RUNGPUR SAHITYA PARISHAD....COTD.4M PREVIOUS POST

Another important area where the contribution of the Parishad deserves special mention is it’s endeavour to publish ancient and cotemporary works on various disciplines -manuscripts, regional history, biography, grammer, poetry music e.t.c., The expenses incurred for such activities were met not only from it’s own fund but also from donations given by various patrons of the Parishad including the Rungpur District Board.

In it’s fifth literary conference, a Committee named Kamrup Anushandhyan Samity ,was formed to carry out archaeological exploration in the Kamrup region. An article titled Kamrup Shashonaboly was carried in it’s journal highlighting the details of it’s findings on some stone and copper inscriptions. The translations with reference to the original texts were discussed at length.

Under the auspices of the Parishad a literary and archaeological museum was set up in Rungpur.The Parishad had a huge collection of brick and stone inscriptions, statues, ancient coins,artifacts,photographs of some monuments scattered over various regions of Assam and North-Bengal. A few original manuscripts were collected by the persons authorized by the Parishad. These were kept as literary archaeive..Two of such manuscripts which are worth mentioning were by Bisharad (The Virat & Karna episode of the Mahabharata) and Heyat Mahmood (Ambiabani),which were more than two hundred years old at that point of time.
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RUNGPUR SAHITYA PARISHAD: LEST WE FORGET(2)

In order to promote literary interests among the people of North-Bengal and Assam, the Parishad organized annual conferences (Uttar-Banga Sahitya Sammilan). The first such gathering was held on 27th June, 1908 at Rungpur. The following are the details of first six such conferences:

1.
27.06.1908
Rungpur
Akshay Kr. Maitra Panchanan, B.L(President)
Pandit Bhabani Prasanna Lahiri, Kabya-Byakarantirtha(President of the Reception Committee);
Surendra Chandra Roy Chowdhury( Secretary of the Reception Committee).
2.
31.01.1909 &01.02.1909
Bagura
Mahamahopadhyay Pandit Raj Jadabeshwar Tarkaratna(President)
Benimadhav Chaki, B.L. (President of the Reception Committee);
Suresh Chandra Dasgupta, B.L. ( Secretary of the Reception Committee).
3.
22 &23 January,1910
Gouripur, Assam
Pandit Padmanath Vidyabinod, Tatwasaraswati, M.A., Srihatta. (President)
Raja Prabhat Chandra Barua Bahadur (President of the Reception Committee);
Dwijesh Chandra Chakraborty, M.A., B.L. ( Secretary of the Reception Committee).
4.
09 &10 January,1912
Malda
Prof. Jadunath Sarkar, M.A. (Rajshahi). (President)
Krishnalal Chowdhury, (President of the Reception Committee);
Radhesh Chandra Seth, B.L. ( Secretary of the Reception Committee).
5.
06 &07 April, 1913
Guahati, Assam
Shashadhar Roy, M.A., B.L.(Pabna) (President)
Kalicharan Sen, B.L. (President of the Reception Committee);
Jibeshwar Panda, Uttam Chandra Barua. ( Secretary of the Reception Committee).
6.
13 &14 June, 1913
Dinajpur
Hon’ble Justice Asutosh Chowdhury, B.A.(Cambridge), Bar-at-Law(Pabna) (President)
Maharaja Girija Nath Roy Bahadur, (President of the Reception Committee);
Jogindra Chandra Chakraborty, M.A., B.L. ( Secretary of the Reception Committee).

To be continued....

RUNGPUR SAHITYA PARISHAD: LEST WE FORGET

Since its inception, many renowned persons came to be associated with this Rungpur Sahitya Parishad. Among them were eminent historian Akshay Kumar Maitra, Pandit Kokileshwar Vidyaratna(Professor of Sanskrit in Coochbihar College), Rai Kalika Das Dutta(Former Dewan of Coochbihar Raj), Jadabeshwar Tarkaratna, Padmanath Vidyabinod( Archeologist and Professor of Cotton College of Guahati), Rai Sarat Chandra Das(famous for his exploration in Tibet), Sarat Chandra Chowdhury(eminent author).

Any organization requires financial patronage to carry on its activities. Monetary support came from various quarters viz. Maharaja Nripendra Narayan of Coochbihar, his son Rajendra Narayan and Annada Mohan Roy Chowdhury(Zamindar of Tapar).

The Parishad started publishing a quarterly journal named “Rungpur Sahitya Parishad Patrika” from September’1906. Till 1912, Shri Panchanan Sarkar played the role of its editor. He was succeeded by Pandit Bhabani Prasanna Lahiri of Naldanga. Emulating the tradition of the Bengal Asiatic Society Journal, the Parishad used to publish essays on subjects as diverse as Archeology, Linguistics etc. and descriptions of ancient manuscripts in the journal. It also used to publish the minutes of Parishad’s monthly and yearly gatherings in the journal’s appendix. (To be continuded....)

Lest we forget

The student of Bengali literature first hears the name of Bangyo Sahitya Parishad when he or she is at plus ten level.The name he hears when the specimen of first Bengali works is discussed in the classes.The CHARZAPAD.discovered from a cave in Nepal in 1905 was published by the Bangyo Sahitya Parishad .But very few people know about the existence of Rungpur Sahitya Parishad.

Rabindranath Tagore was then the Vice-President Of the Organisation.In a meeting One Mr.Surendra Chandra Roy Chowdhury of Rungpur proposed to establish branches of the Parishad in every district.The proposal was seconded by Rabindranath.As a result on 24 th April 1905 a meeting was organised in Rungpur Town Hall and the Rungpur Sahitya Parishad was created with 28 members.This meeting was presided by one Mr.Asutosh Lahiri the then District Engineer of Rungpur.Thus the first branch of Bangyo Sahitya Parishad was established in place other than Calcutta. This branch contributed substantially towards furtherence of Bengali literature and culture.Their main object had been to discover archaeological remains in NorthBengal,regional language,agriculture,industry,family history of the renowned families,rare handwritten manuscripts,to obtain information of the poets,to take steps to preserve ancient monuments,and to take suitable measures to improve Bengali language and literature.

Initially.the branch operated from Rungpur Public Library.Then from in the residnce of Debendra Chandra Roy Chowdhury.Afterwards it was shifted to the residence of Vabo Sundari Debi Chowdhurani.Thereafter it operated from Rungpur DharmaSava Griha.The problem of havinfg no of its own was sorted out by Kiron Chandra Deyonce the Collector of Rungpur and Samity's President when a new building was set up near Edward Memorial Hall.

More later on

SOME RARE PICTURES

We have read about the peoples ,when in 1905 the then Govt.wanted to partition Bengal.Rabindranath Tagore took a pioneer role against the move and wanted to keep the people united.He founded the Bandemataram organisation and initiated Rakhi Bandhan.The following pictures have been scanned from a book in our family library.The Police ,in 1934,searched our house and the signatures bear testimony to that search

Some rare pictures