Jibanananda Das (1899-1954) was a poet and educationist. He was born in 1899 in Barisal. His father Satyananda Das was a school teacher, social worker and founder-editor of the Brahmabadi. His mother Kusumkumari Das was a poet.
Jibanananda Das's poetry has the power to transport one to the obscure region of one's being and sensibility beyond the everyday bounds of sense and reason. He achieves it characteristically by endowing mystical attributes to mundane everyday objects of nature, especially the ordinary objects that we see in and around Bengal as Bengal was known then in its undivided entity. This rootedness of his imagination and sensibility is what makes Jibanananda Das a unique poet, different from almost all the modern poets of Bengal. Bengal has produced a great number of nature poets, the finest specimen of which could be no other than Tagore himself, the pictorial as well as spiritual quality of whose images has touched thousands of people across the world. To examine his poetic sensibility as a modern poet, to examine his relationship with nature, a relationship with a difference, and the transformation that Bengal had undergone in his poetry because of this special bond. With his vast range of poems in praise of Bengal he remains not only relevant but a necessity for the expression of nearly all our moods and occasions. Jibanananda's association with nature and specifically that of Bengal is more specific, everyday, ordinary, and common but at the same time sensuous and mysterious.
Jibanananda Das did his matriculation in 1915 from Brajamohan School, IA from Barisal B M College in 1917 and obtained his BA honours degree in English literature in 1919 and MA in 1921 from the Presidency College in Kolkata.
Jibanananda belonged to the group of poets who tried to shake off rabindranath tagore's poetic influence. Inspired by western modernism and the intellectual outlook of the Bengali middle class, this group wrote about the realities of the urban present and of the lonely self even while they drew upon the rural traditions of Bengal. Although Jibanananda's early poems reveal some influences of Kazi Nazrul Islam, Satyendranath Dutta and Mohitlal Majumder, he shook off these influences to become a towering figure in Bangla poetry. Jibanananda shared Rabindranath's deep feeling for nature, eloquently describing the beauty of rural Bengal in Rupasi Bangla and earning the appellation of Rupasi Banglar Kavi (Poet of Beautiful Bengal). Unlike Rabindranath, however, he also portrayed distressed humanity as well as the depression, frustration, and loneliness of modern urban life in his poems. Introspection is also an important characteristic of his poetic genius. His poems merge a concern for the present and a sense of history. Many of his poems sound like prose, and greatly influenced subsequent poets.
Jibanananda Das used to write poems while in his teens. His first poem Varsa Abahan was published in the Brahmabadi in 1919. His first essay was written in lucid Bangla in remembrance of late Kalimohan Das. In the first phase of his writing poems, he was influenced by satyendranath dutta, mohitlal majumdar and kazi nazrul islam. Most of the poems of his book Jhara Palak represent the influence of their style. In his books Dhusar Pandulipi (1936), Banalata Sen (1942), Mahaprithivi (1944), Sat-ti Tarar Timir (1948), Bela Abela Kalbela (1980) and Ruposi Bangla (1984), he created a poetic style and language that helped him in giving a new genre in the trend of modern Bangla poetry. The delicate sensuousness of beauty, taste and touch has given his poems a unique distinctiveness.
Jibanananda Das has been called a poet of nature. His Dhusar Pandulipi represents the unique expression of his creative mind in which his poetic imagination has painted a superb picture of the environment around him letting nature assume a stature much bigger and more alive. It is through his own perception and creativity that he could come out of all the influences of his time. In the background of his poems there is a kind of distance and solitude that tells of an unknown environ away from this sky and this world in which the poet weaves fantasy. He is the creator of a world of fantasy in Bangla poetry where one can enter but cannot get out of it. At the core of his poetry there lies a pristine pain, life decays and changes, everything ending in death.
Jibanananda's poems of rural Bengal played an important role in the political and cultural perspective of Bangladesh. His poems inspired a pride in Bengali nationhood, especially in the 1960s and during the war of liberation in 1971.
Two of Jibanananda Das' well-known novels are Malyaban and Sutirtha. The themes of these novels were unique and their writing style was special. His short stories were edited by others and published first as Jibanananda Daser Galpa and later as Jibanananda Daser Sreshtha Galpa. Between 1985 and 1998 Jibanananda Samagra was edited by Debesh Roy and published in 12 volumes in Calcutta by Pratikshan Publications. Banalata Sen received an award at the Nikhil Banga Rabindra Sahitya Sammelan. Jibanananda Dasher Shrestha Kavita won the Sahitya Academy award in 1954.
Many of Jibanananda Das writings have been published posthumously. Some of the more well-known books are: Jibanananda Daser Shreshtha Kavita, Jibananander Kabyasombhar, Prokashito Aprokashito Kavita Samagra , Jibanananda Samagra, Jibanananda Samagra Songjojan; collection: Aloprithivi, Hey Prem Tomarey Bhebe Bhebe. Kavitar Kotha, a collection of his essays on poetry writing, is a valuable book. Another of his valuable books is Samalochana Samagra. He died in a tram accident in Kolkata on October 22 in 1954.
October 22 marked the 62nd death anniversary of poet Jibanananda Das.
The writer is a freelance contributor.
