Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

(12 September 1894 - 1 November 1950)

Perhaps the most popular novelist after Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bibhutibhushan portrayed a rural Bengal where nature and human beings lived in harmony. Even small insects find a place in his novels. His childhood was spent in abject poverty but he saw himself through school (he was placed in the first division in Entrance and Intermediate Arts Examinations) and graduated in History from college with distinction. He enrolled for MA and Law but did not continue due to economic pressures of his family. He took up several jobs to meet ends meet.

In 1921 he got his first short story published in the highly regarded magazine "Prabasi". However, he got critical attention and was regarded as a prominent writer after publishing his first novel, "Pather Panchali" (Song of the Road) that later was adapted by Satyajit Ray for his first film with the same name.
His life's experiences including the loss of his first wife, Gauri Devi at the time of childbirth and only after a year of his marriage possibly made the tragic theme of death and loneliness a recurrent factor in Bibhutibhushan's early writings. At the age of forty six, Bibhutibhushan married Rama Chattopadhayay, who gave birth to their son, Taradas.

Bibhutibhusan's work has been translated to several Indian and European. His Pather Panchali is considered by many to be one of the best novels ever written in Bengali. Martin Seymour-Smith, in his Guide to Modern World Literature (1973), calls Bandopadhyay (he uses the form Banerji) "perhaps the best of all modern Indian novelists" and says "probably nothing in twentieth-century Indian literature, in prose or poetry, comes to the level of Pather Panchali" (p. 712). Bibhutibhusan died on 1 November 1950.

Selected Works

	Pather Panchali (Story of the Road)
	Chander Pahar (Mountain of the Moon)
	Aronyak (In the Forest)
	Aporajito (Unvanquished; sequel to Pather Panchali)
	Heera Manik Jwale
	Maraner Danka Baje
	Adarsha Hindu Hotel
	Ichhamoti
	Debayan
	Bipiner Sangsar
	MeghaMallar
	Mauriphool
	Jatrabadol
	Dristi Pradeep
	Ashani Sanket

More on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay

	Profile as published in Banglapedia
	Profile as published in Nationmaster.com Encyclopedia