Dinabandhu Mitra

Dinabandhu Mitra (Bengali: দীনবন্ধু মিত্র) (1829–1873) the Bengali dramatist, was born in 1829 at village Chouberia in Gopalnagar P.S., North 24 Parganas and was the son of Kalachand Mitra. His given name was Gandharva Narayan, but he changed it to Dinabandhu Mitra.

Dinabandhu Mitra's education started at a village pathshala. His father arranged a job for him on a zamindar's estate (1840). But the small boy fled to Kolkata, where he started working in the house of his uncle, Nilmani Mitra. Around 1846, he was admitted to the free school run by James Long. Dinabandhu was a bright student and won a number of scholarships. In 1850, he enrolled at Hindu College and was awarded scholarships for academic excellence. However, he did not appear in his last examination, and, instead, started working as a postmaster at Patna (1855). He served in various posts in the Postal Department in Krishnanagar, Nadia, Dhaka and Orissa. In 1870, he was made supernumerary post- master in Serampore Head Post Office- 712201 In 1872, he joined the Indian Railway as an inspector. He wrote the play called neel darpan (indigo mirror).

Dinabandhu started writing literary pieces while still at college. His poetic style was inspired by the well-known poet Ishwar Chandra Gupta. His poems were able to attract the attention of intellectuals at kolkata, but his favourite genre was the drama. His work in the postal department had taken him to various parts of the country giving him opportunities to study human life closely and thereby adding to his ability to unfold the drama of life with a degree of realism unknown at that time. Among his books of poems are Suradhuni Kavya (first part appeared in 1871, second part appeared in 1876), Dvadash Kavita (1872). His plays include Nildarpan (1860), Nabin Tapasvini (1863), Biye Pagla Budo (1866), Sadhabar Ekadashi (1866), Lilavati (1867), Jamai Barik (1873)and Kamale Kamini (1873). He also wrote a novel titled Poda Mahehshvar. Another one of his noted contributions was the hilarious - "Jamalay-e Jibonto Manush" (An Alive man in the abode of Yama), the basic story line will later be adopted into an iconic film starring Bhanu Bandopadhyay and Basabi Nandi. It has to be noted that Mitra was also a pioneer in the sense that his plays focused on humans rather than gods & goddesses. Also in Jamalay-e he involves popular Hindu gods to generate humour, which would later be done by Rajshekhar Basu too.

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