Bengali poetry



Bengali poetry is a form that originated in Pāli and other Prakrit socio-cultural traditions. It is antagonistic towards Vedic rituals and laws as opposed to the shramanic traditions such as Buddhism and Jainism. However, modern Bengali owes much to Sanskrit.

Early history
The history of Bengali poetry underwent three successive stages of development: poetry of the early age (like Charyapad), the Medieval period and the age of modern poetry. Modernity was introduced into Bengali poetry in the 1930s.

Origins
Bengali poetry probably began during the 10th century. It is known for the mystic poems called Charyacharyavinishchaya, and sometimes called Charyapad or Charyagiti. These poems were discovered in Nepal's Royal Library by Bengali scholar Mahamahopadhyay Haraprasad Shastri.

Translation of Epics into Vernacular

 * Krittibas Ojha
 * Kashiram Das

The Medieval period of Bengali poetry was between 1350 and 1800. It was known as the period of Jayadeva, the renowned 12th century poet from neighboring Orissa who was famous for his poem Gitagovinda.

Other noted poets from this period include 13th century Vidyapati, known for his love lyrics and Baḍu, Chandidas, writer of Sri Krishna Kirtan. Sri Krishna Kirtan is considered to be the most important philosophical and erotic work of the period.

The period from 1500 to 1800 is known as the Late Middle Bengali Period. During this period, there was a marked influence of Chaitanya, leading to the development of Vaishnava literature. Vaishnava poets include Govinddas and Gyandas.

Beside Vaishnava poetry, the most significant work of the 16th century was Mukunda Chakravarti's Chandimangal. Other Mangal-Kāvyas or religious texts are Manasamangal, Dharmamangal and Phullaketu.

Two of Bengal's most well known Muslim poets, Daulat Qazi and Alaol, lived in the 15th century (1607–1680) in Myanmar.

Birth of modern poetry


Bharat Chandra marks the transition between Precolonial theocentric poetry and modern poetry. Iswar Gupta, Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1834–1873), Biharilal Chakravarti (1834–94), Rabindranath Tagore(1861–1941), Kazi Nazrul Islam (2011–2010), and Jatindramohan Bagchi (1878–1948) are noteworthy poets of this period.

Modern Bengali poetry
With Rabindranath Tagore founding a firm basis for Bengali poetry, the new poets of the early 1920s consciously moved for transcending the frontiers of traditional verses to establishing a realm of truly modern poetry. It was a successful movement that brought permanent change to the structure and theme of poetry. One notable sect of modernists included pro-socialism poets like Sukanta Bhattacharya and Samar Sen.

Pragati-Kallol-Kavita-Parichay
The modern age was ushered in by a group of writers who wrote for Kallo, a little magazine founded in 1923. The most popular among this group were Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976) and Mohitolal Majumdar (1888–1952), Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903–1976), Satyendranath Dutta (1882–1922), and Premendra Mitra (1904–1988).

Bengali poetry strongly engaged modernism in the 1930s through a few other little magazines, such as Buddhadeb Bosu's Kabita and Sudhindranath Dutta's Parichay. The great poets of this movement were the main players in reshaping Bengali poetry. They included writers like Jibanananda Das (1899–1954), Buddhadev Bose (1908–1974), Sudhindranath Dutta (1901–1960), Bishnu Dey (1909–1982), Amiya Chakravarty (1901–1986) and Samar Sen (1916–1987).

Post-World War II poets
Shakti Chattopadhyay, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Dinesh Das (1913–1985), Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926–1947), Arun Mitra (1909–2000), Nirendranath Chakravarty, Subhas Mukhopadhyay (1919–2003), and Abul Kasem Rahimuddin are famous poets from the post-World War II era.

Poets of Islamic ideals
In British India, the country was divided by religion. In response, some poets wrote poetry imbued with Islamic fervour. These poets include Syed Ismail Hossain Siraji, Mohammed Mozammel Haque (1860–1933) Golam Mostofa (1897–1964), Talim Hossain, and Abdul Kadir (1906–1984) and Farrukh Ahmed (1918–1974), a modernist.

