Rajanikanta Sen

Rajanikanta Sen (26 July 1865 - 13 September 1910) was a Bengali (Indian) poet and composer, known for his devotional (bhakti) compositions, as well as his patriotic songs. Rajanikanta was born in the village of Bhangabari, Pabna (present-day Bangladesh). He was the third child of Guruprasad Sen and Manomohini Devi. Guruprasad was an LLB from Dhaka University and served as sub-judge in many parts of Bengal, during which period he published a collection of 400 Vaishnava brajabuli poems, padachintamanimAlA. His elder brother Govindanath was a successful advocate. However, much of the family wealth was unwisely invested, and Rajanikanta faced increasing poverty throughout his life. His mother Manomohini was a competent housewife, whose opinion was widely sought in culinary affairs.

Early life and education

Guruprasad was posted in Katwa when Rajanikanta was born. He was transferred to many places during Rajanikanta's childhood. Rajani studied in Boalia Zilla School (now Rajshahi Collegiate School). He was a very mischievous and playful child. Though he spent less time for his studies, yet he scored well in all his examinations. He has later mentioned in his diary :

"I was never a book-worm, for I was blessed with very brilliant parts."

He learnat Sanskrit from Rajnath Tarkaratna, a neighbour in his village Bhangakuthi during school vacations. Rajani got Gopal Chandra Lahiri as his academic mentor. He passed entance examination on 1882 with second division and got rupees ten per month as stipend. He passed FA in 1885 with second division and joined City College. He completed Bachelor of Arts degree in 1889 and Bachelor of Law degree on 1891 from the same college.

Interest in music and literature

Rajanikanta's Letter To Sharat Kumar Ray describing his interest in music

Rajani's mother Manomohini Devi had interest in Bengali literature. She used to discuss about it with young Rajani. This influenced his future a lot. Tarakeshwar Chakrabarty, Rajani's friend in Bhangakuthi, was good in singing, which was one of the causes of Rajani's interset in music. He was fluent in writing poems in Bengali and Sanskrit from childhood. He started composing music for his poems and singing those along with playing musical instruments later. He used to write innagural and closing songs for different assemblies in his college days. He wrote his very famous song :

"Tabo charon nimne utasabmayee shyam dharoni sarosa"

within a very short period of one hour for such an assembly in Rajshahi library. Rajani's poems were published in local magazines - Utsaha, Ashalata many times.

Rajani's major contribution towards Bengali literature and music was the immortal devotional songs those were written and composed by him. He was also influenced by humorous/ satirical poems written by Dwijendralal Ray and wrote many of similar types.

Professional career

After completing education Rajani started practicing in Rajshahi. However, his passion lay in music, the love for which he had inherited from his father. In this he was supported by friends like the noted historian Akshay Kumar Maitreya, and also his wife.

His two successive collections of songs, vANI (1902) and kalyANI (1905) became popular for their devotional strain of music, set to a Hindustani classical style mixing tappa and kirtan. He also wrote in the nationalist cause, one of his songs, "mAyer deoyA moTA kApaR" urging the virtues of homespun clothes against Lancashire mill imports. He came to be known as the kAntakabi, and his songs as kAntagIti.

His songs like "tumi nirmala kara mangala kare" brought a touch of modernity into the Bengali devotional genre of Kamalakanta and Ramprasad. He also composed humorous and satirical songs.

Last days

In 1909, Rajanikanta was diagnosed with throat cancer. He was forced to move to Calcutta despite very stringent financial conditions; some poetry lovers among the students of the Calcutta Medical College tended after him, but he died in increasing pain on 13 September 1910 .