Bengali poetry

Like the Bengali language, Bengali poetry traces its lineage to Pāli and other Prakrit socio-cultural traditions. An antagonism to Vedic rituals and laws heightened to a culmination in the Buddhist and Jainist movements. However, modern Bengali owes as much to Sanskrit. Like the society that thrived to populate the modern Bengal, Bengali language and culture appears to be a perfect amalgam of almost unanalysable elements. Bengali poetry is extraordinary and sweet.

Early history

The history of Bengali poetry is usually divided into three major successive stages of development: poetry of the early age, such as "Charyapad"; the Medieval period; and the age of modern poetry. True modernity was introduced into Bengali poetry in 1930s.

Earliest poems

Bengali poetry of the oldest period, probably beginning from the 10th century, is known for the mystic poems called "Charyapad" or "Charyagiti". These were discovered from Nepal's Royal library by Bengali scholar Mahamahopadhyay Haraprasad Shastri.

Epic in Vernacular

*Krittibas Ojha
*Kashiram Das

Medieval Period

Bhakti Movement, Vaishnava Padabali, Shakta Padabali

The period between 1350 and 1800 was the Medieval period of Bengali poetry. It was known as the period of Jayadeva (12th century), the renowned poet from neighboring Orissa, Vidyapati (13th century) with his love lyrics, and Badu Chandidas, the author of Sri Krishna Kirtan, the most important philosophical work of the period. The period from 1500 A.D. to 1800 A.D. was known as the Late Middle Bengali period. During this period, there was a marked influence of Chaitanya, which led to the development of Vaishnava literature. Chandidas(13th century) is one of the greatest poets of this time. Outside of Vaishnava poetry, the most significant work of the sixteenth century was Chandimangal, by Mukunda Chakravarti. Two of Bengal's best-known Muslim poets, Arrakan Daulat Kazi and Alaol, lived in the fifteenth century (1607-1680).

Birth of modern poetry

Bharat Chandra probably marks the transition period of pre-colonial theocentric poetry and modern poetry. After Bharat Chandra there is a long list of poets notable Iswar Gupta before Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1834-1873) who is the founder of modern age of Bengali literature Fact|date=July 2008. Another great poet of this period is Biharilal Chakravarti’s (1834-94). Then Rabindranath Tagore(1861-1941), Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976), Jatindramohan Bagchi (1878-1948) and many others begin the age of modern bengali poetry. Fact|date=July 2008

Modern Bengali poetry

With Rabindranath founding a firm basis for Bengali poetry, the new poets of the early 1920s started a conscious movement for transcending the frontiers of traditional verses and establishing a realm of truly 'modern' poetry in Bengali. It was a successful movement that brought permanent change about the concept of structure of poetry, in addition to theme. One notable sect of modernists included pro-socialism poets like Sukanta Bhattacharya and Samar Sen.

Pragati-Kallol-Kavita-Parichay : Age of Modern Poetry

The modern age begins with a group of writers who wrote for Kallol, a modernist movement magazine (Little magazine movement), founded in 1923. The most popular among the group were Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899 - 1976) and Mohitlal Majumder (1888-1952), Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903-1976), Satyendranath Dutta (1882-1922), Premendra Mitra (1904 - 1988) and others Fact|date=July 2008. Then Bengali poetry got into the brightest light of modernism in 1930s, through the movement of few other little magazines, such as Buddhadeb Bosu's "Kabita" and Sudhindranath Datta's "Parichay" Fact|date=July 2008.

The great poets of those movements— Jibanananda Das (1899 - 1954), Buddhadev Bose (1908 - 1974), Sudhindranath Dutta(1901 - 1960), Bishnu Dey (1909 - 1982), Amiya Chakravarty (1901 - 1986) and Samar Sen(1916 - 1987) were the main characters who made a significant effort to reshape Bengali Poetry Fact|date=July 2008.

Post World War II Poets

Dinesh Das (1913 - 1985), Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926 - 1947), Arun Mitra (1909-2000), Nirendranath Chakravarty, Subhas Mukhopadhyay (1919-2003), Abul Kasem Rahimuddin.

Poets of Islamic ideals

Given the politics of British India that saw partition of India on the basis of religion, some poets wrote poetry imbued with Islamic fervour. Some of these are Sayid Ismail Hossain Shiraji, Golam Mostofa (1897-1964), Farrukh Ahmed (1918-1974), Talim Hossain, and Abdul Kadir (1906-1984). Of them, Farrukh Ahmed is most accomplished and in essence, he is a modernist. Fact|date=July 2008.

ee also

*List of Bengali poets
*List of national poetries
*Kavita of Buddhadeva Bose

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/bengali_poems/ Bengali Poetry in English Translation]
* [http://members.aol.com/shabdaweb/ Poets of Bangladesh in English Translation]