|
Sarat
Chandra Chattopadhayay was born at Devanandapur, Hooghly
in 1876 and received his primary school education at
Hooghly Branch school but he was bred up in his mother's
family at Bhagalpur where he received his school education
and college education for two years. The death of his
parents wrecked his home life and for some years he
was to lead the life of a wail in North Bihar. In 1903
he went to Burma and found employment in Rangoon as
a clerk in the govt. office. On the eve of his departure
to Burma, he submitted a short story for a prize competition
in the name of his uncle Surendranath Ganguli. It won
the first prize and was published in 1904. A long story
(badadidi) was published in two installments in his
own name in Bharati (1907). He was the first novelist
in India to live in some comfort on the returns of his
output. His instantaneous fame and continued popularity
are without a parallel in our literary history. Even
Bankim chatterjee's work, not to say Tagore's, were
never received by the general reader with anything like
this eagerness and warmth. Some of his stories are very
striking for their obvious sincerity and basic realism.
These include Bindur chele (Bindu's Son, 1913), Ramer
Sumati (Ram Returning to Sanity, 1914), Araksanya (The
Girl Whose Marriage is Overdue, 1916), etc.
|
Sarat
Chandra |
|
Saratchandra's
earliest writings show striking influence of Bankim Chandra
Chatterjee. In Devdas (written in 1901, published 1917), Parinita
(The Married Girl, 1914), Biraj Bau (Mrs. Biraj, 1914) and
Palli Samaj (The Village Commune, 1916), the themes and their
treatment are not very much different from the older Chatterjee's
but they are presented in a modernistic setting and in an
easier and more matter-of-fact language. Tagore's influence,
specially of his short stories and his novels Chokher Bali
and Gora, is detectable in some of Chatterjee's stories and
novels. He is certainly of his own ideas but he never flouts
the accepted moral basis of the Hindu socity of any time.
Chatterjee
is at his best when he draws from his experience. To name
the more important of such works : Srikanta in four parts
(1917,1918,1927,1933), Charitrahin (Character-less, 1917),
Biraj Bau (1914), Palli Samaj (1916), the first part of Devdasa
(his first novel) and his first published short story Mandir
(1904). It may be noted that these (with the exception of
the last two part of Srikanta) belong to the first phase of
Chatterjee's literary career, that is up to 1913 when he had
been just recognized as a powerful writer of fiction. The
second phase began with the conscious attempt to tackle a
plot that is akin to Tagore's Gora. The result was his the
biggest novel Grihadaha (Home Burnt, 1919). The spinning out
a thin story is rather wearisome and it was never received
with the usual acclamation. Before he finished Grihadaha,
Chatterjee had reverted to the romantic love story Datta (The
Girl Given Away, serialized 1917-19) and Dena-Paona (debts
and demands, 1923) were written.
The
revolutionary movement from Bengal operating in Burma and
in Far East supplied the background of the romance Pather
Dabi (The Demand of the Road, 1926). The novel for no cogent
reason was proscribed by the Government. in Bipradas (1935)
Chatterjee returns to the domestic novel but it scarcely reveals
a new approach or a fresh appraisal. His last complete novel
Ses Prasna (The Final Question, 1931) is an attempt at the
'intellectual' novel where the meager theme is inflated by
high brow talks on problems of the individual and of the society
relating principally to love and marriage.
Some
of the popular tales of Chatterjee were dramatized and performed
on the public stage with considerable success. Chatterjee's
works have been repeatedly translated into all the major Indian
languages.
|
