[jyotirmoy]

Michael Madhusudan Dutt was born on 25 January 1824 in a landed family in the village of Sagardari in Jessore district, now in Bangladesh. His father, Rajnarayan Dutt, was a law practitioner in Kolkata. Madhusudan began writing while at Hindu College. He drew everyone's attention at a college function in 1834 when he recited a poem that he had composed. He won several scholarships in college examinations as well as a gold medal for an essay on women's education. While still a student at Hindu College, Madhusudan's poems in Bangla and English were published in Jnananvesan, Bengal spectator, Literary Gleamer, Calcutta Library Gazette, Literary Blossom and Comet.
On 9 February 1843, while still at college, Madhusudan converted to christianity, partly to escape a marriage his father had arranged. He took the name 'Michael' upon his conversion and wrote a hymn to be recited on the day of his baptism. However, on becoming a Christian, Madhusudan had to leave Hindu College as Christians were not allowed to study there. In 1844 he got admitted to Bishop's College and remained there until 1847. At Bishop's College, in addition to Sanskrit, he also studied Greek and Latin.

Madhusudan's conversion to Christianity estranged him from his family, and his father stopped sending him money. In 1848 Michael left for Chennai where he started teaching, first at Madras Male Orphan Asylum School (1848-1852) and then at Madras University High School (1852-1856). While at Chennai, Madhusudan married Rebecca Mactavys. After his father's death, Madhusudan left Rebecca and returned to Kolkata in February 1856 with a Frenchwoman named Henrietta. He became associated with the Belgachhiya theatre in Kolkata patronised by the Rajas of Paikpara. In 1858 he wrote the western-style play Sharmistha based on the mahabharata story of Devayani and Yayati. This was the first original play in Bangla, making Madhusudan the first Bangla playwright.

Madhusudan radically transformed what was essentially a medieval literature into a one capable of holding its own with any great literature. By dint of his genius, he removed the stagnation in bangla literature both in style and content. He was the first to use blank verse in 1860 in the play Padmavati based on a Greek myth. This use of blank verse freed Bangla poetry from the limitations of rhymed verse. In 1861 Madhusudan wrote what would be his masterpiece: the epic Meghnadbadh Kavya. Written in blank verse, this epic was based on the Ramayana, but, inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost, Madhusudan transformed the villainous Ravana into a hero. Michael's poems reflected a new woman, self-conscious and vocal, unlike the women who had for ages been deprived, neglected, terrified, silent about their feelings of happiness or sorrow. In the play Virangana (1862), Jana, Kaikeyi, Tara tells their husbands and lovers what they desire and expect. Such boldness in women had not been seen in Bangla literature before Madhusudan.

On 9 June 1862 he left for England to study law at Gray's Inn. In 1863 he went to Versailles in France, staying there for about two years. In France he started writing Petrarchan sonnets in Bangla, the first sonnets in the language. It was in France as well that Madhusudan overcame the longing for England that had inspired his early works and realised the importance to him of his motherland and mother tongue. These feelings are reflected beautifully in his sonnets like 'Bangabhasa' and 'Kapotaksa Nadi'. These sonnets were published in 1866 as Chaturddashpadi Kavitavali. June 1870, he was obliged to give up law to work as a translator at the High Court on a monthly salary of Rs 1000. However, his habit of reckless spending ran up debts. Earlier too he had been on the verge of bankruptcy and had been saved by Iswar chandra vidyasagar. In 1871 he wrote Hectarbadh after Homer's Iliad. His last composition was Mayakanan (1873).
On 29 June 1873, three days after the death of Henrietta, the greatest poet of the Bengal renaissance died in Calcutta General Hospital in a miserable condition.
Neither Shakespeare nor Milton but Byron was Madhusudan's hero. It is really worth noticing how the lives of Lord Byron and Michael Madhusudan were fashioned completely in a similar mould. The characters of the two can be summed up in one word: “Audacity”.
Just three days prior to his death, Madhusudan, with the help of Shakespeare, expressed his deepest conviction of life to his dear friend Gour:
...out, out, brief candle!

Stop a while, traveller!

Should Mother Bengal claim thee for her son.

As a child takes repose on his mother's elysian lap,

Even so here in the Long Home,

On the bosom of the earth,

Enjoys the sweet eternal sleep…..

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