Kamalakanta Bhattacharya

Kamalakanta Bhattacharya Biography

Kamalakanta Bhattacharya was a Bengali poet from Bardhaman during the late 18^th century. He followed Ramprasad – the Shakta poet of eighteenth century Bengal, both in his poetry and in his lifestyle. The poems of Kamalakanta and Ramprasad were later sung by mystic Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the spiritual leader and devotee of Mother.

Kamalakanta was born in Bardhaman, Bengal in 1769. His father was a Brahmin priest. Kamalakanta lost his father at a younger age. So, his mother had to struggle a lot to meet both ends. Yet from the income she got from the small piece of land left for them, she sent Kamalakanta to higher education. He showed an early talent for poetry and music. He was a brilliant student and studied Sanskrit as well. He received the sacred thread and was initiated into spiritual practice by Chandra Shekhar Goswami. From early childhood he was interested in spirituality too. Kamalakanta received initiation into Tantric Yoga from a Tantric yogi named Kenaram Bhattacharya.

Kamalakanta worked as a religious priest and started a new school also, to financially support the family. But he had to struggle a lot as the earnings were not sufficient enough. His songs made him famous during his lifetime and he was a popular singing poet during that time. Maharaja of Bardhaman, Tej Chandra, asked Kamalakanta to be his Guru and appointed him as a court advisor. He was a great devotee of Kali and composed numerous devotional songs praising her. His poems are filled with his faith in goddess and places Kali as a great destroyer of ignorance and hostile forces. In one poem he states, "Is my Mother Really Black?" Many of these songs are recorded in The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna.

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Updated: March 26, 2014