Post-Independence Poetry

 * See Krittibas

Hungry Generation
The Hungry Generation was a literary movement in the Bengali language launched by what is known today as the Hungryalist quartet, i.e. Shakti Chattopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury, Samir Roychoudhury and Debi Roy (Haradhon Dhara), during the 1960s in Kolkata, India. They took the word Hungry from Geoffrey Chaucer's line "In Sowre Hungry Tyme" and they drew upon Oswald Spengler's idea of Non-linear Time in a particular culture for philosophical inspiration. The movement was to last from 1961-1965. The movement is characterized by expression of closeness to nature and sometimes tenets of Gandhianism. It had participants spread over North Bengal, Tripura and Benares. More than 100 manifestos were issued during 1961-1965. The group wrote poetry and prose in completely different forms and experimented with contents. The movement changed the literary atmosphere of West Bengal altogether. It had influences in Hindi, Marathi, Assamese, Telugu and Urdu literatures. Besides the famous four mentioned above, Subimal Basak Utpalkumar Basu, Binoy Majumdar, Sandipan Chattopadhyay, Subo Acharya, Pradip Choudhuri, Saileswar Ghose, Subhas Ghose, Tridib Mitra Alo Mitra, Arunesh Ghose, Ramananda Chattopadhyay, Anil Karanjai, Karunanidhan Mukhopadhyay were among the leading writers and artists of the movement. The movement has been subject of doctoral thesis of Swati Banerjee of Rabindrabharati University and Bishnu Chandra Dey of Assam University. Subimal Basak and Malay Roy Choudhury have been awarded the Sahitya Academy award for translation by Government of India.

In 2011 Srijit Mukherji directed a film titled Baishe Srabon in which famous director Gautam Ghose portrayed the role of an anti-establishment Hungry generation poet. This was for the first time that an avant garde literary movement was incorporated into mainstream cinema.

Indrani Cult
Nirmal Basak was born in a Weaver family, but became an engineer.

He started to publish a poetry magazine "Indrani" in the beloved memory of his daughter, who died at the age of 7 days. This magazine is a great venture in Bengali poetry movement. No person will be called as a poet if his poem is not printed in the pages of Indrani.

Birth of Modern Poetry
Nobel Laurate Rabindranath Tagore is the most famous Bengali poet of modern eraBharat Chandra probably marks the transition period of pre-colonial theocentric poetry and modern poetry. After Bharat Chandra there is a long list of poets notable Iswar Gupta before Michael Madhusudan Dutta (1834–1873) who is the founder of modern age of Bengali literature. Another great poet of this period is Biharilal Chakravarti’s (1834–94). Then Rabindranath Tagore(1861–1941), Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976), Jatindramohan Bagchi (1878–1948) and many others begin the age of modern bengali poetry. as a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Modern Bengali poetry a la Western school
With Rabindranath founding a firm basis for Bengali poetry, the new poets of early 1920s started a conscious movement for transcending the frontiers of traditional verses and establishing a realm of truly 'modern' poetry in Bengali. It was a successful movement that brought permanent change about the concept of structure of poetry, in addition to theme, Notably one sect of the modernists were pro-socialism poets like Sukanta Bhattacharya and Samar Sen. Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926) was one of the most honored poets of Bangla literature. ... Samar Sen was a Bengali poet and journalist. ...

Pragati-Kallol-Kavita-Parichay : Age of Modern Poetry
This is the most widely known portrait of Jibanananda Das. The date is unknown.The modern age begins with a group of writers who wrote for Kallol, a modernist movement magazine founded in 1923. The most popular among the group were Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976) and Mohitlal Majumder (1888–1952), Achintyakumar Sengupta (1903–1976), Satyendranath Dutta (1882–1922), Premendra Mitra (1904–1988) and others. Then Bengali poetry got into the brightest light of modernism in 1930s through the movement of few other little magazines such as Buddhadeb Bosu's Kabita and Sudhindranath Datta's Parichay. The great poets of those movements— Jibanananda Das (1899–1954), Buddhadev Bose (1908–1974), Sudhindranath Dutta(1901–1960), Bishnu Dey (1909–1982), Amiya Chakravarty (1901–1986) and Samar Sen(1916–1987) were the main characters who made a significant effort to reshape Bengali Poetry.

Post World War II Poets
Dinesh Das (1913–1985), Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926–1947), Arun Mitra (1909–2000), Nirendranath Chakravarty, Subhas Mukhopadhyay (1919–2003), Abul Kasem Rahimuddin. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Dinesh Das Bengali poet b. ... Sukanta Bhattacharya (1926) was one of the most honored poets of Bangla literature. ... Arun Mitra was born in November 1909 in Jashore, now in Bangladesh. ... Nirendranath Chakravarty(1924) is a popular contemporary Bengali Poet. ... Subhas Mukhopadhyay (Bangla: à¦¸à§à¦­à¦¾à¦· à¦®à§à¦–à§‹à¦ªà¦¾à¦§à§à¦¯à¦¾à¦¯à¦¼) (February 12, 1919 - July 8, 2003) was one of the foremost Bengali poets of the 20th century. ...

