One of the most influential poets of the Bengali language, Ishwar Chandra Gupta, passed away on this day. He was 47 years old.
Gupta was a renowned poet and journalist. He was born in Kanchrapara village in North 24-Parganas. His father was an ayurveda practitioner.
Gupta came to Calcutta at a young age and was educated in Bengali, Sanskrit, English and the Vedanta philosophy. He started the newspaper Samvad Prabhakar with Jogendra Mohan Tagore of Pathuriaghata. The newspaper played a major role in influencing the opinion of Bengali society.
On social issues, Gupta could be conservative. He attacked Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar’s successful campaign to start widow remarriage with hard-hitting satirical verse.
But later he shifted to more liberal views on women’s education and religious matters, even on widow remarriage, advocating marriage for virgin widows.
As a poet his contribution to Bengali is significant. He was deeply influenced by the kabiyal tradition and showed great control of language, rhythm and sound, using word plays, especially yamak, which requires the repetition of words, to great effect. His poetry sparkles with wit. But he was also liberating Bengali poetry from its medieval subjects of divine stories and myths.
He is often regarded as the first modern poet of Bengal. He published the works and lives of earlier Bengali poets, Bharatchandra and Ramprasad Sen.
