Search e-Library

Chatterji Chattopadhyay Bankim Chandra : (1838-94) Sri Aurobindo called him “the Rishi of modern Bengal”. [1] Buckland: (a) Chatterji, Bankim Chandra: Bengali novelist & prose writer: son of Jādab Chandra Chatterji, a Deputy Magistrate: born June 27, 1838: educated at the Midnapur School, Hughli & Presidency Colleges: in 1858 he was the first native of India to take the B.A. degree, Calcutta: at once appointed to be a Deputy Magistrate, & became a prominent member of the Provincial service, acting for a time as Assistant Secretary to the Bengal Govt. His reputation was made in literature, as the Bengali novelist of his time: his novels were numerous, & are said to be still [1905] popular: he brought out a literary magazine, 1872, & wrote the first Bengali historical novel, under the title of Durgesh Nandini. This was followed by Kapāla Kundalā, Mrinālini, & Bisha Briksha, which was translated into English & very favourably criticised by Professor Darmesteter: Debi Chaudhurani, Ananda Matha, & Krishna Kanter Will: wrote also on Hindu religion, Krishna, the Vedas, & Hindu literature: made Rai Bahadur & C.I.E.: retired from Government service in 1891: died April 8, 1894. (b) Darmesteter, James: (1849-94): born in Alsace of a poor Jewish family: delicate, puny, & almost deformed: educated at the Lycèe Condorcet, Paris: Doctor in Letter, 1877: devoted himself to Oriental scholarship & literature: became the greatest authority on Zoroastrian literature; appointed Assistant Professor of Zend Avesta at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes, 1877, & Director 1892: Secretary of the Socièté Asiatique 1885: travelled in India to study subjects locally, residing there Feb.1886-Feb.1887, chiefly at Bombay, Peshāwar & Hazarā: wrote Lettres sur l’Inde, 1888: was an editor of the Revue Critique, & later of the Revue de Paris: wrote in them, & in the Journal des Débats, critical notices of books & Oriental essays. [Buckland] [2] Internet on Mukherji Satish: Bankim Chandra was not only one of the first in India to write on Comte & his philosophy but also had zealous Positivist friends like Yogendra Ghose & Raj Krishna Mukherjee; in 1874, Bankim published the latter’s article on Positivism in his Baṇga darshan, which began with the sentence, “Among the successfully educated classes of our country, there is a great deal of animation concerning the philosophy of Comte.” While writing on psychological purification, Bankim wrote: “He who has been psychologically purified is the best Hindu, the best Christian, the best Buddhist, the best Muslim, the best Positivist.” In 1884, in the preface of his novel Devi Chaudhurani, Bankim quoted from the Catechism of Positive Religion: “The general law of Man’s progress…consists in this that Man becomes more & more religious.”