Poets of Islamic Ideals
Given the religion based politics of British India that saw partition of India on the basis of religion, soe poemts wrote poetry imbued with Islamic fervour. Some of them are Kaikobad, Sayid Ismail Hossain Shiraji, Golam Mostofa (1897–1964), Farrukh Ahmed (1918–1974), Talim Hossain, Abdul Kadir (1906–1984). Of them Farrukh Ahmed is most accomplished and in essence, he is a modernist. Golam Mostofa (Bengali: ) 1897-1964) was a Bangladeshi writer and poet. ... Farrukh Ahmed (Bengali: ) (1918–1974) was a poet and writer of Bangladesh. ... Abdul Kadir (1906–1984) was a Bangladeshi poet. ...

Age of Confusion
Arunkumar Sadhukhan, Sushil Singha, Chinmoy Guha Thakurta, Niva Dey, Sukomal Roy Choudhury, Manas Roy Choudhury, Karuna Sindhu Dey, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, Manjulika Das, Nishikanta.

Transparent eyeball,all seeing but nowhere present
This is a big event in Bangla Kabita. A few poets came to note down the inner life of human being. In this age we find : Debiprasad Bandyopadhyay, Birendranath Rakshit, Bhaskar Mitra, Hirak Bhattacharya, Subrata Sarkar, Jamil Sayed, Tanmay Moitra, Subrata Paul, Utpal Dey, Ranajoy Chattopadhyay, Dilip Bandyopadhyay, Ranjan Sarkar, Prabuddha Sundar Kar, Rama Ghosh, Anjali Das, Sanjukta Bandyopadhyay, Chaitali Chattopadhyay, Chitrabhanu Sarkar, Abhik Bhattacharya, Rijurekho Chakraborty, Abhik Mazumdar.

New Horizon in Bengali Poetry
Can anyone forget these ultimate poets ? Pijush Raut, Bijit Kumar Bhattacharya, Birendranath Rakshit, Shaktipada Brahmmachari,Udayan Ghosh,Bimal Choudhury,Ruchira Shyam,Shantanu Ghosh,Ranajit Dash, Monotosh Chakravarty, Urdhendu Das,Debashis Tarafdar,Sanjoy Chakravarty,Amitabha Dev Choudhury, Pallab Bhattacharjya, Bikash Sarkar, Kunal Bhattacharjee, Prabuddhasundar Kar, Ashok Deb,Swarnali Biswas Bhattacharjee, Saptarshi Biswas,Abhijit Chakravarty, Mihir Majumder, Dipika Biswas, Sukumar bagchi, Ramanath Bhattacharya, Jagannath Lala, Arun Banik.

The Greatest Poet of this century : Kedar Bhaduri
Kedar Bhaduri is a mysterious poet. Nothing detail about him is known to all. He was born in a distant village of Bangladesh. He became a teacher in his profession in Kolkata after crossing the border of East Bengal. He performed good mime of poetry.

He wrote many books of poems which are still not known to us. All the historians of Bengal are requested to discover his books so that he can get the honour for his eternal poems.

The versatile writer Jiban Sarkar, poet and novelist
All of us respect the versatile writer Jiban Sarkar poet, novelist and short story writer. Jiban Sarkar was born in Dhaka district at a beautiful village on the bank of Dhaleswari river. He and his family settled at Dhupguri in Jalpaiguri district.

Jiban was an employee of Cossipore Gun and Shell factory. But his room in Entally was a place of meeting of all writers and poets. Every Sunday, promising writers as well as renowned writers and poets used to take an "adda" in his house. He is so favourite and popular that he has no enemy in the world of literature.

He has written a dozen of books of poems, short stories and novels. He has edited 'tinjan', 'anyadin' and various little magazines. His nephew Chitrabhanu Sarkar is also a famous poet of Kolkata.

Gangotri and Anyadin
The two little magazines namely Gangotri and Anyadin were the milestones in the creative field of little magazine in the decade of seventies. Gangotri was edited by renowned Shantanu Das, the son of eminent poet Dinesh Das and also by Rudrendu Sarkar. Shantanu is a marvelous poet. His book of poems Madhyahner Byadh (fowler of mid-day) and Rudrendu's book Alexander bikri kore danter maajan (Alexander sells tooth powder) brought fame to theselves.

