Ramendra Sundar Tribedi

Ramendra Sundar Tribedi (22 August 1864 – 6 June 1919) was a Bengali writer. He is known for his works in Bengali poems, and stories. He is one of the most popular poets of India

Ramendra Sundar Tribedi
Born(1864-08-22)22 August 1864[1]
Kandi, Murshidabad, Bengal Presidency, British India (now Murshidabad district, West Bengal, India)
Died6 June 1919(1919-06-06) (aged 54)
Calcutta, Bengal Presidency, British India (Kolkata, West Bengal, India)
Occupation
  • Bengali Author
  • Teacher
NationalityIndian
EducationRipon College, Kolkata

Life edit

Ramendra Sundar Tribedi was born at Kandi, Murshidabad in West Bengal on 22 August 1864. His father's name was Govindasundar and his mother's name was Chandra Kamini. From his childhood, Tribedi was a successful student. After obtaining his B.Sc. degree (coming first in the exams), he competed for the prestigious Premchand Roychand Scholarship with physics and chemistry as his subjects. He won the scholarship (1888). The examiners' report said:

"The candidate who took up Chemistry and Physics appears to be about the best student who has yet taken up these subjects for the examination and on this account deserves recognition."[2]

Tribedi was a teacher at and, later, the principal of the Ripon College as well as Surendranath Law College of Kolkata.

Ramendra Sundar Trivedi died on 6 June 1919 at Kolkata in West Bengal.

Writing career edit

Ramendra Sundar was a polymath who wrote on a host of themes, including popular science and the philosophy of science. His first articles appeared in the periodical 'Navajiban'.

His contribution to the functioning and development of the Bangiya Sahitya Parishad is considered to be momentous.

In Bengal, Ramendra Sundar's fame rests mostly on his popular science essays. As a popular science writer, Ramendra's commitment seems to have been "to share with everyone else the fun, the delight and ecstasy of science (in Ramendra’s case, the themes and findings of modern western science). This could only be achieved by dissolving the alien terms and themes in an indigenous, flexible, and comprehensible linguistic medium. Thus, when creating scientific terms, Ramendra took care to select words which were sweet sounding and easily pronounced, drew examples from mythology, folklore and local traditions…, cemented his prose with humour, lined his comments with mild irony and talked of the gravest things with his tongue in his cheek. In this witty, sly, sceptical, gay and eminently human vein, he dragged science, epistemology and philosophy into the midst of a Bengali adda and domesticated them on the couch of a bhadralok’s drawing room."[3]

Books edit

  • Prakriti [Collected essays on philosophy ]
  • Jigmasa [Collected essays on science ]
  • Charit-Katha [Collected essays and lectures on few eminent personalities in Bengali literature]
  • Bichitra Prasanga
  • Bangalakshmir Bratakatha
  • Bangla Sahityer Itihas [Vol- Adhunik Jug, Page 111] By Dr. Debesh Kumar Acharya

Honours edit

The Ramendra Sundar Tribedi Setu over the river Bhāgirathi-Hooghly is named after him. This bridge connects Baharampur and Khagraghat in Murshidabad district of West Bengal by NH 12 (previously NH 34).

References edit

  1. ^ Sajahan Miah (2012). "University of Dhaka". In Sirajul Islam and Ahmed A. Jamal (ed.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.
  2. ^ Asutosh Vajpeyi, Ramendrasundar Jiban Katha, Gurudas Chattopadhyaya & Sons, Calcutta, 1330 (Bengali Year), p. 51
  3. ^ Santanu Chacraverti, Ramendrasundar Trivedi: A Pathbreaking Populariser of Science in Bengal, in NK Sehgal, S. Sangwan, and S. Mahanti (eds.) Uncharted Terrains: Essays on Science Popularisation in Pre-Independence India, Vigyan Prasar, New Delhi, 2000, p. 84

External links edit