an evocative expression of Bengali nationalism in literature, and it established his reputation as a powerful Bengali poet. A contemporary to Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Nabichandra is also known for popularizing the epic narrative in the Bengali language through his reinterpretations of the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

in a three-volume epic:''Raivatak'' (1887), ''Kuruksetra'' (1893) and ''Prabhas'' (1896), where Krishna serves as the protagonist and adventurer during the fall of kingdoms. He wrote biographies of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha (),* * * was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist legends, he was ...

, and

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

in the Bengali language, and made verse translations of the

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

and the

Markandeya Purana The ''Markandeya Purana'' (; IAST: ) is a Sanskrit text of Hinduism, and one of the eighteen major Puranas. The text's title Markandeya refers to a sage in Sanatana Dharma, who is the central character in two legends, one linked to Shiva and oth ...

. Nabindrachandra's ''Bhanumati'' (a novel-in-verse) and "Prabaser Patra" (a memoir of his travels) also brought him fame. His five-volume autobiography, ''Amar Jiban'' (My Life), is an important document chronicling the politics and social aspirations of the Bengali literati in the late nineteenth century.

Bibliography

Epics

His epic trilogy was based on New Mahabharata. * ''Raivatak'' * ''Kurukkhetra'' * ''Provash''

Poetry

* ''Abakash Ranjani'' (1871) * ''Palashir Juddha'' (1875)

Biographies

* ''Amitabha'' (biography of the

) * ''Khrishta'ra Jibani'' (biography of

Jesus Christ Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

) * ''Cleopatra'' (biography of Cleopatra)

Autobiography

* ''Probasher Potro'' * ''Amar Jiban'', in 5 volumes

Poetic translations

* ''Geeta'' * ''Chandi''

Poetic novel

* ''Bhanumoti''

References

External links

*
Sen, Nabin Chandra
at the West Bengal Public Library Network {{DEFAULTSORT:Sen, Nabinchandra Bengali male poets Bengali-language poets People from Chittagong District Bengali writers 1847 births 1909 deaths Scottish Church College alumni University of Calcutta alumni People from Chittagong 19th-century poets Writers from Kolkata Writers from British India People from the Bengal Presidency