'Anyadin' was edited by Sisir Bhattacharya. These two little magazines gathered a group of poets who are too much creative and full of vigour.

The poets of this period are Shantanu, Rudrendu, sisir along with Manindra Roy, Amitava Dasgupta, Alokranjan Dasgupta, Shankha Ghosh, Gouranga Bhoumik, Pratima Roy, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Alokranjan Dasgupta, Shantikumar Ghosh, Subhas Sarkar, Samarendra Sengupta, Goutam Guha, Jiban Sarkar, Haripada Dey, Syed Kawsar Jamal, Samaredra Das, Ananya Roy, Mrinal Basu Choudhury, Somnath Mukhopadhyay, Mridul Dasgupta, Pranab Basu Ray,Dhurjati Chandra, Parameswari Roy Choudhury and many others.

Santanu and Rudrendu edited a collection of poems ; Swanirbachito. This is the first in the history of Bengali poetry to publish photos of each poet.

From Jalpaiguri
we got various powerful poets such as Tushar Bandyopadhyay, Amit Kumar De, Jiban Sarkar, Punyaslok Dasgupta, Anyaman Dasgupta, Chitrabhanu Sarkar, Kumkum Roy, Benu Sarkar, Tanumoy Sarkar, Benu Dutta Roy, Ranjan Nag, Samar Roy Choudhury, Bijoy Dey, Sandhyashri Chakraborty, Rana Sarkar, Nikhil Basu, Shyamal Singha, Moloy Ghosh.

coochbehar
The poets wellknown to us are Ranajit Deb, Nitya Malakar, Arunesh Ghosh, Jibatosh Das, Jamaluddin, Nitish Basu, Anubhab Sarkar, Amar Chakraborty, Samir Chattopadhyay, Samar Deb,Sourav Sarkar(9932673196).Shyamal Sarkar(9474828088)

Birbhum
The powerful poets of Birbhum are Kabirul Islam, Ashanandan Chattaraj,Amal pal,Adity Mukhopadhyaya, Phalguni Bhattacharyya,Taimur khan, Subir Das, Ekram Ali, Liyakat Ali, Somnath Chattopadhyay, Samaresh Mondal.

Murshidabad
In Murshidabad we find Manish Ghatak, Bimal Chakraborty, Utpal Gupta, Sushil Bhowmik, Manishi Mohan Roy, Bijan Bhattacharya, Pradipendu Moitra, Rabin Roy Choudhury, Gokuleswar Ghosh, Sayed Khaled Nawman, Abul Bashar,Sayed Kawsar Jamal, Amitava Moitra, Prashanta Guha Mazumdar, Pompu Mazumdar, Jamil Sayed, Joy Singha, Rabin Biswas, Pushpen Roy, Sayed Hasmat Jalal, Sandip Biswas, Shuvo Chattopadhyay, Naser Hosen, Snehasis Sayed, Nikhil Kumar Sarkar, Nilima Saha, Sourav Mitra, Umapada Kar, Malay Mishra, Amarendra Roy, Nurul Amin Biswas, Ebadul Haque, Narayan Ghosh, Mohammad Saaduddin.

Medinipur
In Medinipur district, we have found the glorious sons of soil Sudhir Bera, Amitava Das, Bishweswar Samanta, Madan Mohan Baitalik, Sumitra Dutta Choudhury, Shyamal Kanti Das, Ratan Tanu Ghati, Jaharlal Bera, Haraprasad Sahu, Niranjan Mishra, Asiskumar Mishra, Tamalika Panda Sheth, Asok Mohanty, Sukamal Basu, Achintya Nandi, Bitashok Bhattacharya, Dipak Kar, Biplab Maji, Ankur Saha, Ratan Jana, Surya Nandi, Pranab Maiti, Chitta Sahu, Sudhangshu Bag, Debasis Pradhan, S.Mahiuddin, Amrito Maiti, Tapankumar Maiti, Aniket Patra, Manaskumar Chini, Pravas Fadikar, Soumitra Roy,Sibajyoti Maiti,Saibal sankar chakraborty,Sanjoy Kuilya,Ritwik Tripathi

Hooghly
In Hooghly, there are a lot of poets, namely Roma Ghosh, Biswanath Gorai, Mridul Dasgupta, Somnath Mukhopadhyay,Pranab Basu Ray, Samar Bandyopadhyay, Dinabandhu Hazra, Alokesh Bhattacharya, Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Arup Ansh, Shyamaljit Saha, Pinaki Thakur, Ramkishor Bhattacharya, Samar Bandyopadhyaya, Arunangshu Bhattacharya, Bodhisattwa Bandyopadhyaya, Arunkumar Chakrabarty, Jubin Ghosh, Sudipta Sadhukhan, Sakuntala Sanyal, Banibrata Kundu, Shubhashankar Chakrabarty, Ayan Bandyopadhyaya.

