Chakravarty, Ajit Kumar

Chakravarty, Ajit Kumar (1880-1918) litterateur, critic, was born in the village of Mothbaria in faridpur district. His father was Xri Charan and mother Sushila Devi. After obtaining his BA degree in 1903, he started his career as a teacher at shantiniketon school . During this time, he became very fascinated with Rabindra literature and rabindranath tagore. He got a scholarship for higher education in 1910 and went to England. There his translated some pieces of Rabindranath's work had been circulated before Rabindranth's own translated copies became available. Thus, it was through his work that Rabindranath first became known beyond the borders of India. He demonstrated efficiency in teaching and inspired his students in literature, performance art and music. He played an important role in materialising the education ideal of Rabindranath. In Brahmavidyalaya (1911), he analyses the ideal and philosophy of the school named Brahma Vidyalaya. He wrote a book titled Christ (1911) suitable for the children and it was included in the syllabus of this school. It is worth mentioning here that, the introduction that Rabindranath wrote to this book was his first analysis of Jesus.

Ajit Kumar Chakravarty was the main interpreter of Rabindra-literature. His two critical books-namely Rabindranath (1912) and Kabyaparikrama (1914) remained very helpful for the readers of Rabindra-literature for a long time. He gave equal attention to modern Western literature. Thus, through him the trend of criticism of Western literature in Bangla took off in a real sense. He wrote many pieces on Western poets and playwrights such as Meter Link, Francis Thomson and Whitman and some of his works on them were published in his Batayan (1322). His other two biographies are Raja Ram Mohan (1916) and Debendranath Thakur (1916). Khitimohan Sen collected many donhas (songs) of Kabir and Ajit Kumar Chakravarty translated many of them into English, on the basis of which Rabindranath edited One Hundred Poems of Kabir. Ajit Kumar Chakravarty edited the complete works of his prematurely dead friend Satischandra Ray (1882-1904). At the early phase of criticism of Bangla literature, he showed remarkable competence. Though the trend of literary criticism underwent changes in the subsequent period, he is still remembered as a great writer in Bengali literary criticism.

Ajit Kumar Chakravarty showed special skills in acting, and he left an indelible mark in dramas directed by Rabindranath. He was one of the bearers of Rabindra music and had fame as a melodious musician as well. He died on 14 Push in 1325 BS. [Muhammad Saiful Islam]