Jibanananda Das

Jibanananda Das Biography

Jibanananda Das was a very popular Bengali poet, writer, novelist and essayist. He is recognized as “the premier poet of the post-Tagore era in India”. He is also addressed as "Bengal's greatest modern poet" and its "best loved poet" too. During his lifetime, only seven volumes of his poems were published. He died at a comparatively young age of 55, the time when he was at the peak of his career and many of his works including a few novels and short stories were found after his death. A few of his works still remain unpublished. Das died on 22 October 1954, eight days after he was hit by a tramcar. He was carelessly crossing the road. It’s also rumoured that it was his attempt for a suicide. His marriage was not at all successful. During his lifetime he published only 269 poems in different journals and magazines and majority of his works were published later.

Jibanananda Das was born in 1899 in the small district town of Barisal, located in the south of Bangladesh. Jibanananda's father Satyananda Das was a school master, essayist and editor. His mother Kusumkumari Das was a poet known for the poem, Adorsho Chhele. His nickname was Milu. In 1915 he successfully completed his matriculation examination from Brojomohon and later enrolled in Presidency College, Kolkata. He completed BA in English literature in 1919. Same year, he published his first poem, Borsho-abahon in the Boishakh issue of Brahmobadi journal. In 1921, he completed the MA degree in English from University of Calcutta and joined law studies.

One year later he started his career as a tutor at English department of City College, Calcutta. He gave up his law studies. Major poetry works of Das include - Banalata Sen, Rupasi Bangla, Shaat-ti Tarar Timir, Shreshtho Kobita, Alo Prithibi and Bela Obela Kalbela. All his novels and short stories were published posthumously. A few of his novels are Malyabaan, Bashmatir Upakhyan, Jiban-Pronali, Nirupam Yatra and Chaarjon.

Published: N/A

Updated: January 27, 2014