Burdwan
Burdwan district may express it's pride with these poets :- Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, Satyendranath Dutta, Birendrakumar Bandyopadhyay, Asim Krishna Dutta, Pradip DasSarma, Asit Biswas, Jaya Mitra, Ahana Biswas, Shyamal Baran Saha, Sanchayita Kundu, Sagar Mukhopadhyay, Arun Kumar Chattopadhyay, Arun Gangopadhyay, Kallolshri Mazumdar, Dishari Mukhopadhyay, Mrinal Banik, Bikash Gayen, Rajkumar Roy Choudhury.Kumud Ranjan Mallick,Kashiram Das

Howrah
In Howrah district, we know the poets namely Sunil Kumar, Shambhu Rakshit,Ashok Chattophadyay, Brato Chakraborty, Manas Kumar Dutta, Sujit Sarkar, Ajit Bairi, Soumitra Bandyopadhyay, Tusharkanti Das, Promod Basu, Goutamkumar Dey, Himangshu Jana.

Sixties : Youthful Dreams in West Bengal
Haren Ghosh, Shuddhsattwa basu,Avijit Ghosh, Sushil Bhowmik, Bijoya Mukhopadhyay, Tapan Bandyopadhyay, Mohini Mohan Gangopadhyay, Abdus Samad, Mohammad Rafik, Mrityunjoy Sen, Uttam Das, Kedar Bhadury, Jiban Sarkar, Sushil Panja, Goutam Guha, Snehasis Sukul, Sikha Sukul, Snehakar Bhattacharya, Nirmal Basu, Pranesh Sarkar, Sisir Bhattacharya, Benu Dutta Roy, Arnab Sen, Tushar Bandyopadh, Gokuleswar Ghosh, Samsul Hak, Samarendra Sengupta.

New Voices in West Bengal
Seventies: Poems of Dreams and Protests

Rudrendu Sarkar, Pratyush Prasun Ghosh, Pranab Basu Ray,Pranabkumar Chattopadyay, Satyen Bandyopadhyay, Ram Basu, Siddheswar Sen, Golam Kuddus, Swapan Bandyopadhyay, Aloknath Mukhopadhyay, Biswadeb Mukhopadhyay,Ekram Ali, Wajed Ali, Samarendra Das, Bapi Samaddar,Samar Bandyopadhyay, Sayed Hasmat Jalal, Subrata Sarkar, Amitava Kanjilal, Anjali Das, Somak Das, Shankar Chakraborty, Jamil Sayed, Shyamal Kanti Das, Promod Basu, Sudhir Bera, Joydev Basu, Chtrabhanu Sarkar,Mridul Dasgupta, Jaharlal Bera, Sukamal Basu, Asok Mohanti, Phalguni Bhattacharyya,Kach Sanyal, Bhaskar Chakraborty, Subrata Chakraborty, Biswanath Ghosh.

Nineties: Atichetanaar Kabita
Poets in this generation are as follows : Sudhir Dutta, Ramchandra Pramanik, Arun Basu, Pradip Roygupta, Pranab Chakraborty, Goutam Hens, Gobinda Chandra Das, Lalan Fakir, Hasan Raja, Gagan Harkara, Subhas Ghosal, Sankar Dey.

Poetry of Expansive Consciousness
Sandhya Bhowmik, Kajal Chakraborty, Sayed Hasmat Jalal, Bratati Ghosh Roy, Bhaswati Roy Choudhury, Mohini Mohan Gangopadhyay, Mukul Chattopadhyay, Mobinul Haque, Binod Bera, Sudhendu Maliik, Bisweswar Samanta, Jaharlal Bera, Susnata Jana, Shuvankar Patra.

