Manik Bandopadhyay

Manik Bandopadhyay  was a Bengali novelist and is considered one of the leading lights of modern Bengali fiction. During a short lifespan of 48 years, plagued simultaneously by illness and financial crisis, he produced 36 novels and 177 short stories.

His important works include Padma Nadir Majhi (The Boatman on The River Padma, 1936) and Putul Nacher Itikatha (The Puppet's Tale, 1936), Shahartali (Suburbia, 1941) and Chatushkone (The Quadrilateral, 1948).

Manik Bandopadhay was born on 19 May 1908 in a small town called Dumka in the district of Santal Parganas in the state of Bihar in India. His real name was Prabodh Kumar Bandhopaddhay. His pen name was derived from his pet name 'Manik'. He was the fifth of the fourteen children (eight sons and six daughters) of his parents, Harihar Bandopadhyay and Niroda Devi.

Manik passed the entrance examination from the Midnapore Zilla School in 1926, securing first division with letter marks in compulsory and optional mathematics. In the same year he got admitted in Welleslyan Mission College at Bankura. Earlier he studied in Contai Model Institution in Contai.

His stories and novels were published in literary magazines and journals. Manik Bandopadhyay's writing was inspired by both Marxian philosophy and Freudian philosophy - which are quite contrasting in nature.

Since early life he had struggled with poverty and epilepsy. On 3 December 1956, he collapsed and went into a coma. He was admitted to the Nilratan Government Hospital on 2 December where he died the next day. He was 48. His funeral took place at Nimtala crematorium in North Kolkata.