Wednesday, 10 December 2014

Short biography of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay


Saratchandra Chattopadhyay was born on September 15, 1876 in the village of Devanandpur in Hooghly district in the Indian state of West Bengal. Born in an extremely deprived and poor family, he and his family members were financially supported by other members.

His father was Motilal Chattopadhyay and mother was Bhubanmohini. Saratchandra spent most of his childhood with his mother at her family's home in Bhagalpur, Bihar. He started his education at "Pyari Pandit"s" pathshala and then he took admission at Hooghly Branch High School. Although he began as a fine arts student, Chattopadhyay left his studies due to his persistent state of poverty.

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay  is one of the most popular Bengali novelists and short story writers of early 20th century. He spent 20 years of his life in Bhagalpur and a significant portion of his novels were either written in Bhagalpur or based on his experience in Bhagalpur.

At the age of 27 he went to Burma and found a job as a clerk in a government office at Rangoon. He left Rangoon in 1916 and settled, first at Baje Shibpur, Howrah, near Kolkata. But before his departure from Burma  he submitted a short story for a prize competition under his uncle's name, Surendranath Ganguli. It won first prize in 1904.



He has been an extremely popular author ever since. Among his novels are Devdas (written in 1901 but published in 1917),Parineeta (1914), Biraj Bou (1914), Palli-Samaj (1916), Srikanta (in four parts; 1917, 1918, 1927, 1933), Charitraheen (1917), Grihadaha (1919),Pather-Dabi (1926), Shesh Prashno (1931), Bipradas (1935). Saratchandra's works have been repeatedly translated into many Indian languages. Many of these have also been successfully dramatized on stage and adapted to movies.
Apart from his literary and painting career, Sarat Chandra Chatterji took active participation in Indian freedom movement. As a result, he even became the president of Howrah District Congress. He stood for the equality of Hindu-Muslim rites and essayed the issues of love and marriage.

He died in Kolkata of liver cancer in 1938.

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