Madhusudan Das

Madhusudan Das
Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das
Native name	ଉତ୍କଳ ଗୌରବ କୁଳବୃଦ୍ଧ ମଧୁସୂଦନ ଦାସ
Born	(1848-04-28)28 April 1848 Satyabhamapur, Cuttack district, Bengal Presidency, British Raj
Died	4 February 1934(1934-02-04) (aged 85) Cuttack, Bihar and Orissa Province, British Raj
Occupation	Lawyer, social reformer, minister, industrialist
Nationality	Indian
Ethnicity	Odia
Education	M.A, B.L.
Alma mater	Calcutta University
Period	1848–1934
Spouse	Soudamini Devi
Children	Sailabala Das, Sudhanshubala Hazra

Utkal Gourab Madhusudan Das (28 April 1848 – 4 February 1934) was the first graduate and advocate of Odisha. He was born on 28 April 1848 in a village called Satyabhamapur, 20 kilometres from Cuttack, Odisha. He is known as Kulabruddha which means Grand Old Man and Utkal Gourab, which means Pride of Utkal, and was referred to as a poet and freedom fighter.

He was born to a Zamindari family from father Choudhury Raghunath Das and mother Parbati Debi. They had initially named him Gobindaballabh. Later they changed his name to Madhusudan. He had two elder sisters and a younger brother named Gopalballabh. Gopalballabh was the Magistrate at Bihar Province and the father of Ramadevi Choudhury. Madhusudan had adopted two Bengali girls; Sailabala Das and Sudhansubala Hazra. Sailabala was an educationist who had trained from England and in whose name the famous Shailabala Women's College of Cuttack was founded. Shailabala was a Bengali, and her parents had left her in the care of Madhusudan Das and his wife Soudamini Devi at Calcutta. Sudhansubala Hazra was also a Bengali and she was the 1st female lawyer of British India. Madhu babu was the house teacher of Ashutosh Mukherjee, the former Vice-Chancellor of Calcutta University in Calcutta and Janakinath Bose, father of Subhash Chandra Bose at Ravenshaw College.

After his early education, he moved to Cuttack High School (later known as Ravenshaw Collegiate School) which offered English education. In 1864, he passed the entrance examination and went to Calcutta University. In spite of uttermost challenging conditions he lived in Calcutta for almost fifteen years, from 1866 to 1881. In 1870, he became the first Odia to complete his B.A. He continued his studies there to complete his M.A. in 1873 and B.L. degree in 1878, thus becoming the first ever scholar from Odisha to achieve these feats.