Immortal Poets of West Bengal কবি মৃত, কবি দীর্ঘজীবী হোন
Birendranath Rakshit, Rabin Sur, Manik Chakraborty, Shamser Anwar, Shankar Chattopadhyay, Subrata Chakraborty, Jogabrata Chakraborty, Samsul Haque, Tushar Roy, Falguni Roy, Anyamon Dasgupta, Debanjali Mukhopadhyay, Kabita Singha, Binoy Mazumdar, Ashok Mohanti, Sushil Bhowmik, Manishi Mohan Roy, Pradipendu Moitra, Sukomal Roy Choudhury, Shuvo Chattopadhyay, Arun Banik.

New Voices in Kolkata কলকাতার নতুন কন্ঠস্বর
A large number of poets has emerged in Kolkata during the "Read More Poems" movement. The major poets in this movement are Bijoylal Chattopadhyay,Pranabkumar Chattopadhyay,Sayed Hasmat Jalal, Chitra Lahiri, Shuvo Dasgupta, Bratati Bandyopadhyay, Kesto Chattopadhyay, Ramendra Deshmukhya, Ramen Acharya, Sabyasachi Deb, Sukomal Roychoudhury, Nagendra Das, Dinabandhu Hazra, Mridul Dasgupta, Kalikinkar Sengupta, Pratyush Prasun Ghosh, Binoy Mazumdar, Kabir Suman, Biswajit Chatterjee, Anjan Dutta, Kankabati Dutta, Mandakranta Sen, Mallika Sengupta Sarkar, Shuchismita Dasgupta, Pyarimohan Sengupta, Ananya Roy, Ujjwal Singha, Moti Mukhopadhyay, Niva Dey, Ramesh Purokayastha, Rahul Purokayastha, Rupa Dasgupta, Abhi Sengupta, Manoj Nandi, Anjan Kar, Debaprasad Mukhopadhyay, Keshto Chattopadhyay, Braja Chattopadhyay, Asoke Kumar Roy Choudhury, Kajal Chakraborty, Ishita Bhaduri, Anindita Goswami.

Apart from these poets two significant young poets with suburban voices are Sadiq Hussain and Atanu Chatterjee.

Deploring the new spirit and attitude
Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Shatabdi Roy, Mamata Bandyopadhyay, Purnendu Patri, Dibyendu Palit, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Haraprasd Mitra, Kalikinkar Sengupta, Bappadity Bandyopadhyay, Samyabrata Joardar, Soumit Basu, Dibya Mukhopadhyay, Tirthankar Moitra, Tirthankar Das Purokayastha, Krishna Basu, Aneek Rudra, Swapanbaran Acharya, Pradip Acharya, Biman Mahato, Bijoy Singha, Prashanta Halder, Pinaki Ghosh, Rafik-Ul-Islam, Ratneswar Hazra, Mrinal Basu Choudhury, Mrinal Dutta, Pranab Maiti, Pranab Chattopadhyay.Phalguni Bhattacharyya.

Poetry since the 1970s
in the 1970s, Bengali poetry received a new impetus from a group of poets who contributed ideas and poetic diction of their own. The poets are Ananya Roy, Tushar Chowdhury,Ranajit Das, Pranabkumar Chattopadhyay, Ashok Chattopadhyay, Sunil Kumar, Kamal Chakraborty, Mridul Dasgupta, Syed Kawsar Jamal, Ujjal Singha, Jamil Syed,Sayed Hasmat Jalal, Joy Goswami, Sanjam Pal, Mallika Sengupta.Little magazines like "Shirshabindu", edited by poets-trio of Serampore Samar Bandyopadhyay, Pranab Basu Ray, Somnath Mukhopadhyay played a vital role in this direction.

The Bangla poet Rabindranath Tagore was the first person (excepting Roosevelt) outside Europe to get the Nobel Prize. He is considered as the pioneer of Bangla literature and culture. The year 1893 AD, was the turn of the century in the Bangla calendar. It was the Bangla year 1300. Tagore wrote a poem then. Its name was ‘The year 1400’. In that poem, Tagore was appealing to a new future poet, yet to be born. He urged in that poem to remember Tagore while he was reading it. He addressed it to that unknown poet who was reading it a century later.

A century later, in 1993(the Bangla year 1400) in Bangladesh a Modern Poet Mahmud Nurul Momen wrote another excellent poem in reply to the poem written hundred years earlier. It was in the same verse as the earlier one, answering and responding to the appeal of Tagore as if Tagore addressed it to him. In it he assured Tagore that contrary to his fear this modern poet has not forgotten him. He said in it: - “I am profoundly remembering you while reading this poem. Don’t worry! I assure you, you are successful in communicating me a century apart.” Another exiting fact is that Momen wrote his poem in the same room where Tagore wrote his one, 100 years earlier. This idea of Mahmud Nurul Momen was very highly acclaimed and created a sensation. The poem by Momen began thus:- “Toma hote shotoborsho porey………………” Later it was included in one of his books which was named “1400 shal”.

