Unknown engraver, 'Bankim Chandra Chatterjea', in R. C. Dutt, The Literature of Bengal (Calcutta and London, 1895); University of California Libraries scan, Internet Archive, public domain · Portrait plate 'Bankim Chandra Chatterjea.' facing page 221 of Romesh Chunder Dutt, The Literature of Bengal, revised edition with portraits (Calcutta: Thacker Spink; London: Constable, 1895), from the University of California Libraries scan on the Internet Archive (item literatureofbeng00duttrich). The plate is a printed engraving by an unnamed engraver (illegible monogram) after an unnamed original, probably a photograph made in his lifetime; it is shown as a printed likeness copy, not as a documented sitting. The printed caption on the plate leaf names him. The file is the plate crop at 1626 x 2467 downscaled to 791 x 1200 with no upscaling. · Public domain (published in 1895; the Internet Archive record lists the book as not in copyright)

writer · 19th Century

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee

1838–1894

British Raj

Known For

literarycultural

Wikidata

Not yet included in personality matching — the documented evidence doesn't yet cover enough of the personality model. Everything else on this page is fully available.

Trait Constellation

Key Achievements

Wrote the novels Durgeshnandini (1865) and Kapalkundala (1866) and had published fourteen novels by 1887; Banglapedia says his place in Bengali literature rests on his contribution to fiction and prose.

Refined Bengali prose, which a contemporary critic called the founding of 'a new style'; before him Bengali fiction had mostly been didactic translations of Sanskrit and Persian tales.

Founded and edited the monthly Bangadarshan in 1872, which carried his serialised novels, essays and criticism and, Banglapedia says, created a generation of writers.

Moments That Reveal Them

In 1872, while still a serving deputy magistrate, he began editing the Bangadarshan, which Banglapedia says he wanted to make a platform for objective literary criticism on the model of European journals; it ran four years.

This is consistent with starting an ambitious project of his own while holding a demanding career. Proactive Agency

When the younger civil servant and scholar Romesh Chunder Dutt told him he had never written in Bengali, Bankim urged him in 1872 to write in his mother tongue, telling him he would never live by his writings in English; the younger man's first Bengali book appeared two years later.

This is consistent with a personal zeal for building up Bengali-language literature. Impact Motivation

Turning Points

After his early works, including the English novel Rajmohan's Wife, drew little notice, he published his first celebrated Bengali novel Durgeshnandini in 1865, which a contemporary critic said took the literary world in Bengal by surprise.

This is consistent with willingness to change language and form in pursuit of an original voice. Creative Originality