Michael Madhusudan—who brought a renaissance in Bengali literature

The poet, playwright and non-conformist Michael Madhusudan Dutt is perhaps best remembered for ushering in a renaissance in Bengali literature.

He is credited for introducing English Byronic sonnets into Bengali literature and introducing free verse.

Influenced by Shakespeare and the Romantic writers, Madhusudan authored his first Bengali play, Sharmistha, in 1858, writing it entirely in blank verse—a style alien to Bengali literature until then.

Madhusudan’s writing draws extensively from classical European literature. His Meghnad-Badh Kavya (The Slaying of Meghnad), published in 1861, is considered one of India’s best modern poems.

It was written in nine cantos of blank verse and was influenced by John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667).  Here, he replaced the Bible with the Ramayan and approached it with a fresh take, one where Ravan, the ruler of Lanka, is the hero.

“The poem is rising into splendid popularity. Some say it is better than Milton—that is all bosh—nothing can be better than Milton; many say it licks Kalidasa; I have no objection to that. I don’t think it impossible to equal Virgil, Kalidasa, and Tasso,” wrote Dutt in a letter to a friend.

If his professional life was marked by the brilliance of his poetry and plays, then his personal life was the exact opposite, as he navigated one crisis after another until he died on 29 June 1873 in penury.

A tragic fall

His extravagant lifestyle and alcoholism led to him giving up his law practice within three years. In this time, he wrote Hectarbadh in 1871, which he modelled after Homer’s Iliad (which dates back to 700 BC) and his last composition, Mayakanan, in 1873.

He passed away in 1873 at the age of 49.  Going mostly unnoticed for about a decade after his passing, Madhusudan’s work gained worldwide recognition after being discovered and praised by contemporaries like Tagore.

His birthplace of Sagardari in Jashore has been converted into a national historic site. An academy, which houses Madhusudan and his parents’ legacy, was named after him and continues to see heavy footfall to this day.