In fact Mahmud Nurul Momen has a trilogy of poetry books on this theme. They are “1300 shal, 1400 shal and 1500 shal” in which Mahmud Nurul Momen carries the baton (like a relay race) given by Rabindranath Tagore and passes it to the future poets, appealing in the same but futuristic way to them.

2011 AD is the 150th birth anniversary year of Rabindranath Tagore. He was born in 1861. Bangladesh’s modern and publicity-shy poet Mahmud Nurul Momen was born exactly a century later in 1961. He was the only poet to successfully respond to Tagore’s call.That’s why literature buffs of Bangla poetry consider him as the true and sole successor to Tagore in Bangla Poetry. Bangla is now the 5th largest language in the world. Its high time Bangladesh, which has been turned into the abode of modern Bangla literature by Mahmud Nurul Momen, once again gets the Nobel prize in literature again through Mahmud Nurul Momen.

18 years ago Bangladesh’s poet Mahmud Nurul Momen was acclaimed as a responder to Tagore’s call made a century earlier. This Year, in 2011, he paid his respect again to Tagore by writing another poem welcoming and addressing Tagore at the time of his birth 150 years ago. He wrote it sitting in the same room where Tagore used to sit and write. The poem goes like this:- “Aji hote shardho-shotoborsho agey…………….” The name of the book is “1268 shal”.

This book is much acclaimed also. But Bangladesh’s dear poet Mahmud Nurul Momen is not at all publicity crazy. In fact he wishes to serve poetry silently and without any pomp. That’s why he is not that much known, as much as his genius demands.

Apart from being a great poet, Dr. Mahmud Nurul Momen is a great scholar and researcher also. He holds a PhD in literature.

Besides being a futuristic, exceptional and good poet, Mahmud Nurul Momen is also a film-maker and playwright.

Like Alexander Dumas (pere & fils), Mahmud Nurul Momen is the son of Natyaguru Nurul Momen. The father was the pioneer in Bangladesh’s theatre, satire & personal essays. The son is carrying the legend in the field of poetry, translations, journalism, film & media.

Mr. Mahmud Nurul Momen is an accomplished great poet. But he is an accomplished essayist also. He holds a unique record in Bangladesh. From 1984 onwards every year, he wrote different essays on each of the Nobel literature laureates of every year till now. He also translated their works into Bangla. They include poems and short stories by the Nobel Laureates.

Mahmud Nurul Momen is a Poet and a translator. He has translated into Bangla, works of Homer, Horace, Ovid, Sophocles, Aristotle, Plato, Virgil, Dante, Chaucer, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Milton, Moliere, Shelly, Byron, Tolstoy, Twain and others.

He is an art-critic also. Besides discussing about contemporary arts, Mahmud Nurul Momen wrote about Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Vincent van Gogh, Salvador Dali and other Masters.

Mahmud Nurul Momen's motherland, Bangladesh, became independent through a bloody war in 1971. He was only nine then. The genocide of three million people during the nine months of liberation war created a grave impact on Mahmud Nurul Momen's mind.

On 1st August, 1971, world famous musicians like George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ravi Shanker and others performed in the 'Concert for Bangladesh' at the Madison Square Garden in New York. This made the cause of Bangladesh globally popular. This event created a sense of great respect for those singers in the psyche of Mahmud Nurul Momen at his tender age. As a result he wrote a long poem named 'Concert for Bangladesh' on 1st August, 2001. Now, on 1st August,2011, he has written another long poem on that event, named 'Harrison, Shanker, Dylan, Clapton : Ami tomader valobashee' (I love you).

In 1988, the birth-centennary year of T.S. Eliot, Mahmud Nurul Momen wrote elaborate essays on his life and works. A couple of years later he wrote the poetry book 'Datta.Dayadhvam.Damyata' in Bangla. It's sequel by Momen was 'Shantih Shantih Shantih'. In these poems Mahmud Nurul Momen explores 'The Waste Land' of the present (particularly Bengal, Asia, the 3rd world & 21st century scenario) in the late 20th century. Here Momen engages in dialogues with Eliot about interactions between Eliot's philosophy and Bangla, Pali/Sankskrit philosophy. He appreciates and delves into Eliot's knowledge of Sankskrit & Bangla mythology.

