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Dutta, Satyendranath (1882-1922) poet, born in the village
of Nimta near Kolkata on 11 February 1882. His father Rajaninath Dutta,
who hailed from the village of Chupi in Burdwan, was a trader. His grandfather,
akshay kumar
datta, was editor of the tattvabodhini
patrika.
After matriculating from Central Collegiate School in Kolkata
in 1899, Satyendranath passed FA from the General Assembly's Institution
in 1901. He sat for the BA examination but was unsuccessful. He
joined his father, but soon devoted himself exclusively to writing
poetry. Satyendranath was one of the influential poets who wrote
for the bharati.
He was initially influenced by michael
madhusudan dutt, akshay
kumar baral, and Debendranath Sen, but later turned
to rabindranath
tagore. Nevertheless, he maintained his distinctive
poetic style.
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Satyendranath Dutta |
He was well known for his material skill, and devised
several metres while keeping intact the sound system and phrases of Bangla.
This is why he was known as 'the magician of metrics' or 'the king of
metres'. His famous essay, Chhanda-sarasvati, on metrics, was published
in the Baishakhi number of the Bharati in 1918. He was the
first to compose poems using words from Persian
and Arabic and thus expanded the versatility of the language.
He translated poems from Arabic, Persian, Chinese, Japanese, English and
French, thus giving Bangla readers a taste of foreign poetry and metres.
He tried to bridge the gap between bangla
literature and world literatures. The main themes of his poetry
revolve round patriotism, humanism, tradition, worship of power, etc.
He also wrote poems on the lower classes, such as the sweeper community.
Satyendranath Dutta wrote under several pennames: Nabakumar,
Kaviratna, Ashitipar Sharma, Tribikram Varman, Kalamgir etc. Some noted
collections of his poems are Savita (The Sun, 1900), Sandhiksan
(1905), Venu O Vina (1906), Hom Shikha (1907), Phuler
Phasal (1911), Kuhu O Keka (1912), Tulir Likhan (1914),
Abhra-Avir (1916), Hasantika (1919), Bela Sheser Gan
(1923), Biday-Arati (1924), Kavyasanchayan (1930), Shishu-Kavita
(1945) etc. His volumes of verse translations include Tirtharenu
(1910), Tirtha-Salil (1918) and Mani Manjusa (1915). His
other writings are Janmaduhkhi (novel, 1912), Chiner Dhup (essays,
1912) and Rangamalli (play, 1913). He died on June 25 in 1922.
[Md Harun-or-Rashid]
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