The 197th birth anniversary of legendary Bangali poet and father of Bangla sonnet Michael Madhusudan Dutt is being celebrated on a small scale due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Madhu fair, which is organized annually marking Madhusudan's birth anniversary at Sagardari in Jessore, will not be held this year.
"We will arrange a discussion and cultural program marking the birth anniversary of Michael Madhusudan Dutt at 3pm today [Monday] at Sagardari. The traditional Madhu fair will not be held this year," Jessore Deputy Commissioner Md Tamijul Islam Khan told BSS in the morning.
On January 25, 1824, Madhusudan Dutt was born to landlord Raj Narayan Dutt and Janhabi Devi at Sagardari village under Keshabpur upazila of Jessore.
Legendary poet Madhusudan, who is called Mahakobi (epic poet) for his tragic epic "Meghnad Badh Kavya," earned name and fame in the arena of literature for his extraordinary creative works.
Madhusudan Dutt is widely considered to be one of the greatest poets in Bangla literature and the father of the Bangla sonnet.
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He pioneered what came to be called "Amitrakshar Chhanda" (blank verse). His first attempt at blank verse was "Sharmistha" in Bangla literature.
"Always, o river, you peep in my mind/ Always I think you in this loneliness/ Always I soothe my ears with the murmur/ Of your waters in illusion, the way/ Men hear songs of illusion in a dream," are a few lines of his extraordinary creation "Kapatakkha Nad" in which he showed his deep love towards his country and the river.
Apart from his outstanding talent in authoring poems, Madhusudan Dutt showed prodigious skills as a playwright as he was the first to write Bangla plays in the English style, segregating the play into acts and scenes.
He was also the pioneer of the first satirical plays in Bangla literature. "Buro Shaliker Ghare Ron" and "Ekei Ki Boley Sabhyota" are among his famous satirical plays.
Kaliprasanna Singha, who is famous for his translation of the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata into Bangla, organized a felicitation ceremony to Madhusudan Dutt to mark the introduction of blank verse in Bangla poetry.
His most famous literary work is sonnet "Kapatakkha Nad." Kapatakkha Nad (river) flows through Jessore, the poet's ancestral home.
Madhusudan was a gifted linguist and polyglot as he studied Hebrew, Latin, Greek, Tamil, Telugu, and Sanskrit.
Madhusudan passed away at Kolkata, India on June 29, 1873 at the age of 49, only three days after his wife Henrietta breathed her last. The poet was buried in Kolkata.