Two other famous Bangla poems written in the 90's by Mahmud Nurul Momen are 'Avatar' and 'Nirvana'(both Bangla words).

Poets of the 90s
In the 1990s, Mallika Sengupta is a prominent poet emerged with her "Challis Chander Ayu". ( Not a poet of 90s but a poet of 80s ).But especially Joy Goswami,Subodh Sarkar and Kabir Suman (with his exceptional modern bengali songs—its lyrics and compositions) influenced the new generation poets in 90s.From Presidency College,College street coffee house,Jadavpur University,Jadavpur coffee house many new faces took a important part to create a new genre in Modern Bengali Poetry.Bijalpa,Anyamone,Dharapat,Sahitya Trisha, Shabdajapan,Kabikatha,Kabita Pakshik,Kabita Campus,Gandhar,Anway,Arani and many little magazines and Desh magazine were also publishing simultaneously poetry of young poets regularly.In Presidency and Jadavpur University campus there were a regular practice of Bengali poetry and Bengali Band music,every week.Renowned poet and popular teacher Pranabendu Dasgupta,Nabanita Debsen,Manabendra Bandyopadhyay,Pabitra Sarkar,Amiya Deb,Shibaji Bandyopadhyay encouraged the youngsters.Now many of them are not in practice.Biswajit Chatterjee, Samyarata Joardar,Anindya Sinha,Suman Roy,Bubun Chattopadhyay,Sandip Chattopadhyay,Prasun Bhowmick, BIPLAB CHOWDHURY, Anindya Bose,Dipankar Bagchi,Rajib Bishwas,Sukanta Chakraborty,Mitul Dutta,Ipsita Haldar,Sarthak Roychoudhury,Rajib Sinha,Chiranjib Basu,Shantanu Sarkar,Debatosh Das,Sanjay Moulik,Tapas Dutta,Ayan Goswami,Mouli Misra,Roshnara Misra,Barnali Bandyopadhyay,Sarthak Singharoy,Pratyat Chakraborty,Rupak Chakraborty,Somnath Roy,Souvik Chakraborty,Bappaditya Bandyopadhyay,Avik Bhattacharya,Avik Majumder,Koushik Bhattarcharya,Sudip Basu,Ayan Banerjee,Ranajit Dasgupta and many mores enriched 90s poetry.

Krittibas
Krittibas movement The modernist movement of modernizing Bengali literature was brought one step further during the 50s, especially with the emergence of the Krittivas magazine. Major poets of this period are Dinesh Das Rangalal Bandyopadhyay, Sunil Chandra Sarkar, Rajlakshmi Devi, Ketaki Kushari Dyson, Pranab Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Jasimuddin, Bimal Chandra Ghosh, Manindra Roy, Manindra Gupta, Mangala Charan Chattopadhyay, Kamakshiprasad Chattopadhyay, Kiran Sankar Sengupta, Ram Basu, Biswa Bandyopadhyay, Ramendrakumar Acharya Choudhury, Sunil Basu, Nishikanta, Ranjit Singha, Sadhana Mukhopadhyay, Abul Kashem Rahimuddin, Achintya Kumar Sengupta, Chanchal Chattopadhyay, Ashok Bijoy Raha, Krishnadhan Dey, Batakrishna Dey.

The first issue of Kabipatra was edited by Pabitra Mukhopadhyay, the 2nd by Amar Mitra, 3rd by Subimal Mishra, 4th to 7th by Sanjoy Mukhopadhyay and Sachin Das jointly. Pabitra also used to publish other magazines. many more like Arani Basu, Uday Bhadury, Somak Das,Sayed Hasmat Jalal, Dipak Lahiri, Parombrato Chattopadhyay, Kanailal Jana,Samaresh Mondal, Gour Khanra, Nasim-e-Alam, Tapan Maity, Subhas Gangopadhaya, Giridhari Kundu, Dipak Roy, Chitrita Devi, Kanak Mukhopadhyay, Jugantar Chakraborty, Mohini Mohan Gangopadhyay, Dipankar Roy, Shankho Ghosh were also linked with that movement and contributed writings.

New Age:iAge(New Century)
Poets from this period are:

Punyaslok Dasgupta, Soumitra Roy, Soutik Hati, Chitrabhanu Sarkar, Avik Bhattacharya, Bipul Chakraborty, Shyamal Sarkar of Cooch Behar.

Bipul Chakraborty and his wife Anushree are also famous singers.